I had the opportunity to witness and photograph the first lady, the White House chefs, and students from local D.C. schools at the fall harvest of the White House kitchen garden.

What a week! The sun finally came out. I spent Wednesday at The White House getting an up-close and personal look at the kitchen garden, the kitchen, Michelle Obama at the fall harvest, and had quite a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I’m the featured blogger today at Blog for Family Dinner. And, there is no soccer this weekend, so I’ll be able to relax a bit and enjoy the gorgeous weather.

I did have a full week’s worth of blog posts planned for you this week, but that unexpected trip to Washington, D.C. turned my week upside down (not that I’m complaining). I didn’t want to end the week without a few odds and ends, though.

• The Cape May Wine Festival is this weekend. The beautiful weather this weekend will make it a perfect trip to Cape May to enjoy some of our state’s great wines.
• If you’re hitting the wine festival on Saturday, you might also want to stop by West Cape May’s Annual Lima Bean Festival. It begins at 9am so stop by there first before hitting the wine festival.
• Velenzano Winery in Shamong started construction of a new solar panel system at the vineyard off Route 206 as part of their goal to eventually use 100% renewable energy. Good for them!
• Food Day is a new national day that’s meant to spread the word about safe, healthy food. I wrote a bit about for Mother Nature Network, and the city of Philadelphia is turning the day into two whole weeks of activities.
• Sesame Street is addressing food insecurity with a primetime special this Sunday evening. They’ll be introducing a new muppet, Lilly, whose family is facing hunger.
• The Barrington Harvest Festival is tomorrow, and Grace Bible Church will have a drop off point where food can be donated. The food pantry at the church services people in Barrington and surrounding communities who are in need of help.
• Sharrott Winery is also a drop off place during the month of October for food donations that will go to the Food Bank of South Jersey.
• And one last place to donate food, at the Collingswood Farmers Market, the Friends of the Farmers’ Market (FOFM) is taking “canned good” donations for the St. Paul’s Food Pantry, sponsored by St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Collingswood. The term “canned goods” is only a limited description of the items needed that can make a difference.

Enjoy this absolutely beautiful weekend

• The Jazz It Up Wine Festival is this weekend at Allstaire State Park in Farmingdale. Saturday and Sunday Sept. 3 and 4, from noon to 5 p.m. 25 New Jersey Wineries will have tasting tents, there will be food, and of course, jazz.
• Congratulations to The Collingswood Farmers Market for coming in first in the state in Americas Favorite Farmers Market contest. It’s my favorite farmers market in the region, and I think it deserves it’s first place status!
• Sustainable Cherry Hill kicks off the fall schedule with Green Drinks at PJ Wheelinhans in Cherry Hill on September 7. Check out their full fall calendar of events on their website.
• The Cape May Forum will host a ten-day event titled “Guess What’s Coming for Dinner? The Politics of Food in the 21st Century.”
• Head to the mushroom capital of the world the weekend of September 9-11 for the Kennett Square Mushroom Festival. They’re going to have mushroom ice cream!
• Join Chef Mark from Tortilla Press at Duffield’s Farm on September 17 for Fiesta on the Farm. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Camden Children’s Garden.

I’m off to enjoy my weekend! I hope you do the same.

It might be a good idea for me to get my boys to one of these farms for a one night stay. Of course, I’ve left my son with the impression that it could just replace our other vacation plans for the summer. I’m a mean mom.

• During “farm stays” at Flint Hill Farm, visiting “farmers” collect their own eggs for breakfast, help milk the cows and goats and assist with the feeding and handling of the horses, sheep, chickens, pigs and goats. Plus guests get to sample seasonal fruits from the garden and woods and honey harvested right on the property. 1922 Flint Hill Road, Coopersburg, (610) 838-2928, flinthill-farmag.org
• For an experience that’s more on the voyeuristic side, there’s Olde Fogie Farm B&B. Guests stay in traditional bed and breakfast rooms, enjoy hearty breakfasts and, if they choose, visit a variety of farm animals or stroll landscaped gardens filled with birds and blooms. For those who choose to make their own meals, Olde Fogie keeps two efficiency apartments with fully equipped kitchens. 106 Stackstown Road, Marietta, (717) 426-3992, oldefogiefarm.com
• Also offering a taste of the rural life is Rocky Acre Farm, featuring a 200-year-old farmhouse that was once a stop on the Underground Railroad. Owners added a dairy farm to the property, and now cow milking, egg gathering, calf feeding, hayrides and breakfast with the farmers are among the many attractions for overnight guests.
  1020 Pinkerton Road, Mount Joy, (717) 653-4449, rockyacre.com
• Vacationers looking for a real “down on the farm” experience head to Verdant View Farm. Guests stay in the 1896 farmhouse, wake up early to milk cows, gather eggs from the henhouse, feed a calf—and, if luck should have it, witness a calf being born. A special Farmer’s Apprentice program offers even more hands-on opportunities, from artisanal cheese making and butter churning to planting, tending and harvesting vegetables. 429 Strasburg Road, Paradise Township, (717) 687-7353, verdantview.com

Do you know of any other farms, particularly in New Jersey, where you can spend some time gathering eggs and milking cows?

