If we can’t live on a farm, the farm can come to us – at least once a year! We are excited to check out this year’s Philadelphia Farm & Food Fest, Sunday, April 12, presented by Fair Food and Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
Farm & Food Fest is one of the country’s biggest and best single-day food festivals and a perfect way to introduce kids to the lifelong benefits of healthful, sustainable eating. Sign up in person for a summer CSA share, check out urban homesteading demos (canning!), and sample locally made products from jam and granola to pickles and cookies!
Kids can begin exploring the event by catching a screening of local filmmaker Rich Hoffman’s “Watermelon Magic,” a time-lapse tale that follows the growth of the iconic summer fruit from seed to snack, starring his six-year-old daughter Sylvie; then, they can learn about soil and seeds with the wiggly worms that make compost possible at Cloud 9 Farm’s Plant and Squirm class; join a reading and demo from StoryUp!’s Martha Cooney and Honeypie Cooking’s Shayna Marmar during Cooking Up Stories, where they’ll prepare their own tortillas for tasty seasonal tacos; or, make a new friends, such as a live alpaca from Lost Creek Alpaca Farm. Throughout the day, curious eaters will be treated to a wealth of free samples from local farmers and growers, encouraging kids to expand their young palates (please!) and maybe even find a new favorite healthy treat just in time for the spring growing season.
Farm & Food Fest presents an opportunity for members of the public to get to know their farmers and learn more about how the food they enjoy all year travels from the farm to the market or the table – and to see the chefs and culinary professionals whose restaurants they frequent interacting with the very people who supply their exceptional ingredients.
Fair Food was founded in 2000 with the mission of building and sustaining a humane local food economy in Philadelphia. Working cooperatively with area farmers, the group drives demand and desire for sustainably raised, locally produced foods across hospitality, institutional and educational sectors in the greater Philadelphia area and puts restaurants, bars and other sellers in contact with the farmers who supply their product, often acting as a helpful third party to facilitate mutually beneficial transactions. Fair Food is dedicated to bringing locally grown food to the marketplace and to promoting a humane, sustainable agriculture system. To learn more, guests are encouraged to visit the Fair Food Farmstand (51 North 12th Street, 215-386-5211) at Reading Terminal Market or www.fairfoodphilly.org.
For more information and tickets, visit www.phillyfarmfest.org.
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