Babycat Milkbar, a pop-up store which opened in Wilton in May, was conceived by mompreneur Jeena Choi as a great place for locals to gather and enjoy coffee, tea and wholesome treats. The Milkbar can be found  inside New England Historical Connection, a retail store selling custom-made furniture from New England craftsmen. Whether you need a refuge from the cold, a spot to commune with friends, or a source for artisan treats and gifts, the Milkbar is your destination.

Begin with a cup of Mamacat’s Q. Tea, Choi’s line of fine, hand-blended and packed 100% organic teas. Born out of a desire to enjoy caffeine-free, refreshing teas that were gentle and tasty enough to share with children, Mamacat’s Q. Tea flavors include Ruby Slippers, Emerald Wonderland, Amber Maharani, Blossom Hill, Casablanca Mist and Golden Slumbers. Choi describes Emerald Wonderland as a mellow, beautiful blend of French lavender and Goji berries. With Casa Blanca Mist, she wanted to create a Moroccan green tea, which is traditionally super sweet and caffeinated. By choosing spearmint instead of mint and blending in rose petals, licorice root, elderflower and stevia, Choi created her “favorite new elixir that’s both rejuvenating and relaxing.”

Shopping for tea for someone out of town? The Milkbar is offering complimentary shipping and gift boxes for all online tea sales throughout December! No minimum amount, just specify that you’re ordering a gift in the “special instruction” section during check-out. SHOP NOW

We’re excited about two gift boxes featuring the best of local food artisans now available at Babycat Milkbar.

Mamacat's Q. Tea and Savor cookies make a sweet Tea and Cookies gift box.

Tea and Cookies, a top pick for a teacher, babysitter, letter carrier, school bus driver, or any other person that makes your life just that much easier, is a best seller at $19. Included in this gift box: a pack of organic Mamacat’s Q. Tea, hand-blended and packed by Jeena Choi, and Savor cookies, made in Waterbury by a baker dedicated to local and sustainable ingredient sourcing.

Macat's Q Tea's organic teas, Peace Tree Desserts' Cajeta Caramel sauce, Winding Drive's jam, and a chocolate bar from The Little Chocolate Company make up this Deluxe Artisan gift box. Design your own box from the Milkbar's line of fine artisan food products.

The Deluxe Artisan Gift Box, perfect for the foodies on your list, includes 5 of the finest local artisan food products from their line for $35. Here’s a list of artisan foods to choose from when creating a custom box just right for your gift recipient:

Hoardable Hot Sauce in Springdale, CT – delightfully robust “hot” sauce sure to perk up any dish or savory snack. The hot sauces are produced in small batches using locally grown, organic ingredients.

The Little Chocolate Company in Old Greenwich, CT – artisanal chocolate bars and barks studded with dried fruits and berries that are handmade in the Greenwich shop using the finest Belgian chocolate and local-sustainable ingredients. Bark flavors currently in stock are white chocolate with coconut, milk chocolate with peanuts and sea salt, and milk chocolate toffee.

Mamacat’s Q. Tea – organic, premium hand-blended herbal blends produced in Wilton by Babycat Milkbar owner Jeena Choi. Enjoy the teas hot or cold, day and night. The bright and colorful packaging makes for a terrific stocking stuffer or gift box item. Choose from 5 different custom blends.

Peace Tree Desserts in Westport- authentic Mexican style caramel dessert sauces made from Connecticut goat’s milk. These decadent sauces pairs well with cheese, fresh fruit, fondue, and are amazingly good in coffee, over waffles, pancakes and ice cream.

Red Bee Honey in Weston- as local as local gets! Beautiful, single-nectar source honey from hard working Italian honeybees. Seasonal flavors range from buckwheat to alfalfa and orange blossom.

Savor cookies in Waterbury- hand made in Waterbury by an artist turned baker with a dedication to local and sustainable ingredient sourcing. Sophisticated, delicious shortbread cookies in unusual flavors including roasted leeks, lavender, mocha/ginger and rosemary/lemon. A little savory, a little sweet, the cookies pair well with both wine and tea.

