Summer Farm Evening Series Kicks Off in June

Do you know where your food comes from?

Well, starting next month, you can not only meet your local farmers but also tour their farms and facilities. 

The Bucks County Foodshed Alliance will again host a series of farm evenings that introduces consumers to the local producers who stock the shelves at area farmers’ markets and roadside stands. 

"Our farm tours are a wonderful way for families to meet their farmers and
get a close-up look at food production going on right here in Bucks County,"
said Dr. Jacqueline Ricotta, a BCFA board and member and associate professor of horticulture at Delaware Valley College.

The farm evenings feature a potluck meal from 6 to 7 p.m., which is followed by a farm tour. “This educational and entertaining event is appropriate for school-aged children who are under an adult’s careful supervision,” according to a Bucks County Foodshed Alliance press release. 

The 2012 farm evening series opens Wednesday, June 6, with a tour of the 398-acre Five Spruce Farm, now Delaware Valley College’s Kenneth and Helen Gemmill Campus. The original farm dates back to the 1750s. The Gemmills purchased the house and about 100 acres in the 1950s, according to the Bucks County Foodshed Alliance.

Today, it is made up of about 150 tillable acres and includes a five-acre apple orchard with approximately 2,400 trees.

“All the fruit is grown for fresh market and sold wholesale,” according to the Bucks County Foodshed Alliance.

“Since DelVal received the property in 2010, it has taken advantage of Five Spruce Farm’s many assets,” said Doug Christie, a DVC alumnus who has managed the farm for four decades.

“Students have been using the woods, fields and waterways as an outside laboratory, and biology classes and soils classes use the farm regularly for class time. The college has also started to farm the tillable ground, planting necessities such as corn, wheat for straw bedding and small grains to use on campus for feeding their livestock.” 

Five Spruce Farm is at 731-739 Grenoble Road, Jamison.

Participants should bring a dish or beverages to share with others and their family’s own eating equipment and seating. All participants are expected to carry out their own trash. Although the farm tours are free, donations to BCFA’s programs are encouraged. 

If the event is cancelled due to severe weather, notice will be posted on the BCFA website.

For more information call 215-598-3979 or visit www.buckscountyfoodshedalliance.org.

The series continues with three additional summer farm evenings:

July 9: Community Gardens and the Garden of Reflection in Lower Makefield 

August 1: Myerov Family Farm, a Community Supported Agriculture farm in Perkasie

October 3: Castle Valley Mill, refurbished historic grain mill now in operation in Doylestown