Late Summer Dinner at Healcrest with Grit & Grace

On September 7th 2014 at Healcrest Urban Farm located in Garfield,  Blue Collar will host its first ever participatory dinner in Pittsburgh.  The idea is simple. An all volunteer driven dinner to raise funds for groups trying to further the values of independence and hard work held so dearly by the denizens of our magnificent city. The dinner will be a three course dinner with drinks provided. Each guest will be provided 4 tokens representing 25% of their total donation. During the event each group will give an in depth performance showcasing their mission in Pittsburgh. At the end of the dinner the guests will give their tokens to the groups that they value the most. The chef for this particular dinner is chef de cuisine Curtis gamble of grit and grace and former executive chef at bread and wine in Chicago IL..

 

 

 

HEALCREST URBAN FARM – Healcrest Urban Farm  is a women-owned urban farm and social enterprise business.   Through nurturing  abandoned urban land we empower all people to reclaim, restore and sustain our collective knowledge and health.  We grow culinary and medicinal herbs, creating an oasis of wild and cultivated plants, using our platform  in the community to offer education on food, health, and healing.  We hand blend our herbs with local seasonal fruit creating supportive tea blends and delicious ice pops that we call Tea Pops, a vehicle to open everyone to the power of herbal medicine.  Healcrest is a place of healing- both the land and ourselves. 

 

 

 

 

GIRLS ROCK PGH -Girls rock pgh -Girls Rock! Pittsburgh is an empowerment program for female youths of all definitions, abilities and backgrounds. Girls Rock! Pittsburgh utilizes the process of making music to instill tools for amplifying self-confidence, creative expression, independent thinking, mutual respect and cooperation, while cultivating a supportive and inclusive community of peers and mentors. Girls Rock! Pittsburgh is committed to community awareness and social agency, fostering a network of role models for the endeavors of girls and women that promote social change amongst its diverse participants. Girls can play any kind of music they want. Creative voices of girls and women need to be amplified to create social change. Girls need positive role models and support for their creative endeavors. We can build a community where girls support each other rather than tear each other down. We can empower girls to recognize, understand, and respond to discrimination. “Girls Rock” is more than just a slogan.

 

 

HOMESTEAD BOYS CHOIR – AAMI Boys’ Choir, a positive community-based alternative, enables its members to experience the richness and excitement of creative expression. The benefits gained by the youth are discipline, confidence, motivation and the continual building of their self-esteem.  Additionally, the choir prepares members to be productive individuals allowing them to believe in themselves and their potential.  They learn the value of friendship and the importance of respecting self and others.

 

 

 

Founded in 1986, Just Harvest works in Allegheny County to change the unjust public policies that create hunger and poverty. Just Harvest is a membership-based non-profit organization that is mobilizing our community, connecting people to public benefits, and advocating for a stronger anti-poverty safety net, with the aim of economic justice for all.

 

You can register & choose your level of giving, for the

Late Summer Dinner@ Healcrest Urban Farm 

by heading to our events page 

REGISTER FOR DINNER NOW!

We’re Headed to the Regatta at Lake Arthur this Weekend!

We have a very busy weekend ahead and we are excited to see all of you at one or more of our five events!

Maria, Savi, Justice, and Suzy along are traveling North for the Annual Regatta at Lake Arthur. We were invited to join this event as a first time vendor in their Natural Vendor’s Village and we are excited to try a new market in a beautiful setting! Read More Here.

Friday night Dana will be enjoying herself as usual and serving TeaPops and Tea at the First Friday Garfield Night Market. Always a great time full of delicious food, local arts, and good company as always with your friendly local neighborhood vendors.

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On Saturday visit Meg in the Strip District at another exciting new market, Farmers at the Firehouse. We love our weekly farmers markets, where our resident farmers get to talk with patrons, and where we bring out some of our other products and service. Keep an eye out for bouquets, herb bundles, apothecary items, classes at the farm, and sign ups for our Fall/Winter herbal CSA!

Also on Saturday you can find Michelle holding it down at the Bloomfield Saturday Farmers Market. Stroll along the market this week and enjoy live music with BeLove, food and wellness demos, and always delicious food. Come to the Healcrest PopUp for Hot & Iced Tea, TeaPops, and check out Cutting Root Apothecary products. Talk to Michelle about all the wonderful benefits of herbal wellness support.

 

 

 

Come to Wigle Whiskey Distillery this Friday – July 25, 2014!

