Introducing Little House Green Grocery!

Guess what, y'all?!  We are opening a neighborhood green grocery!

After years of working with farmers markets and studying food policy, (and out of my own desire to feed my neighbors) I finally found someone crazy enough to take the leap with me into the world of retail.  Even with all of the roadblocks put up by permits and the details of commercial real estate, my partner Jess and I have been buoyed by the unwavering support of our community. 

Our vision, quite simply, is to feed our neighborhood well.  Little House Green Grocery will offer customers a convenient, neighborhood source for locally produced foods, fresh produce, grocery essentials, and a limited selection of prepared foods while providing a community atmosphere through events and classes. Though we don't know the exact spot yet, we do know that the grocery will be located in the neighborhood of Bellevue, which has a reputation of supporting small businesses and progressive causes. Our vendors and our neighbors are really excited, and so are we!

Ultimately, we want to make this model adaptable to other communities in the city.

Our website is still fairly basic (we are building it ourselves to save cash, but welcome your tips and ideas!) but our Facebook page is pretty lively.  Check 'em out for the play- by- play as we move toward our opening in the fall!

To add to the adventure, we have entered a local start-up competition put on by i.e.* with a prize of $10,000. The public is asked to vote on the contestants May 30 through June 1. There are 143 contestants, so we need your vote!  Please save the date, tell your friends, and vote for Little House Green Grocery. We will use the funds towards our start-up costs.  If we get into the top ten finalists, we will get a billboard (so we hear) and great exposure, which will be invaluable.

We will be starting a Kickstarter campaign soon- we love what crowd sourcing has done for local projects!

Also, if your favorite food producer is looking for a new outlet, please send them our way. The vendor agreement is on the website, as well as our contact info.  We are particularly looking for four season farmers and locally produced pantry staples.

Thanks y'all!!

Food Policy forum- this week!

Register today, and come hear the latest food policy developments in RVA!

Plan now for an Ample Harvest

Here is a story that starts in tragedy, and ends, hopefully, in joy and abundance.  Last spring, I planted a huge amount of lettuce in my median strip garden with the idea that I'd share it with all of my neighbors.  Figuring out if they wanted lettuce grown in a garden in the middle of their road before planting it would have been a clever move, because I could not give it away no matter how much I begged them to take whatever they wanted. I wound up pulling and composting all the gorgeous lettuce in June because it was time to plant tomatoes. Tragic!  What else could I do?

Disclaimer: This is not my garden.  It is beautiful and bountiful Swiss Chard though,  oui?

Well, this year I know what I will do with the extra produce.  AmpleHarvest.org has made it easy to find food pantries in my neighborhood who want (and are able to handle) veggies from home gardens.  Check the Find a Pantry page to see if there is one near you!  There are about ten pantries who have signed up in Richmond so far.  Each one has listed days and times (or have given contact info to find out) when you can drop off your garden extras.  I have talked with several food pantries in my neighborhood, and they are so excited to be able to include fresh produce for their patrons.

So, as you order seeds, please think about planting a little more for your neighbors, those you know and those you don't yet know.  Also, if your place of worship or community center has a food pantry, please encourage them to sign up on Ample Harvest so that neighborhood gardeners can share the bounty once it starts rolling in!

Hey Richmond, you just keep getting better

One of the hard things about moving back to the place where you grew up is that you sometimes feel a little sensitive about it. I definitely didn't grow up expecting to be back in Richmond as an adult. And yet, Richmond keeps ticking my boxes. Granted my parents, brother, and sister are all here, making it a place I will not leave anytime soon. But, there are so many amazing things happening here right now, I find myself laughing a bit when my friends from here (who don't live here anymore) list the reasons they would NEVER move back. I remember those reasons. But, things have changed for me a bit.

In fact, as I began writing what I thought would be a very simple post, I realized it needed to be much longer. So I will share with you the one event that got me started and then I will publish a longer post next week with all the reasons Richmond is where I eat (and live!) these days!

The event* that started it all is being put on by a bunch of awesome women out in the woods of Amelia. Basically, these ladies are taking the first weekend of December (Friday, December 2nd - Sunday, December 4th) and turning it into an amazing opportunity to learn, share, and (of course!) EAT! There will be massage, yoga, meditation, plant identification, and much more.