Image: David Kessler

Here’s hoping traffic isn’t that crazy the rest of our weekend as we run around doing our holiday shopping and attending holiday parties. As if you don’t have enough to do already this weekend, I’ve got a few things for you to read.

• For those of you that frequent The Collingswood Farmers Market, tomorrow, Saturday, December 18th from 9-noon, Shober Orchards will be at their regular market spot for their annual Christmas gift to market goers – a free basket of apples and a free gallon of apple cider.
• Today’s Philadelphia Groupon is for half of tickets to The Nutcracker performed by The Pennsylvania Ballet. The deal will run for a couple of days, but there is a limited amount so I don’t know exactly how long the deal will real really last.
• As of January 1, we’re going to be legally obligated in NJ to recycle our electronics instead of throwing them in the trash. Philly.com has all the details about this law that might be a bit of a hassle but will also be a very good thing.
• Philly Beer Scene has declared that South Jersey has become a craft beer scene and outlines its reasons.
• This isn’t about anything local to South Jersey, but I loved this piece from The Atlantic this week by Hank Shaw and his adventures truffle hunting in Oregon.
• One of the arguments the large wine importers have against allowing direct shipment of wines to homes is that it will make it easy for kids to drink. It’s a ridiculous argument, and the Fermentation blog outlines exactly why. There’s still no movement that I can see on the New Jersey direct shipping bill that’s languishing in the House right now, by the way.

Recipes from other blogs that have caught my attention this week:

• Garlic Butter Roasted Mushroom on Smitten Kitchen
• Apricot & Rosemary Baked Brie Bites on Zesty Cook

I’ve got a bottle of Flying Fish’s Exit 13 Chocolate Stout that I’m going to open this weekend. I’ll have a few words about it to say next week. Enjoy your weekend and drive safely!

Image: photo credit: mary_gaston22

More:
Tutti Toscani in Cherry Hill grows their own

From now until November 20th, you can take your old incandescent strings of holiday or Christmas lights to Sears or Kmart, and they will pass them along for recycling. They’ll also give you a $4 coupon for LED strings of holiday lights that use about 70 percent less energy than traditional lights.

Over the weekend, I’ll be doing the usual soccer/baseball mom thing, and then Sunday night, it looks like the Books, Bites and Booze book club will finally be getting underway.

Here are a few things of interest for you this weekend.

• South Jersey Restaurant Week ends tonight. If you’re planning on going out to dinner, why not go to one of our independent restaurants that serve us so well.
• Heritage Vineyards in Richwood has hayrides and apple/pumpkin picking this weekend and next from 10am-5pm. $2/person for the hayrides; $.70/lb. for apples & $.50/lb. for pumpkins.
• Mark your calendar for the Holiday Wine Trail Weekend on November 26-28 sponsored by the Garden State Wine Growers Association. It’s still a month away, but it’s one of those things you’ll want to plan for.
• It’s not a food farm, but it’s still a great use of farm land. New Jersey is getting one of the nation’s largest solar farms in Pilesgrove.
• Two bills that would benefit our farms and wineries have been proposed. If passed, “wineries and farms within three miles of any state or interstate highway could be signposted from the nearest exit.” Read about it at The Press of Atlantic City.
• I put up two seasonal recipes on other sites this week: Lentil soup on MNN and Pumpkin seed pesto at Celebrate Green.

That’s about it. See you in a little over a week!

