On the way to my family’s house the other evening, I passed one of our local strawberry patches.  It came to me as the sweet perfume of sun-ripened berries wafted in the window on the balmy summer air…It’s that time of year again…

Time for shorts and flip flops, farmers markets and county fairs, fresh fruits and veggies, canning and preserving, frolicking in the garden, and chowing down on all the local goodness you can get your hands on!

Here in the valley we’re very lucky to have such a dazzling array of produce to choose from!

You can put a face and warm smile with what fills your plate, by visiting a Fruitstand or Farmer’s Market in your area….

If you prefer stalking your own goodies in their natural habitat, you can find a You-Pick Farm in your county…

A CSA is also a convenient option which supports your local farmers…

And if you’re feeling especially adventurous, you can always grow some fruits and veggies of your own…You don’t have to have 40 acres, just a few pots or old buckets on the porch will do!

Whatever you choose, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing where your food came from and who grew it…not to mention nothing compares to the taste of fresh veggies and fruit!

Or the smell of it on the breeze for that matter…Happy foraging!

It’s a bee~luscious lemonade you’ll be reaching for year-round!

We’ll see you there with our bee~luscious lemonade!  Find the up to date info on facebook @ Hey Honey! Artisanals & Riverdance Farms Pick & Gather!

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors,

we borrow it from our children.

– Native American Proverb

    Inspired by the free-spirited activism of the 1970′s, Gaylord Nelson and a few dedicated individuals, set out to remind us how precious and fragile are the resources we’ve been given.

    The first Earth Day was the culmination of growing environmental concerns, and the efforts of those determined to make a difference. Principles still relevant today. We have been given the wonderful gift of the earth, and with that, comes the responsibility of stewardship. How often have we forgotten the meaning of that word!

Merriam Webster’s defines Stewardship as: “The conducting, supervising, or managing of something; especially : the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care”.

Wikipedia explains: “An ethic that embodies responsible planning and management of resources.  The concept of stewardship has been applied in diverse realms, including with respect to environment, economics, health, property, information, and religion, and is linked to the concept of sustainability.”

    In short, the earth and all it’s bounty, was given to each of us. To care for, love, and celebrate.  It’s easy to feel like you can’t make a difference, but the tiniest effort matters!  There are so many things we can all do to help….

    Composting, recycling, shopping locally, having your own garden (even if it’s a pot on your porch or balcony), choosing to walk or ride a bike rather than drive, cutting back on the water or electricity you use, switching to natural cleaners; it all adds up to a smaller carbon footprint and taking better care of our home.

As you celebrate April 22^nd, we’d like to hear from you….

How do you show Mother Earth some love?

“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught

will we realize we cannot eat money.”

-Cree Indian Proverb

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Shady Oak Chickens

I taste that the earth is treated with kindness,
I taste that animals are cared for in a humane way,
I taste that social justice is an important part of the mix,
I taste that economic viability is the foundation that helps it happen,
and all of these tastes combine to form a deeply rich satisfying experience on my pallet and in my soul.

- Kirsten Olson, farmer at Hunter Orchards

{Borrowed post from USA TODAY}

So we know dark chocolate is good for us because it has antioxidants and lamb is the new pork which was the new chicken.  Or was it beef?

But a walk through the 206,000 square feet of exhibits at this year’s Winter Fancy Food Show is a glimpse into the possible future of your grocery cart or dinner table. At this year’s show, which ended Tuesday, 17,000 attendees visited 1,300 booths to see the future of specialty food. From the aisles, here are 12 food trends for 2012:

1. Salt

Forget Morton. If it’s not Himalayan or Northwest Indian Salish-inspired, alder-smoked, it’s so 20th century. Salt’s in chocolate, on caramels, and sailing off store shelves. It’s the finishing touch to multiple dishes. At the SaltWorks in Woodinville, Wash., they sell Black Hawaiian sea salt, Bolivian Rose salt, Merlot-infused crystals and Yakima apple wood smoked sea salt. “We’ve started refining our own salt from Pacific Oceanwater at our plant near Seattle,” says the company’s Megan O’Keefe.