THIS is what is so great about Richmond. People coming together with a bunch of different skills and finding a way to share them. It kind of reminds me of Richmond Food Collective, to be honest. Minus the mad massage skills!

Anyway, to find out more about this event (proper name: Wellness in the Woods) check out the website here. And check out my post next week for a much longer list of the reasons Richmond is the right place for me right about now.

Also, any other great events that you and/or your friends are putting on? I know that Wellness in th Woods is only one of many!!

P.S. A friend suggested that we celebrate the famed shopping day(day after Thanksgiving) by doing all our shopping at local businesses and allI could think was "that would be so easy here!" I'm gonna do it, except since I don'tplan on shopping that Friday, I will just commit to doing the bulk of myholiday gift shopping locally. More on how that goes to come!

Richmond image found here.
*Obviously, since I know these people, I am biased . . . due to their awesomeness.

Marathon (watching) party!

This weekend, neighborhood folks gathered for brunch and marathon watching. We were stranded, there was no way out of the neighborhood since we are right on the route. So, we settled in and made a party of it.

Casey made her famous cheesy grits and sweet pumpkin muffins. We had homemade bread with Anne's apple butter and herbed baked eggs with arugula. There were mimosas.

There were happy friends.

Swapped Out! A post Yes We Can thank you!

A shout out to all of you who brought such amazing preserved treats to our first Yes We Can! event. It was such fun! There was an amazing variety of canned and preserved foods. Just a sampling of the items traded includes...

Pickled eggs, pickled beets, pickled watermelon rind, sweet pickles, bread and butter pickles, Spicy salsa, peach salsa, and sofrito, mad amounts of chutney... from apple ginger in multiple variations, to nectarine, persimmon, peach, and pumpkin spice, fermented delights like kimchi and sauerkraut, both sourwood, and clover honey, pesto and vegan pesto, blueberry jam, strawberry syrup, apple cider vinegar, tomato basil jam, roasted green chilies, bagged kaffir lime leaves, pickled hot peppers, dilly beans, pear butter and more!

We can't wait to try all of the goodies, or hear about E.A.T's spicy Dilly Bean Bloody Marys.

Thanks to Jason of Caramelized OpiNIONS and Mollee Sullivan for planting this seed in our heads, and for bringing such amazing canned goods! Sofrito, yeahman!

A post swap cider, planning for next year.

Community Dinner to celebrate Food Day

From our friends at Shalom Farms:

Shalom Farms, an initiative of United Methodist Urban Ministries of Richmond, is having a benefit dinner Monday, October 24 at 7:00pm. We are once again proud to partner with Todd Johnson Executive Chef and Co-Owner of Mezzanine Restaurant (Richmond Restaurant of the Year in 2009). Thanks to Todd’s generosity and the support of local farms almost 100% of the cost of your ticket will go straight to Shalom Farms. Your support will allow us to continue to provide thousands of lbs of our produce as well as educational resources and supports to the children and families in Richmond who need it most.

This four-course dinner is a great way to support Shalom Farms and have an incredible local and sustainable meal. All of the meat and produce will be from Shalom Farms, Victory Farms, Tuckahoe, Rock Castle Farm, and Manakintowne Specialty Growers. The dinner will take place in the main gallery upstairs at Gallery5. In the downstairs gallery you can view our “The Art of Growing Communities” installation featuring art for sale as a fundraiser. If you can’t make the dinner but are interested in supporting the project consider gifting the cost of tickets so that we can invite our partners and friends from the one of the underserved communities we work in.

Growing for the Community Kitchen

Two more reasons to love your RVA: some of our museums are growing fresh, local food for the food bank, enhancing their original mission and focus. Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden has a 'Community Kitchen Garden', with a goal of delivering 10,000 pounds of fresh vegetables this year to the Community Kitchen. This part of FeedMore prepares food for Meals On Wheels and the Kids Cafe. I got to work in this garden during the summer with our youth volunteers, giving me great insight on how many hours it takes to work and plan a production garden. A whole, sweaty lot.

