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Stories and Events in the WPSU Community

The opinions expressed in these blogs are solely those of the people who wrote them, and do not represent the views of WPSU or Penn State University.

Local Food Journey

How to help the Texas local food community recover from Harvey

Posted by Jamie Oberdick on 08/30 at 03:10 PM

Hurricane Harvey will go down in history as one of the worst natural disasters ever to hit the United States. By now you’ve seen the images of flooded homes, of people with what possessions they can save on boats looking for shelter, and of highways under 15 feet of water.

While the human cost is great, much of it has been focused on urban areas. Meanwhile, farmers in southeast Texas and Louisiana have suffered greatly and can use our help.

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Local Food Journey

Plenty of things happening for the wine lover this autumn

Posted by Linda Weaver on 08/24 at 07:29 AM

Do you love wine, autumn, pizza, jazz, and…running? Then here’s some good news!

Check out the upcoming events at Mt. Nittany Vineyard & Winery for September through October:

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Local Food Journey

Planting fall crops at Jade Family Farm

Posted by James Eisenstein on 08/16 at 09:16 AM

Now is the time to plant seeds for fall crops. No seeding, no fall crops, less fall income, and painful mortgage payment woes. So on July 20, John invited yours truly the Unpaid Field Hand, daughter Evelyn, and nephew Matthew to plant 47 flats worth of seeds on his list. Each flat has 128 cells, and my calculator tells me 128 times 47 comes to 6,016 seeds.

It took the three of us working hard about three hours to go through the process. We used organically certified seed starting mix to which we addd organic fertilizer and mixed in a big tub. Each of the 47 flats needs to be filled loosely to the top of each cell, putting one flat on top of the other and pressing down so there is room to put in the seed, inserting the seed, making a marker with the date and variety for each flat, filling the cells in the seed flats loosely to the top, and watering the seeded flats.

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Local Food Journey

Friends & Farmers Announces “Plow to Plate–A Harvest Dinner” Aug. 23

Posted by Jamie Oberdick on 08/11 at 07:41 AM

Enjoy local food, wine and the company of your neighbors at the 2017 Plow to Plate Harvest Dinner sponsored by Friends & Farmers Cooperative and Mount Nittany Vineyard & Winery. Proceeds will benefit the Friends & Farmers Co-op Online Market. The event will be held at Mount Nittany Vineyard in Centre Hall from 5:00 to 8:30 pm on Wednesday, Aug. 23.

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Local Food Journey

Five uses for all that extra garden stuff

Posted by Jamie Oberdick on 08/10 at 07:59 AM

Gardeners all across Central Pennsylvania are having a great year. Good rain in most places and warm temperatures have led to bountiful harvests of all kinds of garden vegetables.

If you are a gardener, you know how quickly you can be overwhelmed with a big harvest. Zucchini is a prime suspect, as having as few as three plants can quickly lead to too many zukes.

After awhile, your neighbors and coworkers are tired of all the cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, etc. you try to share and begin to run from you when they see you coming with a wheelbarrow of produce, o you’re stuck with tons of veggies. What to do? Here’s five ideas…

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Local Food Journey

A quick meal at the shore

Posted by LacCreta Holland on 08/02 at 07:29 AM

When you prepare for a beach vacation, there are so many things to think about that often, you are not thinking about that first meal you will eat when you arrive. You just tell yourself, “we’ll just run to a restaurant or grab a pizza and take it to the house.” Yes, a restaurant with your favorite fresh crab cakes or flounder! That’s it!

But then reality hits—everyone is happy by the time you ditch the traffic and smell that sea breeze, but everyone is also ravenous! Waiting time for a meal at a restaurant will not work for little people who have been done with the day before dinner arrives. Even waiting for a pizza seems too long. What to do?

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