Salt has really gotten big in the past two years, says Ron Tanner, with the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, which puts on the show. “We just did a salt and pepper tasting for our members,” he says. These specialty salts can run up to $8 per ounce, or $128 per pound. “Though it seems expensive, in the long run it’s not that much. You might get ten uses out of that package, so the cost per use isn’t high. And it’s a great finish to a dish.”

2. Artisan chocolate

Small producers who carefully source their cocoa beans are turning out chocolate bars that can cost as much as a mega-bag of M&M’s, but taste a lot better. These bars are often all-natural and cater to grown-up tastes. Think lemongrass, lavender-blueberry or French toast.

Standing at Poco Dolce Confections, Italian for “a little sweet,” Adam Smith points to owner Kathy Wiley’s olive oil with sea salt chocolate. “It hits just the right notes.” His Fog City News, a small San Francisco shop that sells hundreds of specialty chocolate bars, does a booming business in flavors such as Mayan chili.

The trend isn’t just in San Francisco. There are local chocolates made “in pretty much every city in the United States,” says Tanner. “People love chocolate and it’s not that hard to start producing them.”

3. Korean is the new Thai

The spicy, robust tastes of Korean cuisine are the latest Asian food to sweep the country. At Mother-in-Law’s Kimchi in Brooklyn, founder Lauryn Chun sells pints of the spicy-hot Korean signature pickled cabbage nationwide. She sees a new “openness and curiosity for the spices and flavors of other countries.” For Americans who haven’t encountered the fiery pickle, she has this breakthrough taste sensation to suggest: grilled cheese with kimchi.

4. QR’s on packaging

Look for Quick Response codes on food packaging in the near future. These fractal-looking squares that are readable by cell phone are showing up in ads right and left and will be popping up more and more on food packages. They’re a way for the industry to get more info out to consumers than they can fit on a package. Wines, especially, are a prime market because they can offer information about suggested food pairing and even videos about the winemakers.

5. Seaweed for lunch

It’s one of the hottest trends in West Coast lunchrooms and starting to take off nationwide. Nori seaweed (called laver in England where it grows on the west coast) is roasted, salted, flavored and sold in lunch-box sized packages that keep it crisp. Grace Clark packs it in her kids’ lunch where it’s a sure-fire tradable commodity at their elementary school in Mountain View, Calif. — always a good sign. “It serves the place of chips but it’s got zero bad stuff in it,” she says. Another mom just e-mailed her this past weekend asking where she gets it, so she can buy some for her daughter’s lunch, she says.

The nori, a spiced version of the purple seaweed used to wrap sushi, used to just have a market among Asians, says Brian Lee of Ace Farm USA in Bronx, N.Y., which sells the seaweed in wasabi, sesame and olive oil flavors. “In the past you always needed a bowl of rice to go with it. But then we realized our kids ate it like potato chips So we made it more like a snack, crispier, less salty and less oily.”

6. Gluten-free gets respect

The craze for all things gluten-free is turning up some better-tasting options for those who need to avoid this wheat protein. Star chef Thomas Keller, of The French Laundry (named “best restaurant in the world” in 2003 and 2004 by Restaurant magazine) , has launched a multi-purpose gluten-free flour blend called Cup4Cup. Gluten-free pastas and cereals were much in evidence at the show. Carbon’s Golden-Malted pancake and waffle flour, a staple of restaurants since 1937, has now come out with a gluten-free version. “It was just the demand,” says Becky Beckman, vice president of sales for theSouth Bend, Ind. company. It took six months of working on the mix of soy, rice and corn flour to get it right, she says.

7. DIY comes to food

The public fascination with how our food is made shows up not only in a hundred food shows on TV, but also kits that help people create foods that seem out of reach. These do-it-yourself food kits contain all the ingredients and detailed instructions, making the novice a pro in the kitchen.