Winding Drive Jams and Jellies in Woodbridge – award winning, distinctively flavored seasonal jams and jellies made from Connecticut Grown fruit. The Milkbar carries their best-selling flavors including apple pie, limited edition holiday jam (pear, cranberry orange, cinnamon), British style orange marmalade, roasted garlic and caramelized onion, and habanero gold jelly.

Zumbach’s Gourmet Coffee in New Canaan- roasted fresh daily by Zumbach’s, the Milkbar offers 1/2 lb bags of the organic Gold Coast blend (mild), Five Star (bold) and Midnight Magic (decaf, but so smooth, you wouldn’t think so!).

Babycat Milkbar

300 Ridgefield Road, Wilton, CT (inside NE Historical Connection)

http://www.mcqtea.com/Home.html

Phone: 203-493-1656

The Fairfield indoor winter farmers’ market at the Greenfield Hill Grange has grown from last year, making for a richer shopping experience.  Organic vegetable grower Sport Hill Farm, local-sustainable baker Scratch Baking, and Greyledge Farm, a grower of pastured beef, pork and chicken, have joined as vendors for the season.

A recent visit yielded two excellent sources of holiday gifts – Moorefield Herb Farm and The Herb Basket – original market vendors whom you may recognize from last year. Moorefield Herb Farm sells a variety of herb gardens that will dress up a windowsill while providing fresh, organically-grown ingredients for the home cook. Moorefield’s large herb garden (plastic) contains 6-7 culinary herbs including creeping rosemary in bloom, parsley, lemon grass, Vietnamese coriander (milder than cilantro according to owner Richard Moore), pineapple sage and marjoram. Hypertufa herb gardens are aesthetically pleasing, yet still lightweight, and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The smallest square garden with 4 herbs sells for $25 while the largest oval, containing 8-9 herbs, costs $50. Custom and advance orders are welcome via moorefieldherbfarm@yahoo.com or 203-612-0530 for pick up at the market.

Last year I purchased a bay laurel plant from Moorefield Herb Farm and nestled it into my herb garden along with sage, parsley, oregano, tarragon and rosemary. The leaves grew bright and big, so I harvested them and dried them for use as bay leaves. I figured I’d get another crop next year. A quick consultation with Richard Moore revealed the error of my ways. Bay laurel is a Mediterranean plant and therefore unlikely to survive a Connececticut winter, so they should be brought inside during the colder months. He winced when I told him I’d stripped the leaves and dried them. “It will probably die. Just harvest the leaves as you need them and use them fresh” he recommended. Bay laurel plants are available in 4 inch plastic pots for $8 or 6 inch terracotta pots for $15. Just be sure to tell the recipient how to care for it.

In an earlier holiday gift guide installment covering Connecticut maple syrup, we mentioned gift-worthy bottles and where to find them. The Herb Basket has one we’ve never seen – a log cabin-themed bottle filled with maple syrup from Sugar Maple Farms in Lebanon! It’s part of the $35 CT Sweetness Box, a boxed gift set that also includes wildflower honey and strawberry-cranberry holiday jam made with strawberries from Jones Family Farm in Shelton. Gift boxes of pickles and relishes are available in sets of two for $15 and sets of three for $20. The Herb Basket’s own adorable Tea Time Jam Samplers are available in snowflake or pine cone themed gift boxes as either a set of 6 for $18 or set of 9 for $25.

Fairfield Winter Farmers’ Market at the Greenfield Hill Grange

Saturdays from 10-1 pm - Closed Christmas weekend

1873 Hillside Road, Fairfield, CT

on Facebook at

By Analiese Paik

Cacao Nacional, a cacao species considered to produce the finest single varietal chocolate in the world, was blighted and obliterated in its native Ecuador in 1919. Believed to be extinct, the chocolate has been absent from the finest professional kitchens for almost 100 years. Now, two Americans – Dan Pearson and his stepson Brian Horsley – have remarkably rediscovered Cacao Nacional while working in Peru. The pair accidentally found the lost species in the Marañón Canyon of Peru on the land of an organic farmer named Don Fortunato. The DNA from Fortunato’s “mother tree” proved to be a 100% match to the original Cacao Nacional from Ecuador, officially blessing the discovery and creating a frenzy in the world of fine chocolate.

