Fresh to Death Sunday

It's a lazy Sunday morning and I made homemade salsa and pesto. I'm especially proud of my salsa, let's call it The $4 Fresh Salsa, because I grabbed the tomatoes out of the reduce bin at the co-op where everything goes for 50 cents/lb.

The $4 Fresh Salsa
Five organic tomatoes $1.00
A bunch of cilantro      $1.25
Three cloves garlic          .75
 Half white onion             .50
                                1 jalapeno pepper            .50
                                Salt

Chop or food process everything in a bowl, pour into mason jars- serve chilled. Ofcourse,  the tomatoes would usually be more expensive, but if you can find a produce deal, grab it and figure out what to make.

Read of the Day: Six Fresh Deals, Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger
Did you know families on food stamps in Philly can use their money at farm stands, even get extra incentive for shopping at these stands?

 Side note: I apologize for the poor quality of my camera phone, I've dropped my it 10 too many times, a new and improved camera too come soon I hope!

It's Always Sunny in iladelphia.

I checked out the Clark Park farmer's market today and learned about a new vegetable, the Hubbard squash. Here's a picture:

The Hubbard looks like a watermelon met a rugby ball, and is a smoother tasting squash than a butternut or spaghetti (according to the guy at the farmstand). Apparently, the Hubbard can be stored for up to six months- so all you winter hibernators out there, this is the food for you, you won't need to leave the house for months. I adapted a few different receipes I found online, and want to try it using Hubbard, see receipe below:

     MASHED WINTER SQUASH

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Scrub squash. Place it on oven rack and bake until it can be pierced with a wooden toothpick. Cut in halves. Remove seeds. Peel squash and mash the pulp. Add in 1 TBSP butter to every cup of squash, and stir in some cream, salt, maybe brown sugar?!

Back on the co-op beat, here's a picture of the inside of the new Mariposa building, scheduled to open February 15th!



READ OF THE DAY: How to Know if Produce at a Farmer's Market is Really Organic, by Penne Cole via Twitter

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Challa-leujah it's Friday.

Challa-leujah it's Friday.


I started my morning off surrounded by fresh bread at the co-op, a nice way to start the work day.

For anyone interested, there is a great article from active.com called Sustainable Winter Vegetables, check it out. It's easy to forget to eat your veggies in the winter (unless you're a vegetarian or choose-a-tarian), so this article has some good pointers on what to eat and how to make it fun.

Speaking of eating, I'm excited to be visiting one of my favorite Philly restaurants tonight, Sazon. It’s a great little Venezuelan spot, cash-only BYOB, but let’s keep it our little secret J

Also on the agenda will be a behind-the-scenes peak at the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s ‘Van Gogh Up Close’, before it opens to the public. I’ll let you know how it is!

Below is the yummy veggie sausage (smoked apple, potatoe, onion, soy) that I had today. So good.

I visited Mariposa Co-op today and the new space is coming along splashingly! It’s a great addition to the already vibrant West Philadelphia community, more on that later.

Welcome to Farm Office, my blog. I'm Sarah, and I'm reporting to you from the great city of Philadelphia, in West Philly (or as I like to call it, the wild, wild west).

I've thought for some time about what I wanted to blog about, and being that I'm involved in all kinds of farmy things in Philly (Henry Got Crops! CSA, Weaver's Way Co-op, Mariposa Co-op, Farm 51), that's the seed from which I'll begin.

*CSA stands for community supported agriculture, and is a program in which members contribute financially for their 'share' of the farm before the season begins, thus allowing the farm to operate via the members. There is a risk involved in CSA membership, as crop yield can be inconsistent because of weather, members may not get all they had hoped for in a season (or they may get more than they were expecting as was the case last July with an abundance of tomatoes at my farm). The draw for members is getting fresh, organic produce from the source- a source they can get very involved in if they choose.

I used to do the office thing (I would call it the nine to five, but that would be at best a joke and at worst a dulling of my soul) and now am three months into "searching for what's next." Maybe you can relate, but I've always had a plan for my life and not knowing where I'm going is turning my life upside down.

I've always loved sports, and growing up my goal was to be a college athlete. Done- La Salle University softball third baseman. After graduating with a degree in communication, I wanted a job in sports. Check. I melded my passion for athletics with my writing to then spend seven fun, exciting, gray-hair inducing and finally miserable years as a sports information director. That involved enough statistics to make my head spin, spitting out dozens of sports articles each week and many, many hours in the office and on the field (court, diamond, river, course or pitch).

The point is, one of my saving  graces in the final years of my purposefully fading career was Weaver's Way Co-op and Henry Got Crops! CSA.  During the weeks I could scramble out of the office at a reasonable hour, I would head right to the farm...my farm office. Nothing felt quite as good after spending eight hours in a 9x9 room as pulling on an old college t-shirt and shorts, wrestling on dirty, dried-out sneakers and planting my hands in moist, rocky dirt.

The farm is a peaceful two-acre tract of land off of Henry Avenue in Philadelphia, and grows vegetables from May-November using environmentally sustainable methods of farming. It's one of the first high school based CSAs in the country (which I learned after reading more on their Facebook page) and I'm proud to be a part of it. All I would need was a welcoming "moo" from one of the grazing cattle and a single gulp of that seemingly fresh, farm-filled air after work and I'd settle into my element.

More to come...