The produce we grow is determined by the Community Kitchen's need, so they request certain crops at the beginning of the season. This year, we grew zucchini, yellow squash and tomatoes until they were each taken down, slowly, by squash bugs, a common pest in this area. We were able to get 8,819 pounds to date, so that is not too shabby. We've now planted 150 Cauliflower plants, 225 broccoli and 84 cabbage for this season. You can read more about our adventures this season here (along with all the other fun stuff going on in the Garden), and sign up to volunteer here.

See how much fun we have? I also got to grow herbs (mostly basil) for the cafe at the Garden with the youth program- We had even made the compost the herbs were grown in from kitchen scraps from that very cafe! Hyper-local!

Since the season is winding down, I wanted to check out other gardens with similar goals in the area. Lo and behold, the Science Museum of Virginia has its own garden called the Green Acre.
Brian (the manager of LGBG's Community Kitchen Garden) and I went out last Friday to see how the project at SMV is going. A beautiful green space behind the museum holds a permaculture exhibit (maintained by Tricycle Gardens) and lovely herb and veggie plots tended by Matt (the Outreach Coordinator for the museum) and Katie, (the manager for the Green Acre). In between their other museum duties, Matt and Katie also grow and deliver herbs and veggies to the Community Kitchen.

Love how you can see the FFV factory behind the herb section.

Thanks Matt and Katie for showing us the Green Acre! I love how beautiful and urban it is. Even their supply room also houses a old RVA street car! The Green Acre will soon house several bee hives, so if you are interested in beekeeping, there will be an opportunity for hands- on learning with the Richmond Beekeepers Association. If you would like a tour or to help out in the Science Museum's Green Acre, contact Matt at mbaker@smv.org.

Collective: Characteristic of Individuals Acting in Cooperation

Thanks to Rachel for this lovely post on the new developments in the RFC. We are so glad you are all with us on this journey!
  
 There are five women in the RFC and we all eat differently. Have we told you that? Yep. We make different choices for the food we purchase and prepare in our homes. We've got it all: vegan, meat-eater, former vegan, former vegetarian, and vegetarian. And there are just five of us!

So, you might guess, we live differently as well. Some of us are moms, some aren’t. Some of us work an offices downtown, some don’t. Some of us feed a family, some don’t. Come to think of it, among us we manage an impressive to-do list! Combined, the RFC organizes households, full-time jobs, children, part-time jobs, and family-owned businesses. Woofty, we are a busy bunch of women, but we make time for food! Once a week we sit down to a meal together in one of our homes.We cook together; we
eat together; we talk food

What’s the secret? We all have something in common – collectively. We share a love for fresh food that is available locally. Hey, we love food (have we mentioned that before?)! With love and some curiosity, you can make anything. So this post is not about one recipe or another. But, instead, is about how rewarding to learn from others – to share food and ideas.

As a new RFC member, I found immediate gratification from our weekly dinners. I was instantly welcomed to the table. The kindness and hospitality was met equally by a rich exchange of ideas, techniques, and resources. We have become mentors and friends.

At our dinners we talk about what were learning, trying, and testing out. We talk about the successes and failures (maybe someday I’ll you about the time I made purple shrimp – eep!).
So, be curious! Go down the street and talk to your neighbors, call a friend, call a relative, next time you want to know how to make something. Another great local resource is to *talk* to the people at your farmers’ market. Ask them, “How would you prepare this?” We bet you’ll be energized by what you find.
Hey, I’ll do you one better. I’ll take the challenge myself. I’ll go to the market this Wednesday and I’ll ask the question. Of course, I’ll let you know what I find – please do the same! Cheers from the RFC!

RFC extends a big, thank you to Vanessa Rees for the great shots of an RFC dinner at Erin’s house! And, of course, heaps of thanks from Casey, Cat, and myself to Erin and Shannon for starting RFC and so graciously welcoming us to the table.

Shannon's Recipe Demo at The St. Stephen's Farmers market

Last Saturday I did a short recipe demonstration at St. Stephens Farmer's Market using only produce from this lovely market. It was so much fun, largely due to all of the great people I met. Some "fans" of the RFC came out to the demo, and I couldn't have enjoyed meeting them more! We got to meet "Relucent Reader" who then sent us the recipe for squash and kohlrabi empanadas!

