Buy Fresh Buy Local Harvest Party

The changing leaves and cooler temperatures mean that winter will soon be here. To an Iowa locavore, that means the availability of fresh produce will begin to dwindle. This is the time to celebrate the bounty of the season at the Buy Fresh Buy Local (BFBL) Harvest Party.

The Greater Des Moines BFBL chapter held it’s 2^nd annual Harvest Party as a fundraiser on October 9th at the Olmstead Center at Drake University. The celebration featured foods grown in the nine county Greater Des Moines BFBL region. Menu items included locally raised lamb, warm potato salad with bacon, roasted squash, steamed beets with citrus zest apple salad, caprese skewers, prosciutto, apple crisp with caramel ice cream, and a sampling of local cheese and produce. Everything was local and most of the food was donated by BFBL farms.

The Harvest Party is a great opportunity to meet farmers and network with others in the community that support local food. Join the celebration next year! Visit the Greater Des Moines BFBL website for more information.

Farm Crawl

For the past 5 years on the first Sunday in October, hundreds of Iowans cruised the gravel roads of Lucas and Marion counties to visit eight small family farms. The masterminds behind the Farm Crawl are Jill Beebout & Sean Skeehan of Blue Gate Farm. When the couple lived in Houston, they attended “art crawls” where they wandered from studio to studio. “When we first moved to the farm we didn’t know many people in the community,” Beebout said, “We thought it would be neat to do something like that on an agricultural basis.” They met their neighbors who had interesting small farming operations and thought, “We could be a destination spot.” The Farm Crawl was born.

The idea is for participating farms to hold an open house on the same day and visitors crawl (or drive) from farm to farm. Guests have the opportunity to tour the farms, visit the animals, and buy locally grown products.

Reichert's Dairy Air

Matt Russell, from Coyote Run Farm, said they didn’t know what to expect the first year. “We didn’t know if we would have 50 or 100 people and we ended up with 500 to 600 the first year,” he recalled. Now in its 5th year, the event has surged in popularity. The 2011 event had record breaking attendance with over 1,350 visitors.

The eight participating farms for the 2011 Farm Crawl were Blue Gate Farm, Coyote Run Farm, Dan-D Farms, Pierce’s Pumpkin Patch, Reichert’s Dairy Air, Schneider Orchards, White Breast Pottery and Weaving, and Crooked Gap Farm.

Russell said one of the best things for him was to see how much fun the visitors were having. He said, “These people are having a fabulous time! I mean they are having crazy fun... on our farm!”

Join the fun the first Sunday in October every year. Visit the Farm Crawl website for more details.

Coyote Run Farm