A little rain didn’t dampen the fourth annual Dandelion Festival at KK’s The Farm in Southold.
The Sunday afternoon celebration of the bright yellow flower featured educational talks, a flower crown-making station as well as dandelion salads, coffee and teas.
See more pics below by photographer Madison Fender.
(more…)Hailey Druek and Alyssa Romano, both of East Quogue, show off flower crowns made at the Dandelion Festival. (Credit: Vera Chinese)
The dandelion gets a bad wrap. The little yellow flowers that pop up the instant the weather turns nice are typically labeled a nuisance weed by gardeners with aspirations of a perfect lawn.
But hold off on the Roundup and you’ll come to find there’s power in the plant with not-so conventional beauty. The bright, bushy-topped wildflowers are a magnet for pollinators and its antioxidants and vitamins have been linked to a number of health benefits, from improving acne to aiding weight loss. (more…)
While many people might be wrestling with this weed in their garden right now, the dandelion was celebrated at KK’s The Farm this weekend.
A Dandelion Festival, now in its second year, was held at the Southold farm on Sunday, April 23. The festival featured lectures, dandelion food products, a wreath-making station and more.
The event was intended to “raise people’s awareness about the benefits of the dandelion as food medicine and herb,” said farm owner and event organizer Ira Haspel. He said he’d like to see people think twice before applying harmful pesticides to the ground to kill the flower. (more…)
Hailey Druek and Alyssa Romano, both of East Quogue, show off flower crowns made at last year’s Dandelion Festival. (Credit: Vera Chinese)
Though many people think of the dandelion as a weed, there are plenty who extol the medicinal and digestive benefits of the yellow flower. READ
Carrots are available in the Sang Lee Farms winter share. (Credit: Vera Chinese)
The North Fork just saw it first frost and we’ll likely be seeing the white stuff in the coming weeks, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still get fresh, organic and locally grown produce.
Though many farm stands shut down toward the end of November, several organic North Fork farms offer winter community supported agriculture (CSA) programs with items like root vegetables, potatoes, kale, swiss chard and brussels sprouts.
“We try to keep it diverse, there’s definitely a lot of root vegetables like sweet potatoes, rutabaga and beets,” Eve Kaplan-Walbrescht, owner of Garden of Eve Organic Farm and Market, said. “Then there’s a lot of greens in April and May, like mesclun, baby kale and bok choi, and those are some of the best-tasting greens of the year.”
Along with vegetables, many of these farms also offer add-on shares of hormone-free meat, fresh eggs, cheese and bread.
Here are four local organic farms offering a winter CSA program. (more…)
Farmer Ira Haspel with customers Debbie Quinn (left) and Donna Ciampa of Cutchoque Thursday afternoon in The Farm’s barn. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch)
Farmer Ira Haspel was up to his eyeballs with a rich bounty of tomatoes at KK’s The Farm in Southold this week. (more…)
All about the dandelion. (Credit: Vera Chinese photos)
What better way to teach people that the dandelion is more than just a pesky weed than with an event dedicated to the medicinal and nutritional benefits of these pretty yellow flowers? (more…)