Marañón Chocolate company was born and Cacao Nacional, hailed as the finest chocolate in the world, soon began drizzling back into professional  kitchens where it’s highly prized by pastry chefs and chocolatiers for its fruity and floral flavors and aromas and complete lack of bitterness, a quality attributed to its white beans. Incredibly, there’s now enough of this rare chocolate for it to be made into bars for retail sale. A short list of retailers sell the 68% cacao bittersweet chocolate bars, dubbed Fortunato No. 4 to signify the fourth tree tested on Fortunato’s property. This rare and wonderful single varietal, single origin chocolate is our #1 eco luxe gift pick for the holiday season. Seriously, you can’t go wrong.

Where to Buy:

Online sales can be placed exclusively through a short list of select chocolatiers including Moonstruck Chocolate Co. in Portland, Oregon.The ultimate in chocolate eating and eco-luxe gift giving awaits you at $12 for a 2 ounce bar. Moonstruck also sells Tumbled Chocolate Beans, Fortunato beans covered in Fortunato chocolate, at $12 for a 3.5 ounce box. Click here for a complete list of worldwide sellers.

Here’s to supporting good taste, biodiversity, sustainable growers, and artisan food entrepreneurs in 2012 and beyond!

Local honey lovers and those on the road to good taste and new discoveries won’t want to miss Red Bee Honey’s annual holiday open house on December 11 from 11 am to 6 pm. Last year’s event was a roaring success and more guests are expected this year due to growing concerns about counterfeit and tainted honey imported from India and China. News outlets around the country last month published articles citing studies which provided incontrovertible evidence that many retail products labeled “honey” contained no pollen and were therefore not real honey according to the USDA’s definition. Consumers in the know are turning to local beekeepers as a trusted source for real honey.

If you’ve never tasted single nectar source honeys side-by-side to compare and contrast them, this is your chance to do so with Red Bee Honey’s founder, beekeeper, and Honey Sommelier Marina Marchese. Once you’ve picked your favorite flavors, choose from a wide assortment of beautifully packaged individual bottles of honey or boxed gift sets that include lavender lip balm and beeswax candles. Or create your own gift boxes at any price point. Relax by the fireplace and enjoy the live music as your gifts are boxed up, wrapped and tied with ribbon- compliments of the house.

For the readers on your list, pick up a signed copy of Marina’s book “Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper”, now also available in paperback. Carol Herman, the Books Editor at The Washington Times, named Marchese’s Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper one of the “Books We Loved” in 2009.

Red Bee Honey is listed in the most recent edition of Patricia Brook’s “Food Lovers’ Guide to Connecticut”, a best of the best foodie guide to Connecticut. James Beard Award-winning author Rowan Jacobsen calls Marina “The Red Queen” and dedicates one chapter of his new book American Terroir to tasting honey with Marina at Red Bee Apiary.

To learn more about Red Bee Honey, visit the web site and read Lessons from a Local Beekeeper on this site. Marina’s transition from art director to beekeeper and Honey Sommelier is also told via a beautifully produced Yahoo  Second Act video.

Red Bee Honey Apiary & Gardens

www.redbee.com

Email: redbee@optonline.net

Honey Sommelier and Author Marina Marchese of Red Bee Apiary will be the featured guest at the Winter Farmers’ Market at Norfield Grange in Weston on December 3 from 10am to 2pm. During this event, Marina will host her Signature Artisanal Honey Tasting at “The Drizzle Table” and be signing copies of her international selling book, Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper, which will be available for purchase. Also available for purchase will be a wonderful selection of Marina’s Red Bee Artisanal Honeys, gift items, and her honey-based skin care products including lip balm, soaps, honey facial scrub, and beeswax balms.

Marina Marchese is a passionate and inspirational speaker who has dedicated her life to honeybees and educating chefs, foodies and beekeepers about the culinary delights of artisanal honey. The founder of Red Bee® Honey as well as The American Honey Tasting Society, Marina is an unparalleled connoisseur of honey from all over the world. Ms. Marchese is the current president of the Back Yard Beekeepers Association of Connecticut and enjoys sharing her personal story and journey into beekeeping with domestic and international audiences including beekeeping and gardening clubs, woman and motivational groups, libraries and general audiences.