Here I am with RFC readers Ushan (above), and Matt (below). They are both doing so many exciting things from canning parties, and neighborhood gardening projects to working for The Farm Table!

For the demo I just wanted to highlight some lesser known produce, as well as different ways to prepare produce that people see as so very common. I talked briefly about cooking radishes, and their greens. I prepared my raw zucchini salad, (thanks Kir), and went on a bit about beets.

St. Stephen's Farmers Market shoppers and staff consider the kohlrabi....

For the zucchini salad I used oregano from one of the lovely plants for sale by Eli's Greens. The generous folks at Frog Bottom donated a basil plant for me to pluck leaves from. The perfect baby zucchinis, the radishes, and the kohlrabi all came from Warsaw Plants (below). Thanks so much guys!

Look for more recipe demonstrations from different fresh food lovin' cooks at St. Stephen's Market this Summer!

If They Cook It They Will Eat It

Thanks to Jackie for sending us info on  The Lunch Love Community project.  Visit their website to view any number of short films on the efforts made in Berkley to improve the awareness, skills, and health of Berkley school children through food.  Good Stuff.

Tedx Event in Richmond, 'Changing the way we eat'

and

Invite you to the TEDx event, "Changing the Way We Eat" on February 12, 2011. The day long webcast/ viewing party will take place at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church (6000 Grove Avenue). Join us and learn from national leaders and from your neighbors about what is going on in the food world. Speakers include:

• Dr. Melanie Samuels from Bed Stuy Campaign Against Hunger, whose mission is to "end hunger by distributing food and empowering families through information and support, which will give both strength and dignity to the community".
• Elizabeth Ü, Founder of Finance for Food, will speak about her work of helping to finance sustainable food entrepreneurs.
• Kathy Lawerence, founder of NYC's Just Food and current Program Director of School Food FOCUS, will be speaking about our school system's food – what happened and what’s being done.
• Chef John Fraser of Dovetail and soon-to-open What Happens When
• Laurie David, Producer and Author of "The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time"

And the list keeps growing! Check out the Tedx Facebook page to see the latest additions.

Webcast schedule

10:30 am - 12:15 pm: What Happened?

Lunch (Local vendors)

1:30 - 3:15 pm: Where are We?

Break

4:00 - 5:45 pm: Where are We Going?

The event is free, but you need to pre register (so we can be sure to accommodate everyone!) Register here.

To learn more about the impact of a Tedx webcast/ viewing party, check out this great NYT article.

Real Richmond Food Tours

This sounds really fun! From the Grace Manor Inn website:

The two-and-a-half-hour walking tours take you through a certain part of the city, and along the way you stop at restaurants, meet owners and taste culinary goodness. In between munching, you’ll get a taste of Richmond’s architecture, history and current happenings. Sounds like a pretty good deal!

There are two upcoming tour dates. Thursday, December 30, is Shockoe Slip: Capital of Cuisine, and Saturday, January 15 is Shockoe Bottom: Shock and Awe. Tickets cost about $40 and can be purchased online.

2011 CSA deal from Frog Bottom Farm!

News from Frog Bottom Farm:

Registration is now open for our 2011 CSA!

The big change this year is that registration is now online at frogbottomfarm.csasignup.com. We've partnered with a company called Small Farm Central to do this; their focus is building websites and offering ecommerce services to small, direct-marketing farmers like us.

Otherwise, most things remain the same:

Our CSA season will still run for 26 weeks, from the first week in June through Thanksgiving week.

Full shares still cost $650 plus tax, and half shares still cost $350 plus tax.

You can still pay by check (always appreciated) or credit card (now integrated with registration instead of through PayPal).

You can still pay in full up front or in installments. Exact details are on the registration site.

We hope some of y'all will take advantage of our Early Bird Discount. From now until December 31, all full shares will be $50 off and all half shares will be $25 off -- that's like getting two weeks of your share for free. We'd love it if you let friends, family, and neighbors know that they can register now as well.

The new registration system should be easier for you, and we hope it will be a big time-saver for us as well -- giving us more time and energy to grow vegetables, to try some new varieties, to continue to develop our website as a place to share our farm's story and help you decide what to do with all those vegetables! We hope the registration process is clear and straightforward, but please call us at 434-248-5525 or send us an email if anything seems confusing.

