Typical Amish buggies.

“Ve get too soon oldt, und too late schmart.”

This is an expression my Amish friend, Ellen, often says to me.

"I wish I knew then what I know now." is my modern age comeback to her, which is a quote from my mentor, Minnie Pearl.

No matter how many times we have this little exchange it never gets old and we always laugh loudly.

Harrison Ford engages in some forbidden dance moves with Kelly McGillis in an outtake from the film, Witness.

We’re having a fundraiser at the historic Thoroughbred Theatre in Midway on August 22nd at 7 pm with food that celebrates some farmers near and dear to my heart.
At ‘Dinner and a Movie’  we’ll be preparing ‘An Amish Feast’ to celebrate the cuisine and culture of our Amish friends in Kentucky. The movie is Witness, starring Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis. We’ll be serving and eating family style with lots of fresh produce from Ellen and Sam Mast of Crab Orchard, KY, as well as from Honest Farm. Cost of the dinner is $30 and will benefit Honest Farm’s education projects. Honest Farm is a 501c3 organization with a mission of promoting locally grown foods. For reservations, call 846-9827.

It took a village but we have moved the Honest Farm ‘Pure Kentucky’ Market to 128 Main Street in Midway, location of the former Depot restaurant (across the street from The Black Tulip and Quirk Cafe). We could not have done this without the help of so many wonderful customers and friends.

Some I really want to thank are Blair West and Betsey Hagan (who continue to help on a daily basis at the store and farm), Alfred and Hurst Nuckols, John McDaniel, Bob and Mary West, Dan and Adele Roller, Wilda and Rick Caudle, Jaspal and Thad, Linda Nelson, Mary Jane McGaughey, Kit Walden, Mary and Tom Sayre, Tim Klarer, and many others who lent their moral support.

Nothing says summer like local chicken on the grill.

Here’s a recent article I did for sprig.com. They’ve redesigned the site and it’s all about "Eco Chic." And you can’t be any more chic than eating locally.

The trick to grilling chicken and keeping it juicy and delicious, is to gently poach the chicken before marinating it. This will insure that the chicken will be cooked through and seared to perfection. You can use most any of your favorite herbs for the recipe. It’s hard to mess it up.—Susie Quick

Here’s another article I recently did for sprig.com. I’m so loving the broccoli we’ve had, though the current heat wave will likely wipe it out soon.

Can someone please stop global warming now so that I can have sugar snap peas next week?

Featured item: JUN 2, 2008

Here’s a story I did for www.sprig.com. You can find local lamb by going to www.localharvest.org and typing in your zip code. Here in the Lexington area you can purchase locally raised organic lamb from Elmwood Stock Farm at the Lexington Farmer’s Market.

Delicious coriander rack of lamb recipe

Featured item: MAY 26, 2008

From our latest newsletter…

Hope to see you Saturday morning to celebrate the first produce offerings.

For CSA members, we’re gearing up for the first pickup on Thursday, May 22nd from 3 pm until 7 and will have some wonderful fresh produce and eggs for you to enjoy.

You will receive an email with details about your basket next week. Instead of using boxes this year we decided to utilize reusable shopping totes and encourage our customers to bring their own tote (or basket) if they wish. We have some for CSA members offered at our cost, which is $2.50. Of course, we have plastic and paper bags on hand for backup.

A little over a year ago Time magazine proclaimed that ‘local food is better than organic,"  in an article I didn’t much care for. Someone must have given President Bush a copy…

Thanks to Aloma Dew of the Sierra Club for passing this along to me. Despite my deep trust in Aloma I had to Google the speech Bush made today just so I could believe my eyes. Somebody pinch me (not that the speech didn’t include some cluelessness re alternative fuels, the economy in general, etc.).

Not sure people realize the intelligence network utilized by insects in the garden but I always suspected it was more complex — and effective — than we ever realized. The following study was published on the site of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), which funded the research.

Insects use plant like a telephone

11 April 2008

Communication between subterranean and aboveground herbivorous insects.

Dutch ecologist Roxina Soler and her colleagues have discovered that subterranean and aboveground herbivorous insects can communicate with each other by using plants as telephones. Subterranean insects issue chemical warning signals via the leaves of the plant. This way, aboveground insects are alerted that the plant is already ‘occupied’.