The indoor, heated Winter Farmers’ Market at Norfield Grange kicked off its second season on November 12th and provides local residents with fresh local produce and products through the winter season. The market is open on Saturdays through April 7, 2012 from 10:00am-2:00pm (closed Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve). Each weekend nearly 20 vendors will set up shop inside the Grange during the market so visitors can enjoy shopping in a warm and comfortable environment. Guests are encouraged to bring reusable bags and their holiday shopping list to purchase local artisan foods and other specialty products, which make great gifts.

This Saturday several new vendors will join the market: Du Soleil (hot soups, tapas, and prepared gourmet food), Pasta Heaven (gourmet pasta), Stoneware by Krisa, Designs of the Season miniature boxwood trees, Laszlo Accessories (belts and headbands), and Weston High School Crafters for a Cause.

Along with the REGULARS: Gazy Brothers Farm (produce), Daffodil Hill Growers (produce + jelly, jam, syrup and more), Eaglewood Farms (meat & eggs), Butterfield Farm (Promote the Goat with cheese, milk, yogurt and more), Whistle Stop Bakery (cakes, pies, muffins & cookies), Pemaquid Seafood, Connecticutly Grown Hot Sauces, The Bites Company, Sticky Nuts, Jesse’s Kettle Corn and Nod Hill Soap, Kareen Kanaga (handmade jewelry), antique & collectible holiday gifts, hand knit infant & kids hats, handmade boxwood wreaths by Weston Girl Scout Troop, picket fence artwork, and more.

The winner of the market’s HOLIDAY TREE RAFFLE will be drawn at 2:00 pm on Dec. 3. Weston Gardens generously donated the 6-7 foot Balsam Tree. Tickets are free with a purchase from any of the market vendors or 3 for a dollar.  If you didn’t win they have 440 more trees for sale down the street; stop on your way home.

HOLIDAY SEAFOOD RAFFLE – 8 Maine Lobsters!  Drawing Saturday, December 17th at 2:00pm.

The Norfield Grange, located at 12 Good Hill Road in Weston, Connecticut, is a community center that hosts events for the residents of Weston. It serves as a meeting place for members of the community to socialize. It also hosts fairs and other farmer’s markets throughout the year, where local vendors sell fruits, vegetables, baked goods, art work, needlework, rugs, photographs and more. It is also home to the Grange Coffee Club, where local artists meet to share their works of art and is available for private events.

For additional information about the Winter Farmers Market visit www.wintermarket-ct.com or www.norfieldgrange.com or call 203-226-8233.  For additional information about Marina Marchese and Red Bee Honey visit www.RedBee.com.

By Elizabeth Keyser

Marc Alvarez wants to be your local food source and cooking coach.  The former personal chef to fashion designer Donna Karan (and celebrities he cannot name) started Concierge Foods, a web-based food delivery service, to connect consumers with the best local and organically raised food – produce, poultry, seafood, dairy products, grains and legumes, honey, jam, coffee and tea.

The Bedford, NY business recently expanded delivery to Greenwich and Stamford, CT. Alvarez picks up products from farms, markets and producers in New York state, New York City and Lancaster, PA, packages customers’ orders and delivers to their door. He makes the first delivery himself and spends a minimum of twenty minutes with the customer sharing information about the provenance of the products they ordered, how to store and cook them, and answers any questions. “A lot of times people don’t know what to do with local products. They would buy more if they knew a few ways to prepare it. Squash for example is so versatile. I make soups, stews, ravioli and gnocchi with it.”

His formal CIA training and solid background as a restaurant chef  inform his knowledge of products and quality. His mentor Frank Crispo of Crispo Restaurant in New York City taught Alvarez  to cook with whole animals, a rare talent that’s very much in demand now. Alvarez is fluent in head cheese, guanciale, offal and belly and wants to educate the consumer about these lesser-known cuts.  He encourages people to cook at home and eat healthier. Concierge’s website includes recipes for dishes ranging from Oatmeal & Sweet Potato Breakfast Bars to Braised Lamb Shoulder with Carrots, Fennel and Thyme. Alvarez is ready to answer questions like “What do I do with kohlrabi?”, “What’s the best way to cook grass-fed beef?” or “Oh, no, I’ve ruined the potatoes, they’re way too salty.”  He says his goal is to educate people about the product.