Thank you so much for supporting our farm. We can't imagine doing anything else, and we think strong local foodsheds are such an incredible way to keep cities and rural areas vibrant and healthy. You play a direct role in all of this by belonging to our CSA.

In gratitude --

Lisa, Ali, Arlo and the Frog Bottom crew

Edible R-evolution Tour this Saturday

Tricycle Gardens is hosting a tour of kitchen gardens around town this Saturday, July 17. The event promises to be super fun and inspiring!
The folks at Tricycle Gardens sent out this info about the tour:

Tickets are $20 per carload or group of four bicycles. The price includes a map, access to some of the most creative food-producing backyards from 1pm-5pm AND a cookout at our Jefferson Avenue garden from 5pm-8pm. What a deal! And what a way to celebrate the summer (and fresh tomatoes). Highlights include the joint Strawberry Street Vineyard/Belmont Butcher garden, executive director Lisa Taranto’s backyard and the community garden at Holton Elementary School. Tickets can be purchased online, or at the 9th and Bainbridge Urban Farm, or by emailing will@tricyclegardens.org. Proceeds go toward helping expand Tricycle Gardens programs throughout the city.

Reports and invitations

I never wanted to be the kind of blogger who started out a post with some excuse about why I have not been writing. But, yes, I am about to do just that. It has been very exciting and rewarding and quite lovely, and I did miss being able to share it with you. First- the spring median garden was a big success- I got to share scads of beautiful lettuce with many friends and neighbors. Clyde only likes to look- too bad he won't eat any.

And really, are there any plants more adorable than peas?

Also, not only was I able to build a new compost system in the children's garden at Lewis Ginter, Tony, the head chef at the Garden, is willing to save as many vegetable scraps and coffee filters as we want to add to our compost! So, we are starting out with two pickups a week, and we'll see how it goes from there. I have realized lately how important it is to combine resources within your community in order to be truly sustainable. Plus, I met some cool folks who work in the Garden Cafe. You can read more about the system on the Lewis Ginter blog, which will post later this week.

I also had the opportunity to teach a class this spring at St. Stephen's based on Michael Pollan's newest book called Food Rules. I teamed up with a nurse practitioner, and we got to share the good news about the benefits of fat, and why it is important to eat with other people, and how our food system has changed. Of course, our last class was a potluck supper- one of the best I have ever had! That class was so much fun, I am already looking forward to teaching it again next year.

Another project I am really excited about is the Farmers' Market at St. Stephen's. We have had four very successful and really fun markets, and are looking forward to a new season in this 'delicious revolution'. Amazing vendors, great local bands and really wonderful energy- it is truly an honor to be a part of such a thing. I am also happy to report that we have been able to share leftover produce from willing vendors such as Frog Bottom Farm and Flores Produce with the food pantry at St. Stephen's. The food pantry gives food to about thirty families a week, and I am thrilled that we are able to work together to everyone's benefit. The Farmers' Market at St. Stpehen's has blossomed into a food ministry that works with many aspects of wellness. What more could we want from our work, except that it deepens that which we know is true?

I hope you all are enjoying your gardens and your suppers and your community. If you are around northside this week, why don't you stop by the median garden and take some lettuce home? It is time to plant the tomatoes!

Food Bloggers storm Olio

Just kidding. It was not nearly that aggressive, (and also we were invited) but it was pretty exuberant. The food bloggers on Eating Richmond did take over Olio for an evening last week, however, and swooned over the food, met the proprietors of this sweet, neighborhood spot and totally nerded out about our takes on food.

Olio is a really fun market and bistro, on Main near Meadow, where you can pick up gorgeous olive oils, vinegars, truffles and wines as well as salads, sandwiches, soups and pizzas- all made to order. The RFC was very glad to see the focus on local producers- Olio is a drop of site for the Avery's Branch milk share program, and many of their veggies are from Victory Farms in Hanover.

The food was great- I loved their use of (home made?) dried tomatoes and white beans on their bruchetta, as well as the flat bread on their pizzas. The drinks are inexpensive and the menu at Olio is fresh and varied, which makes it a great spot for a quiet dinner (if you don't go when the raucous food bloggers are there.) If you want to order in, Olio offers free delivery for orders over $40.

