Tuesday, May 24, 2016

It's Time!

It's finally time! 
Time to get your tickets for the gardendwellers FARM
2016 Farm to Table Dinner.


Ticket sales begin Tuesday, May 24th.  Our Dinner date this year is July 21st.  Our usual start time of 6:30 PM will hold true and tickets are $60 each. 

Due to the overwhelming requests, we've raised the number of tickets from 40 to 50 but we're still anticipating that they will sell out quickly, so don't delay in ordering. 

Tickets can only be purchased online through our website so be sure to visit the site using the link at the bottom of this blog to register for dinner and reserve your tickets.

As with previous years, we'll be sending out weekly emails with great information about the businesses, farmers, and ranchers that are sure to make this dinner a success.  We also send out pertinent information like the menu, what you need to bring, and directions to the farm via email, so your email address is very important to the process.  If you are ordering tickets for others, and its not a surprise gift, be sure to have their email address handy when registering so they can be included in the weekly updates.

Now that we have the when, and where covered lets' take a look at what and why.

What is a Farm to Table Dinner anyway?

A Farm to Table Dinner is a meal that is as identity preserved as possible.  A meal where as many ingredients as possible are sourced locally, from people, businesses, farmers, and ranchers that you know.  It is a way to encourage yourself and others to remember to purchase locally, and to support your local farmers and ranchers. 

Did you know that if each person in the counties of Benson, Bottineau, McHenry, Peirce, and Towner spent just $5, that's right -  just $5 a week buying food from local sources that it would generate $10 million of new farm income for the region? (source: 'Next Steps for North Dakota REAP Zones' report by Ken Meter, Crossroads Center, March 24, 2015)

Our Farm to Table Dinner is our way of helping people find and experience those producers so they hopefully go out and purchase even more from them in the future.  It's way to get to know the people in our communities and the producers of food in our state.

This year's meal will feature great food like North Dakota raised beef, locally baked breads, gardendwellers FARM fresh herbs, and Summit beer.  What local tie does Summit beer have you ask?  The barley for their SAGA beer is grown right up the road by a great farm near Barton!  (More on that at a later date)  As always, we'll do our very best to source only the freshest and tastiest food and pair it appropriately to give you the ultimate dining adventure.



If you haven't done so already, check out our pre-dinner video on YouTube: PreDinner Video

We had a blast last year and we're really looking forward to seeing new faces and familiar ones at the 2016 Farm to Table Dinner.  Remember to purchase your tickets quickly as we sell out fast and provide your email so you can stay up to date with all of our preparations.

Purchase Tickets by following this link then clicking on the 'events' tab at the top of the page: gardendwellers FARM

See you in July!
Barry, Holly, and Adam



Tuesday, February 02, 2016

Post Canadian Thoughts

While on our trip to Neepawa Manitoba to present at the Manitoba Horticultural Association conference we were asked to share our presentations so that people could see the notes and some of the tables/slides that weren't included in the handouts.  We feel pretty honored that folks would want to reference the information presented.

Our first presentation, Plant Power, was designed to remind all of us exactly how powerful plants are and to remind us to be mindful as we get caught up in pulling weeds, killing bugs, and the hard work of gardening to take some time to marvel at the magnificent powers these beings have. 

It's kind of ironic then that a Facebook friend posted this image today:

The second presentation was about how to recognize plant problems using a basic method of identification.  The presentation contains a step by step process for determining exactly what is bothering your plants.  I'd like to site my resources here:
https://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/damage/symptoms.html
http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id194/id194.pdf
http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/426/426-714/426-714.html

We had a great time in Canada.  We learned a new word or two, admired their pretty money, got to use our passports for the first time and returned home with what I'm thinking will be a new hobby - vermiculture.