In just six months, business has grown 140 percent, a sign that Alvarez is correct when he says that a lot of people want super-fresh, healthy, local, sustainably and organically raised food, but “don’t have the time to run around to farmers’ markets.”  Concierge’s customers like being able to order whatever they want each week, rather than participating in a farm CSA, in which they must accept what’s in their basket each week. A number of customers have discovered Alvarez’ farm-to-door delivery service after enjoying his food at private events. “I create seasonal menus for private parties that expose people to the best of local food. When they ask where they can get ingredients like the ones I use, I refer them to the website.”

Alvarez makes his rounds to a wide range of farms and markets, and updates Concierge’s website with information on available products every Sunday. Customers order online and Concierge’s vans deliver within 48 hours, Tuesday through Saturday. The delivery fee is $5 for the Bedford, Greenwich and Stamford area, and is $20 for customers in Woodstock, NY and points north. He’s looking forward to serving Connecticut residents as far east as Westport and Fairfield where the delivery fee will be $10.

Fall produce is being sourced from Blue Star Farms in Columbia County, NY. Lacinato kale, Siberian kale, three types of onions, two types of cabbages – Savoy and Tendersweet – plus Kabocha and Sweet Mama squash.

Chickens come from John Boy’s Farm in upstate New York. Alvarez praises the firm texture and off-white color of the flesh. It reflects the chickens being raised in pastures and the high quality of their feed, which is organically grown and GMO-free.

Beef comes from several sources. Snow Hill Organic Farm in North Salem, NY is producing 100-percent grass-fed Certified Angus beef that’s “the best I’ve tasted,” says Alvarez.  He notes that it’s best cooked slow and low or quickly seared. Brandt Beef in California provides what Alvarez calls his “middle tier” offering – cuts of naturally raised, Devon cows that “are tender and have a nice beef flavor.”

Milk, from grass-fed, organically raised cows, comes from Natural by Nature in Lancaster, PA.  It is pasteurized at a low-temperature and packaged in refundable glass bottles.

Artisan and farmstead cheeses are sourced from a small collective of dairy farms in the Hudson Valley called the Pampered Cow. Familiar names like Old Chatham Sheepherding Company can be purchased alongside new ones like Hawthorne Valley, whose Aged Alpine is the only Demeter Certified Biodynamic farmstead cheese available on the market.

Sustainable seafood comes from Down East Seafood, which he picks up fresh weekly at Hunt’s Point.  Pole-and-line caught Bigeye tuna, Icelandic cod, and Wild King Salmon – all rated “Best Choice” on Seafood Watch’s guide to sustainable seafood, plus black sea bass and lump blue crab meat – both “Good Alternatives” in the guide, are currently available. Alvarez is planning to add American caviar to Concierge’s offerings.

Because Alvarez is an accomplished chef and knows the joys of working with the best seasonal ingredients from around the world, he doesn’t limit Concierge’s offerings.  “People want organic lemons, limes and avocados,” he said.  He gets white truffles from Italy, and “beautiful black mission figs.” Before making additions to Concierge’s offerings, Alvarez cooks with new ingredients and holds tastings with chef friends.

On his desk at Concierge’s facility in Bedford is a book on winter gardening by Eliot Coleman. Alvarez will provide winter produce from Satur Farm on Long Island, the cooperatives in Lancaster, PA, and Blue Star Farms in Stuyvesant, N.Y. “I’m trying to get more farms growing into the winter season. Spinach, carrots and arugula all taste better in the winter.”

Alvarez says Concierge’s business has grown organically. And he’s got plans brewing. He’s looking into getting a commercial kitchen so that he can provide Concierge’s customers with prepared foods.  “I’m getting lots of requests for prepared foods but I’m not going to cook everything for them. The starch and vegetable will be cooked but a protein like salmon will be marinated so it can be cooked fresh at home. Things like braises will be fully cooked because their flavor improves from being made a day ahead.”  A kitchen will allow him to save money and waste little when he buys a whole hog, for instance.  “I’ll make guanciale and head cheese. I’ll brine and smoke ham steaks from one leg and grind the other to make pork sausages,” he says.