It was fantastic putting faces to the voices of the local food blogs. I loved hearing the stories of food activism from RVA Foodie , aka Jason Guard, who writes Caramelized OpinIONS and is the co- creator of Eating Richmond- the food blog aggregate that brought us all to this bistro for drinks and antipasto. I got to talk with Brittany of Eating Bird Food about her trip to San Francisco at the Food Buzz Convention- I was seriously jealous! And, I always enjoy sharing drinks with John Haddad, food writer for Style Magazine and his blog, Epicuriosity. John is helping to start the Slow Food RVA chapter, and it has been really fun to see how that is shaping up. I was a bit surprised to find myself talking with Bacon Grease (not his real name) of Eating Video Games about preparing and eating pig heads. I would not lie- check out the posts. Part 1 is here, part 2 is here.

So thanks, Jason for getting us all together- I look forward to many more crazy conversations with y'all about our adventures in food and elsewhere.

Top Vegan Products of 2009

Label readers, celebrate! Vegan Action posted the favorite vegan products of 2009 contributed by their members and supporters. Check it out!

2009 Vegan Favorites for the Web

Primal Strips vegan jerky, Tree Huggin Treats candy bars, and Wizards Vegan Worcestershire Sauce

- Krissi Vandenberg (Vegan Action campaign director)

Soyatoo! Rice Whip and Liz Lovely's Cookies

- Alanna Wiggins (Vegan Action supporter and former board member)

Veganaise, Silk Yogurts (especially blueberry), Soy Boy Raviolis, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar cookbook

- Alyssa Murray (Vegan Action board member)

Health is Wealth Buffalo Wings, Sweet N Sara's Smores, Boca Chicken Patties( the all natural and spicy ones aren't vegan), Smoked Tempeh Strips, back to Nature Chocolate Chip Cookies, Blenheim Ginger Ale

- David Phinney (Vegan Action volunteer)

Field Roast Wild Mushroom sandwich slices, Soy Delicious coconut milk soy yogurt, Veganrella mozzarella flavor soy cheese

- Nick Bergheimer (Vegan Action supporter)

Smoked apple sage Field Roast grain meat sausages, Galaxy vegan grated cheese alternative, Tofitti cream cheese, and Gimme Lean soy sausage, Purely Decadent chocolate coconut milk ice cream

- Erin Waldoch (Vegan Action supporter)

Pizza Fusion's Very Vegan Pizza, Trader Joe's house brand oreos and UFOs

- Leslie Sanford (Vegan Action board member)

Rice Dream Mint frozen ice cream pie and Lush Ultralight face moisturizer

- Erin Wright (Vegan Action supporter)

For more info on the great work that Vegan Action is doing around Richmond (including great recipes), click here.

Center for Rural Culture's Annual Growers Workshop

From Lisa Dearden of the CRC:

5th Annual GROWING FOR MARKET WORKSHOP

Saturday, Jan. 31st

9:00 - 5:00 pm

Location: J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College Western

Campus 1851 Dickenson Rd. Goochland, VA 23063

• Vegetable Production

• Small Fruit & Berry Production

• Marketing—Creating a Farm Brochure

• Web Basics & Social Media for Farmers

• Backyard Poultry Production

• Beekeeping

• Tomato Grafting

• Shiitake Mushrooms

• Seed Saving

• Specialty Niche Markets

To register go to:http://5thgrowersworkshop.eventbrite.com/

Scholarships are available in limited quantity. If you are interested in a scholarship, please email: admin@centerforruralculture.org and answer the following three questions:

1) Why do you need a scholarship for this workshop?

2) What are your future plans for using the knowledge gained from the workshop?

3) Are you willing to volunteer at the workshop?

Vegan Beer Dinner at Ipanema on Sunday

From Kendra Feather of Ipanema Cafe:

Just wanted to let you all know that we are hosting a Vegan beer dinner on January 17th at 6pm. The tickets are $45 which is tax and tip included. There are five courses and five beers. Should be alot of fun. Last years was amazing!

Tickets are on sale at rvanews.com

Thanks!

Kendra

Ipanema Cafe

917 W. Grace St.

213-0190