We’ll be slinging TeaPops at the Wigle Distillery! Come get all kinds of great street food and participate in a curiously named event! See you Friday in the Strip!!!It’s that time of year again. Join us for our third annual Tar & Feather Party–our biggest event of the year! Help us celebrate the Whiskey Rebellion of the 1790s, read more…

AUGUST::Classes and Volunteer Days at the Farm

Sundays in August Join us At the Farm for Volunteer Days 11-4pm, followed by Farm Tours 4-5pm

August 6th, Wednesday 6pm – The Mighty Sourdough Starters
Learn how to make sourdough bread, crepes, tortillas, and pancakes with sourdough starters. Half a cup of Austrian Sourdough is complementary, so bring a jar with you! 1.5-2 hours (rain date: August 20th) Healcrest Urban Farm is located in Garfield at the intersection of Hillcrest and Pacific. Street Parking is available. Cost of each show, tell, and taste session is 25$ per person. Please register one week ahead of each workshop at http://www.healcresturbanfarm.com/events.html. Classes will be cancelled if enrollment is below eight participants. Contact Natalya at pinchuknatalya@gmail.com or 804-319-7377 if you have any
questions about the workshops.

August 11th, Monday 6pm – Old-Style Pickles, Salsas, Hot Sauces and Chutneys
Venture into the endless possibilities of flavor and learn how to stock up your fridge with delicious condiments and compliments to your everyday staples while the farmer’s markets are still bustling with delicious veggies. 1.5-2 hours (rain date: August 18th) Healcrest Urban Farm is located in Garfield at the intersection of Hillcrest and Pacific. Street Parking is available. Cost of each show, tell, and taste session is 25$ per person. Please register one week ahead of each workshop at http://www.healcresturbanfarm.com/events. Classes will be cancelled if enrollment is below eight participants. Contact Natalya at pinchuknatalya@gmail.com or 804-319-7377 if you have any questions about the workshops.

Sunday August 17, 10-12, Medicine Making, Tinctures and Elixirs.  

We will discuss the advantages to making tinctures and even more delicious elixirs using herbs that you can grow, wild harvest, or buy.  We’ll take a talk around the garden to learn about harvesting and processing techniques, how to make the best extractions from different plants and of course, do the entire process!  Everyone will leave with a sample. Please register in advance at http://www.healcresturbanfarm.com/events so we can have enough supplies for everyone. Contact Michelle at 615-804-0064 or healcresturbanfarm@gmail.com with question about registration.

Sunday August 31, 10-12, Farm Tour, Late Summer Apothecary.  

As asters take over our fields and gardens, come learn to identify the common plants of the late summer and how to look for what coming ahead.  We’ll talk about identification, sustainable growing and harvesting practices, and the medicinal properties of many herbs. Contact Michelle at 615-804-0064 or info@healcresturbanfarm.com with question about registration. RSVP at http://www.healcresturbanfarm.com/events

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We’ll Be Joining Farmers @ the Firehouse this Saturday!

The ladies of Healcrest are excited to bring you delicious Summer refreshment at a new market this weekend! We are so fortunate and grateful to have wonderful new market opportunities.

Visit Maria at Farmers @ the Firehouse for Iced Tea, TeaPops, Loose Tea, and other amazing herbal edibles. Our flavors this week are Blueberry Lemon Balm, Roasted Peach Basil, Fresh Apple Mint, and Cucumber Surprise.

We are excited to see you this Saturday in the Strip at “Pittsburgh’s first & largest mostly organic or Certified Naturally grown farmers’ market.” Read more about Farmers @ the Firehouse.

Voted Best Farmers’ Market in Pittsburgh, Edible Allegheny 2010; 100 Best Things About Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Magazine; Best Farmers’ Market, City Paper Staff Picks.

JULY :: Classes & Events at the Farm

On a small hill in Garfield, Healcrest Urban Farm is bursting with the colorful flowers of herbs in the height of summer! Our working, urban, organically run farm hosts a variety of events. Contact Michelle for booking at 615 804 0064.

Volunteering on the Farm!

Every Sunday from 11­4 join us for a volunteer day! We’ll be busy harvesting flowers, weeding, and working in our berry patch this month. Farm Tour at starts at 4pm, free for Garfield residents.

Classes & Workshops

In July we have 5 classes scheduled­ three Fermentation Classes with Natalya and two Herb Classes with Michelle! Fermentation classes will not run with fewer than 8 participants, so please register early at http://www.healcresturbanfarm.com/events.html

Salve Making Class! Monday July 7, 6­8 pm ($20)

From blooming garden to a wonderful finished product! Learn abut the therapeutic properties of different herbs and why you would chose them for your oil. We will talk
about many plants in the gardens and how to harvest them. Then we’ll harvest our own
roots and flowers to infuse our oils, discuss different techniques and turn your finished infused oils into a salve. Participants will leave with samples of products made in class. (Please register in advance so we can have enough supplies on hand)

Sauerkraut and Kimchi – Wednesday July 9, 6­8 pm ($25)

During this show, tell, an taste you will learn the foundations of making sauerkraut and kimchi. There is no one way of doing it. Come and explore the exciting possibilities that variations offer for our breakfast, lunch, and dinner plate.