His ultimate dream is to have a commercial kitchen and teaching space on a farm – a place to grow, cook and teach.  “I just need the right person to partner with,” he says.  When he visits farms, he notices products farmers might overlook.  Recently, he noticed fennel stalks loaded with seeds.  “What are you doing with those seeds?” he asked the farmer. He was met with a blank expression.  “Grind them up and sell them for dry rubs,” Alvarez said.

This winter he’s planning a test, working with four farmers and providing them with seed money to grow what he knows he can sell. His dream is to get area farmers to work cooperatively and give them some financial security.

“I want to build a community,” he says.

Concierge Foods

Chef/owner Marc Alvarez

357 Adams Street

Bedford Hills, NY  10507

Phone: 914-241-9200

marc@conciergefoods.com

http://www.conciergefoods.com/

Twitter: @ConciergeFoods

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ConciergeFoods

This free event packs the house and just gets better each year. Whether you’re hunting for a green job, interested in learning a few more ways to live green, or curious about cutting edge ways to grow food sustainably in an urban environment, GME is the place to be.

MetroCrops, CT Green Building Council and Bridgeport Land Trust headline this year’s Green Market Exposition, Thursday, October 20th at City Hall Annex, Bridgeport, CT and will provide presentations on green technology that support Bridgeport’s growing sustainable infrastructure. Other presentations include a roundtable on Building Sustainable Communities, Creating and Supporting a Sustainable Food Infrastructure and Indoor Air Quality. More than 25 Connecticut organizations and green businesses are exhibiting at the Third Annual Green Market Exposition.

GreenTowns, new to the Green Market Exposition this year, will feature it’s CT Campaign for Sustainable Communities and will invite people to join town pages, share local initiatives, and connect with sustainability leaders, mayors, green businesses, non-profits and community members who want to work together to build awareness and support each other in the “greening” of Connecticut.

GreenTowns is designed to facilitate and accelerate these connections. The faster people connect around green, the quicker Connecticut will become sustainable. Returning to the GME this year, is St. Vincent’s Medical Center who will also be exhibiting and sharing their commitment to sustainability with the community.

Other exhibitors include Sunlight Solar Energy, Hometronics Lifestyle, Easy Care Energy Solutions, Gumdrop Swap, BGreen 2020, and Recyclbank. Media sponsors include E Magazine, CT Environmental Headlines, Fairfield Green Food Guide and Natural Awakenings-Fairfield County.

“The beginning phases of a sustainable infrastructure are becoming to become a reality in towns throughout Connecticut. Single-stream recycling, EV charging stations, farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture are all part of our communities. And this is just the beginning,” said Green Market Exposition Co-founder Daphne Dixon.

The Green Market Exposition is free and open to the public. All are welcome and encouraged to come and learn about sustainable communities.

For a complete list of exhibitors and schedule of events, please visit www.greenmarketexposition.org.

By Analiese Paik

On Saturday, September 17, Ryan Fibiger and Paul Nessel of Saugatuck Craft Butchery deftly butchered a half pig in front of a crowd of very curious adults and children as part of the Slice of Saugatuck Festival. This public demonstration underscored their commitment to transparency in every facet of the business, but also provided the community with a rare glimpse into the origins of our food and the anatomy of a pig. Butt, picnic, tenderloin, loin, hocks, ribs, bacon and even skin for chicharrones were sliced (or sawed in one case), by Nessel before being discussed, wrapped, and stored by the duo in the cooler for the raffle.

In a few weeks, the butcher shop will open and Westporters and real food eaters from miles around will have ample opportunity to watch as steer, pigs, lambs, chickens and maybe even a goat or two enter as whole animals and exit as a premium cuts for the dinner table and lesser-known cut you’ll eventually learn to love. These are whole animal butchers after all, so expect the unexpected but also look forward to discovering pantry staples you’ll covet including lard and stock. Fibiger sang the virtues of leaf lard for home-made pie crusts and smoked hocks for soups.