“There’s a real trend in people wanting to understand how their food is made,” says Leslie Kozupsky, a longtime dairy woman and president of Roaring Brook Dairy in Chappaqua, N.Y. She sells kits to make mozzarella and butter that require only the addition of whole milk or cream. “So many people love cheese but they don’t know how to make it, I give them everything they need to make it.”

The trend extends to many traditional dishes as well. “We have members making pie kits, to make cooking easier,” says Tanner. One example is Elizabeth Jean’s Apple Pie Kit, which contains a pie tin, crust, spice pack, sliced apples and a pop-up pie timer. “Our research shows that 34% of people who buy specialty foods say they don’t know how to cook them,” says Tanner. The kits help guide even the most tentative cook.

8. The butcher is back

We’re in a renaissance of the butcher, says Tanner. “The meat that’s coming through supermarkets isn’t really as flavorful” as it once was, so there’s a resurgence of heritage pig and cattle breeds. Yet when people are paying a lot of money for their meat they want someone selling it to them who really knows the cuts and how to prepare them. Suddenly “it’s cool to be a butcher. Back in the 1970s if you were a meat cutter you didn’t go around saying ‘I’m in the meat department at the supermarket.’ Now people in their 20s are taking it as a career.”

9. Food trucks

Food trucks are the hot new thing in cities across America. These “roach coaches” were once the haunt of construction workers. Now they’ve gone high end, gourmet kitchens on wheels that sell crème caramel, Thai food and hand-made creations as good as anything served in the finest restaurants, at a lower price point. They’re big in New York, in Los Angeles, in Texas, in Portland, anywhere where there’s a strong food culture, Tanner says. “It’s a way for entrepreneurs who like to cook to get their product out to the public without having the expense of a restaurant.” A mini trend to look for coming off of this one is popular food trucks coming up with products, “maybe their special salsa that they’ll bottle and sell” in supermarkets.

10. Drugstores as food stores

With so much eating on the go, drugstores have become a source of food for people. Stores are branching out beyond snack foods and cookies. Duane Reade stores in New York have installed specialty food areas in their stores, and Walgreens is branching out with more fresh and prepared foods to go.

11. Mindful snacks

Snacks today don’t have to simply taste good, they also have to be good for you. Store shelves are starting to sport an array of chips and other snack foods with inventive, healthier ingredients. Sweet potatoes are big and lentils in the form of crisp cakes are popular. Probably the furthest-out in this category are the crunchy kale chips made by Kaia Foods in Oakland. “As delicious and satisfying as potato chips, but they’re as healthy as salad,” says the package, and sold in flavors such as BBQ, chili-lime and sea salt and vinegar.

12. In a pickle

Finally, the lowly American pickle is staging a big comeback in the East and South. There’s old-fashioned chow-chow pickle relish, artisan cucumber pickles and a host of cultured products, the result of lactic acid fermentation, that would make an Amish housewife proud, if a little puzzled. Pickled peppers, pickled burdock root, pickled golden raisins, with artisan sauerkraut being especially hot. Using high-quality vinegar, artisan salts (see above) and organic produce, these are not your typical gherkins. There’s been a strong resurgence in the South “where because of the heat, produce won’t last,” says Tanner.

For many years our CaMp TuRloCk homestead has been a place for family celebrations, a respite for friends to recharge with some country-time & a menagerie of well loved animals and of course home to Local Choices.

Today it feels good to say our homestead has added a new venue:  A farm!

A farm that grows our own food organically, a farm that provides a pastured haven for chickens of  Shady Oak Organic Eggs, a farm that feeds our family and beyond!

So stay tuned as we look forward to sharing with you our growth, new projects & this amazing gift of nature that is right out our back door.

In the meantime, enjoy some photos from our garden. See, we have been working hard!

(Check back soon for the sound of  happy chickens)

Photos taken by Alexandria Araiza