Fermented Beverages – Monday July 14, 6­8 pm ($25)

This show, tell, and taste session will introduce you to the making of lightly fermented natural sodas with water kefir grains, fermented syrups to be mixed with sparkling water, and a variety of alcoholic meads.

Herbal Sleep Aids – Monday July 21, 6­8 pm ($10)

Trouble getting to sleep? Staying asleep? Bothered by sleep apnea? Or is it impossible to wake up?

Learn about different herbal approaches for addressing difficulties falling asleep all and trouble waking up. Walk through the gardens to identify common sleep aid plants and discuss how to grow and process them.

The Easy and Fun Milk Fermentations – Wednesday July 30, 6­8 pm ($25)

This session will cover the making of cultured and non­cultured butters, milk kefir,
okroshka (eastern European cold soup with milk kefir) and clabbering raw milk to make a
simple but delicious farmer’s cheese. Yum!

Fermention Workshops with Cultures Lab and Natalya

Join us at Healcrest Urban Farm for Fermentation Workshops with Natalya. Natalya has been creating, studying, and experimenting with fermented foods for many seasons. This Summer SHE’S BACK to offer more exciting fermentation workshops!

Register here http://www.healcresturbanfarm.com/events.html

Family Time on the Farm

By Michelle Soto

This past week my family came into town ready to work on the farm!  Many of my memories of childhood involve helping my dad in the yard and in the garden.  Every spring we’d get a load of wood mulch delivered to the house and I would use my child sized shovel and wheelbarrow to mulch the rose bushes and the edges of garden beds.  I loved the smell of the mulch.  It smelled woody and alive and signaled that spring was here.  My dad’s biggest hobby was working in the yard, he’d come home every day after work, take a power nap, change into work clothes and spend the rest of the afternoon outside.  He’s the type of guy who only has ONE kind of grass in his yard, and absolutely no weeds.  Anywhere.

It was reminiscent of these afternoons to spend some days with him at Healcrest.  His assignment: tree stump removal.  And not just any tree stump.  A 50 year old black locust (he counted those rings during a break one day) which was in the middle of our newest garden.  While my dad worked on the stump, my mom and aunt weeded our garlic patch, which had mulched itself with garlic mustard plants.  They caught them all before they went to flower, and the garlic patch is vibrant and sending up what soon will be delicious garlic scapes.

Other areas of the garden are quickly growing as the days and nights are warming up.  The mints: lemon balm, peppermint, horehound, catnip, catmint, and chocolate mint are providing us with new herbs to harvest every week.  About half of our seedlings are moved into the greenhouse and awaiting transplant.  And of course, the lovely wild cherry trees are going to burst into bloom any day this week.

Till next time,

Michelle and the Farm Team

Spring Has Sprung at Healcrest Urban Farm!

Whew! Spring has sprung and we are seeing the evidence of that all over the farm!

The daffodils are in full bloom, the forsythia has one whole garden in a wash of yellow, the hawthorns are budding out the cutest little leaves, and our perennials are coming back from the intense winter hibernation we were all in.

Meg and Michelle have been busy tilling the ground in several gardens to get beds ready for the hundreds of plants we have started inside.  Many herblings are more delicate than vegetable starts so we’ll wait till after the last frost to plant outside.

We are orienting garden beds differently this year in one garden and are breaking ground the what we used to call “the knotweed field”.  Although it does have medicinal qualities: the knotweed root contains high amounts of resveratrol- the feel good chemical in red wine, we are striving to eradicate our pristine piece of land from this invasive creature.  Slowly, but surely.

Suzy has built a rain barrel system to catch rainwater off the roof of our shed so that we can water everything grown on the farm with water collected from the farm.

 

 

As usual, the chickens have the run of a garden during the day to dust bathe and sun themselves.

 

We will post soon about upcoming classes and volunteer days!  Here’s to spring!

Night Market FUN!

We had a wonderful time vending at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Bridge Party last Friday! It was so busy, full of people, music, and of course The DUCKY!

AND we are looking forward to the Garfield Night Market this Friday! Join us for a delicious line up of food trucks, local artisans, beautiful ambiance, amidst the Garfield First Friday Gallery Crawl!

 

Come visit us for some of the last TeaPops of the season! We will also have hot tea by the cup and tea by the box!

Flavors this Week

• Apple Saucy Goddess
• Chunky Peach + Calendula
• Pear Lavender
• Plum Chai
• Peaches & Basil Cream