 Soon to appear at a farmstand near you--Rondout Valley butternut squash soup. It's a wonderful project to benefit local food pantries organized by Fabia Wargin and the Rondout Valley Growers. The squash was gleaned by high school volunteers from RVGA members' fields after harvest picking was done. The soup was made by volunteers, too, at the kitchens of Farm to Table CoPackers in Kingston. All the proceeds will be support local food pantries. It's a win-win-win situation and a great example of how we can help each other, with a little extra effort.
The delicious soup will be available in both sweet and savory varieties in the freezer cases of Davenport Farms Market in Stone Ridge, Saunderskill Farms Market in Accord, and at Stone Ridge Orchard. Perfect for the cold days ahead! |
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Hot Diggity Blog!
We were pleased to be included in the especially charming blog Go Big or Go Home by Traci Suppa, whose family's hobby is visiting the world's largest everything. Their enthusiasm was undiminished by finding out that Chomsky was no longer the ultimate--they still posed for their Christmas card photo at Chomsky's feet.
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Looking Back
It's been a great season on Homegrown Mini-Golf. The edible gardens grew better than ever before and thousands of putters enjoyed tasting the fruit, vegetables and herbs. We couldn't have done it without the help lots of people. Chris Kelder, as always, has been wonderful, always there with helpful advice, a helping hand, and usually with a wry comment on whatever ridiculous situation we had gotten ourselves into. The farm staff has been likewise great, especially Jill McClean, Sue Bruck and Robin Baker (aka the Singing Farm Girl). The mini-golf benefited from the attentions of Chris Hewitt of Country Wisdom, Abby Goldfarb of Hollengold Farm, Emilia Stern, now finishing college, and the wonderful brother-sister team Tim and Sam Bruck. Whoever thinks our youth is going down-hill hasn't met these three young people.
Many local businesses have been helpful and supportive--check out the links page on the Homegrown Mini-Golf web site. I recommend all who are listed.
And a shout out to the Green Vision group, headed by Lisa Kellogg. We've been meeting for over seven months now, and the support, advice, patience and great humor have been sustaining. Thanks to Lisa, Vickie, Nicci, Karin, Woogs, Dan and Ann!
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And Looking Forward
Homegrown Mini-Golf is now closed for the season, but Kelder's Farm market is open year-round with our corner of locally made goods. Check their site for current hours.
In the coming year I will be taking my work on the road. I've been invited to help create a miniature golf course in New Orleans and I'm leaving on Monday for a short exploratory visit. Both of the city's mini-golfs were destroyed by Katrina and they're jonesing to play a round. I would love to help if I can.
And our company has recently added a new staff member, Lisa Kellogg, a renaissance woman with a background in art, a foreground in counseling about work, creativity and play, and in between, a skill-set of amazing breadth.
Lisa and I are working together on the Valley of the Giants, a new Rondout Valley-based project that I'm dying to talk about, but we will leave a little mysterious for now. It's gonna be cool and we'll share more soon.
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