• I’m hearing lots of buzz that this might be the last week for Jersey corn. Get out to the farmers market or farm stand and grab a dozen. If you don’t, you know you’re going to regret it in a week or two.
• Don’t forget the Cape May Wine Festival is this weekend. It’s the last big festival of the season where you can taste over 300 of our state’s great wines.
• Cape May will also host the West Cape May Lima Bean Festival this Saturday, October 9.
• The Kirby’s Mill Apple Festival in Medford will be this Saturday, also.
• The Agora Greek Food and Wine Festival will be held in Cherry Hill this weekend. I don’t know how local the food or the wine will be, but this is one festival I’ve always wanted to attend. I think we’ll be making our way there. The whole family loves Greek Gyros, and I’m hoping they serve some good ones there.
• The Tortilla Press Cantina will host a wine tasting dinner on Thursday, October 14. The dinner will feature wines from Bellview Winery and proceeds will go to The Camden Children’s Garden. If I know Chef Mark, there will be lots of local produce scattered throughout the menu, too. I see that his amazingly delicious goat cheese, black bean and pumpkin quesadilla is on the menu. It’s so good.
• South Jersey Restaurant Week will run from October 17 through 22 with four courses for $25 or $35.
• Interesting piece on Philly.com about a proposal to restrict lawn fertilizer use because “Every time it rains, the excess nutrients [from the fertilizers] are flushed into streams, lakes, and bays. The algae, in addition to sliming swimmers and looking gross, consume oxygen that is vital to aquatic organisms.”
• I’m dying to try this recipe from NJ.com for Cider House Bourbon. With fresh apple cider being abundant at farm markets and farmers markets right now, it’s the perfect time for it.
• A website called Whiskey Goldmine ranked 21 Oktoberfest beers, and Cherry Hill’s Flying Fish Oktoberfish came in 4th – the top three were all German Oktoberfest beers. Not too shabby.

While the debate goes on, wine corks, both natural and synthetic, are still being used.  The environmental impact of all of those corks in our waste stream needs to be considered, also. For the foreseable future, the majority of wine produced will use corks as a stopper. Most of us are conscietious about making sure that our wine bottles get recycled, but what about the corks?

A couple of years ago, when I wrote a piece about recycling wine bottle corks for A Little Greener Every Day, the only options I could find were to turn them into crafts or sending them off at your own cost to a couple of companies that would recycle them into products like cork flooring or cork boards.

I got an e-mail from Sharrott Winery in Winslow Township with information about bringing your wine corks, both natural and synthetic, to the winery for recycling.

Here at the winery we recycle just about everything. Now you can recycle your corks with us! When you open a bottle of that delicious Sharrott Wine, save the cork and bring it with you the next time you come to the tasting room. We will take any corks that you have, real or synthetic – not just the ones that come from our bottles. Best of all the recycling company actually pays us for the corks and all proceeds go to our local schools!

So save your wine corks (why not collect them from friends and neighbors, too), and when you have significant amount, take a trip to Sharrott to drop them off. Of course, while you’re there, it would be silly to not have a tasting and buy a bottle of wine or two. You’ll be doing your part to help the environment and doing your part to help one of our local producers at the same time.

photo credit: Brian K YYZ

I just read on Philly.com that New Jersey had declared a drought watch. While there are no mandatory restrictions, it’s advisable that residents conserve water whenever possible.

Here are a few tips to help you conserve water while you continue to water your garden.

• Reuse any water that you used to cook vegetables or pasta in for watering plants. This is especially helpful for plants in containers that need to be watered frequently. Allow the water to cool first and don’t ever use water that was used to cook meat.
• Keep a bucket under the faucet when you’re running water in the tub trying to get it warm or a pitcher under the faucet in the sink while you’re waiting for water to reach the right temperature. Use the water to water plants.
• Empty half-full water bottles onto plants instead of down the sink.
• Water plants early in the morning or late in the evening so that the sun doesn’t evaporate too much of the water you’ve used for the plants.
• Get rid of weeds. Their roots will soak up water that your vegetable plants need causing you to have to water more heavily.

For more tips on conserving water throughout your whole house, read 10 easy ways to be more sustainable with your water usage.
photo credit: GollyGforce really enjoys life!

I’ve got a whole list of reasons why I’ve come to appreciate thrift store shopping:

• I can get kitchen gadgets for cooking for amazing prices. Today, I picked up a hand immersion blender with all it’s attachments, still in the box, for $5.95. Now I’ll be able to puree soups right in the pot.
• When I save large amounts of money on everything from kitchen gadgets to clothes (both my boys got jeans today in great condition for under $5 a piece), I can afford to spend more money on local and organic foods.
• When I buy used, I prevent something new from being created and prevent new resources from being used up.
• Buying from thrift stores usually helps support a good cause. The Red, White & Blue Thrift Stores partner with the Vietnam Veterans of America.
• Expensive items that get rarely used can be found inexpensively at thrift stores. I got my son a pair of LL Bean snow pants today for $$4.95. They look like they’ve never been worn. They may have been worn once or twice, but since kids grow out of things so quickly, things like snow pants rarely get the chance to wear out.

I really liked the Red, White & Blue store. Unlike the Goodwill stores where boys and girls clothing is put together on the same racks, RW&B separates them and sorts by color and item. Even the plus size woman’s clothing is separated from the misses sizes – something that many thrift stores don’t do. The place was clean and didn’t have any overwhelming smells. The one big problem, and this actually is a problem, is that there are no fitting rooms and items can’t be returned. I didn’t buy any clothing for myself because I couldn’t try anything on.