Food Love Project is part of Living Lands Agrarian Network and set up on the Burton Homestead in partnership with the Bear Yuba Land Trust.  I stopped by to say hi and ended up helping harvest the last of snap peas and went home with an arm load of lettuce, radishes, chard and all the remaining peas.  Amanda and Katie were hard at work harvesting food for the food bank lunch when I arrived, but took time to show me around and educate me on the proper way to pick snap peas.  Food Love Project does a lot of education, from field trips to  upcoming summer camps.  If you child, between the age of 5-11 is looking for a fun summer camp in July click here for more info.  Want to learn more information about Living Lands … Read More »

The 2012 summer season at Mountain Bounty Farm kicked off this week with a box full of fabulous fresh goodies including zucchini, butter lettuce, carrots and more.  The local North San Juan farm is celebrating their 15th season and excited to have expanded their drop off points to include Reno, Truckee and South Lake Tahoe (plus Nevada City & Grass Valley).  Sign up online, new subscribers welcome throughout the season if space available. I’ve included a few photos from last year’s CSA to get you in the spirit.  This week’s giveaway is a one week veggie share from Mountain Bounty.  Please post a comment below about your favorite veggie and I’ll draw a winner on Monday, June 4th.  Please note that giveaway is not available to current Mountain Bounty subscribers and must be picked up in … Read More »

It seems every where I turn these days someone in Nevada City is talking about their CSA box.  For those of you who haven’t subscribed to one of the many Community Supported Agriculture options in Nevada County, it’s a way to support local farms by subscribing for a certain length for a box of fresh, local, organic vegetables or fruit.  If you need to find the nearest CSA to you, either stop by the Nevada City Farmers Market or the Nevada County Growers Market or check out the Nevada County Grow Farm Guide. The Outside Inn is one of the pick up points for Mountain Bounty Farm and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the amazing variety of vegetables and fruits every week.  Below is a sampling of some of the boxes, you can look through the rest of the photos on … Read More »

The Outside Inn’s free neighbor’s vegetable cart has been getting a lot of activity this summer, click here for the first post of the summer, a real heart warming story.  For photos of some of the colorful items that have come and gone from our cart please click here for our Flickr album.  Today we started with left over vegetables and fruits from the Mountain Bounty CSA, and since the Outside Inn loves sharing the love with others we put out the entire contents of both of the boxes.  Below are some photos of the amazing spread of beets, melon, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant and more…  We were a very popular spot for about an hour, word travels fast when there’s amazing fresh vegetables for free.

Nevada County has a rich diversity in local farms, Nevada County Grow offers a complete Farm Guide online.  I figured I’d start my farm tour with Mountain Bounty Farm, as the Outside Inn has been the CSA Nevada City pick up location for the fruit and veggie shares for several years.  John Tecklin, owner of Mountain Bounty, was happy to show us around and point out the rows and rows of fresh vegetables, just waiting to be picked.   Mountain Bounty Farm has provided fresh, organically-grown produce to community members through their Community Supported Agriculture program for the last 14 years. The summer veggie season starts this week, but there’s still time to sign up, with pick ups throughout Nevada County.  Who can beat fresh fruit and veggies, especially when you know they’re grown with love right in your own … Read More »

Grass Valley Grains is a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for grains.  Reed Hamilton’s one man farming operation mills wheat, oats, rye, barley, dry beans, and flour corn.  His monthly pick-ups could include any flour, cornmeal, polenta, ground oatmeal, cracked grain, or baking mixes. His products can be found in a number of local restaurants, including Ike’s Quarter Cafe, New Moon Cafe and Flour Garden Bakery.

Ike loves Grass Valley Grains because “everything is fresh.”  They use a number of products in their restaurant, but Ike says his favorite is probably “the cornmeal.”  He loves the flavor and the variety of the yellow, red, white and blue cornmeal.  Peter at New Moon’s personal choice is the white polenta.

The Outside Inn product test crew decided to try out the muffin mix and they were a huge hit in our household.  Sign up for your monthly … Read More »