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FARM START Dinners Celebrate A Season of Bounty Across PA In May
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For nearly 20 years and with more than 5,800 current members, the PA Association for Sustainable Agriculture has continually supported profitable farms producing healthy food for all people in a manner that respects the natural environment.
Local farming done well puts more dollars in farmers’ pockets, protects our precious soil and water resources while reducing our collective carbon footprint, supports rural communities and the connection they share with their metropolitan neighbors and ensures a healthy diet and food security for all citizens of the Commonwealth.
This winter a record 2,200 individuals showed their support for new ways of thinking about agriculture by attended PASA’s 19th annual Farming for the Future conference on the Penn State campus in State College, including Pennsylvania’s newest Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding.
In order to ring in the 2010 farming season, PASA is hosting two Summer FARM START dinners – one in central and another in western Pennsylvania – featuring local and seasonal fare and the efforts of many partners who embrace PASA’s mission.
The fundraising dinners honoring Pennsylvania farmers and another year of sustainable abundance will be held May 21 at the Milestone Inn Historic Riverfront Mansion in Harrisburg, and May 23 at the 388-acre Eden Hall Farm, now part of Chatham University, in Richland Township north of downtown Pittsburgh.
Both menus will be created exclusively with food available from local farms during this time of the year.
“We felt it was fitting to honor the region’s farmers at the outset of the season, to both thank them for their efforts in advance and to remind everyone who picks up a fork to continually support these hardworking friends and neighbors who produce our food and care for the earth,” said PASA Executive Director Brian Snyder. “With this in mind, the dinner menu at these celebrations will be made up of locally and sustainably produced fare that reflects springtime on the farm – a season often overlooked by consumers. When it comes to changing the face of our food system, we are truly all in this together, in a year-round process of making farms more viable while improving the quality of life for our families and communities.”
PASA is honored to welcome Pennsylvania Preferred award-winning Executive Chef James Woltman as our guest chef to work his magic with local producers’ seasonal offerings as we gather on the beautiful Susquehanna River in Harrisburg to enjoy a seasonal tastes and inspired conversation.
A Hummelstown native, Chef Woltman has worked at restaurants in Europe, Colorado and Florida and closer to home at The Hotel Hershey, The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia and at Stock’s on Second in Harrisburg.
Helping Chef Woltman make the evening happen will be JDK Catering, another proud sponsor of the event and a recognized leader of catering and event planning in the central Pennsylvania area.
Those who choose to join the Summer FARM START celebration in the western region will be welcomed into the home of Chatham University’s exciting new School of Sustainability and the Environment, made possible by a gift of the historic farm to the university by the Eden Hall Foundation on May 1, 2008.
Programs at Eden Hall Campus include an environmental learning lab, initiatives in sustainability and environmental studies, landscape architecture, women's studies and, appropriately, food studies. The Food Studies program will actually have its first class of graduate students in Fall 2010. These students and instructors will be engaged in unpacking the food system in the classroom, community, farm, and kitchen.
The western regional FARM START celebration will feature the culinary stylings of Pittsburgh-based Parkhurst Dining Services Executive Chef Dan Dooley. Chef Dooley honed his skills while learning the value of using fresh, local ingredients at The Coventry Inn in Indiana, Pa.
He continued to diversify his culinary repertoire by preparing exquisite German fare paired with exceptional German beers as head chef of the historic Penn Brewery on Pittsburgh’s Northside. As executive chef of Parkhurst Dining Services of Chatham University, Chef Dooley now relies on Parkhurst’s FarmSource program, incorporating fresh and local foods into meals while enjoying interacting with the many farms and alliances in western Pennsylvania.
Chatham University is also a generous sponsor of PASA’s Summer FARM START programs, as is Parkhurst Dining Services, and Turner Dairy Farms of Penn Hills, which has been a fixture on the local agriculture scene since 1930. These supporting businesses have a genuine focus on sustainability.
The lead sponsor for both of this year’s Summer FARM START events is the PNC Foundation, which receives its principal funding from The PNC Financial Services Group – an organization with its own impressive list of sustainable business practices. Most notably, PNC has built 100 sites according to green design standards and has more newly constructed LEED-certified buildings that any other company on the planet.
Tickets to either of the Summer FARM START events may be purchased on the PASA website or by calling Carrie Gillespie at PASA headquarters in Millheim, PA, at 814-349-9856, ext. 12. Tickets prices start at $55. Tables are also available for purchase.
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5/3/2010 |
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