The pig butchered that day was from Joseph Milo Farm in New York, a small family farm that uses sustainable farming practices, raises its livestock on pasture, and never feeds their animals genetically modified feed. After being humanely slaughtered, it was sold whole to the butchers, making it a total of 3 hands that touched the animal before it was raffled off to a few lucky Slice of Saugatuck attendees. Fibiger pointed out that this is the backstory of all the meat and poultry they sell. It’s a simple, old-fashioned one that fell out of favor with the advent of industrial meat production, but is being resurrected thanks to demand by educated and motivated consumers.

Saugatuck Craft Butchery
575 Riverside Ave

Westport, CT 06880

Email: info@craftbutchery.com

Website: http://craftbutchery.com/home/

The 13th Annual ‘Hawk Festival & Green Bazaar’

October 1 & 2

11 AM – 5 PM

rain or shine

at Audubon Greenwich

613 Riversville Road, Greenwich, CT

This fun, green-themed, family-friendly event is a celebration of the amazing raptor migration which occurs in the skies above the Audubon Greenwich center each Fall. This special event features kids’ activities, games, food vendors, eco-friendly businesses, honey harvesting, and Audubon’s famous live birds of prey shows (1 & 3 pm). This is a great chance to visit Audubon’s Quaker Ridge Hawk counting site and have a great time with the family or a friend.

Among the many eco-friendly vendors at this event, you will find Mike’s Organic Delivery Service and Peace Tree Desserts, sustainable food businesses that have been profiled on our blog. Please stop by the CT NOFA table and join CT’s  largest and most influential organic farming, gardening and landcare organization. Their annual meeting in March kicks off with a nationally recognized keynote speaker, then moves to morning workshops, a potluck lunch (all the guests bring a dish), and extensive networking opportunities. Hope to see you there.

Support your local beekeeper! Two members of the CT Backyard Beekeeper’s Association, Bee Love and Honey Bee Farm, will also be among the vendors and exhibitors. Don’t forget to join the ‘Honey Harvest’ and help spin honey from the combs in the Red Barn.

The Front Yard Coop is a good vendor to visit if you’re considering raising laying hens. This coop is solar powered and self propelled so it “free ranges them across your yard and keeps the predators out.”

FOR DIRECTIONS TO THE FESTIVAL: Click here
Festival admission:
Audubon members: $5 for youth 3 years old & up / $7 for adults over 18 years
Non-members: $7 for youth 3 years old & up / $10 for adults over 18 years
Children under 3 years old can enter the HawkWatch Festival for free.

Phone: 203-869-5272.

FESTIVAL WEBSITE:

http://greenwich.audubon.org/Programs_SpecialEvents_AnnualFestivals-HawkWatch2011.html

Celebrate and learn to ‘Live Green’ at this two-day, fun-filled festival for all ages. Enjoy delicious food, live music, eco-friendly shopping, environmental speakers and exhibits!

See and experience businesses that are showcasing their green products and services that positively impact our lives and environment. Come away with tips and ideas that will save you money!

FREE ADMISSION! Let’s all Live Green Connecticut!

Festival Hours:

September 17, 2011
10:00am – 4:00pm

September 18, 2011
11:00am – 4:00pm C

Location:

Taylor Farm Park – 45 Calf Pasture Beach Road, Norwalk, CT 06855

Featured Green Food Exhibitors, Vendors and Guest Speakers:

Guest Speakers:

12 noon on Sunday, Sept. 18

Marina Marchese, author and founder of Red Bee Honey in Weston, will be a guest speaker in the Dolce Coffeehouse where she’ll discuss honeybees and beekeeping as a sustainable practice. Enjoy a honey tasting and book signing with CT’s honey connoisseur. Learn more about the speaker, her company, and book here.

Exhibitors:

Skinny Pines Brick Oven Caterer: Specializing in meals featuring local, seasonal ingredients!

Peace Tree Desserts: Eco-luxe bakery that sources exclusively local, organic, seasonal, and sustainable ingredients for their delicious baked goods!

Planet Fuel: Organic Beverages with Natural Spring Water!

The Farmer’s Cow: The Farmer’s Cow is your connection to farm fresh Connecticut products such as milk, eggs, cider and ice cream!

Lunch Vendors:

Skinny Pines Brick Oven Caterer: Specializing in meals featuring local, seasonal ingredients!

Click here for a full list of exhibitors and an event schedule.

Live Green Connecticut! is an IRS designated 501 (c) (3) public charity