Urban Barn Dance and Harvest Supper October 24th: Tickets Now On Sale!

[ma-farm-market.livejournal.com]

Mass Farmers Markets Announces our First Annual Urban Barn Dance and Harvest Supper:
Friday, October 24th from 7 – 10pm in Somerville’s Davis Square

On October 24th the George Dilboy VFW Hall in Somerville’s Davis Square will host a lively and delicious celebration of this year’s growing season. Guests will toast the hard work of their favorite farmers with a hearty locally grown supper, and then continue the celebration with live music and contra dancing.

Tickets to the Urban Barn Dance and Harvest Supper are $40 each, and are available by calling or e-mailing the Mass Farmers Markets office
at (781) 893-8222 or
staff@massfarmersmarkets.org.

Mass Farmers Markets is the non-profit that brings you the Davis Square Farmers Market, as well as the markets at Union, Central, and Copley Squares, and the market at Boston City Hall.

Dinner will feature several different preparations of locally raised pork donated by farmers Kate Stillman and Aidan Davin of Stillman’s at the Turkey Farm. Chef Bob Sargent of flora restaurant will be at the helm in the kitchen, and besides creating mouth-watering pork dishes, he promises hearty sides to accompany them. Dessert will be donated by Hamilton Orchards and Whole Foods Market. Libations will be available at the VFW’s cash bar.

After dinner we’ll push the tables back and bring country-style dancing to the city! When catching a breath from dancing, attendees can bid on a silent auction with prizes including a VIP package for two to the Boston Music Awards.

$20 of each ticket purchase is tax-deductible and directly benefits the work of Mass Farmers Markets, the only organization working state-wide on behalf of farmers markets and the farmers, families, and communities that depend on them.

Mass Farmers Markets also welcomes dinner sponsors at the following levels: 

“Golden Watermelon” ($400) ~ includes admission for two and a contribution of $320
“Silver Queen Corn” ($250) ~ includes admission for two and a contribution of $170
“Bronze Fennel” ($80) ~ includes admission for one and a contribution of $40

Hope to see you there!

Comments

[ron_newman]

Thanks for posting this. If you can de-format it (change it to plain text), many folks here would appreciate it. It will be easier to read that way.

[cnoocy]

You may also want to correct "silent auction".

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Could you please standardize the formatting of this?

[ron_newman]

Also, consider distributing leaflets at some of these upcoming events, especially the Urban Country Fair and the various Growing Center festivals.

[ma-farm-market.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the advice and corrections ... wow, silent suction. oops!

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

That would have brought you a different crowd than I think you're looking for. :-)

how to standardize formatting?

[ma-farm-market.livejournal.com]

Sorry to be the newbie here -- how do I set my posts to plain text?

Thanks much,
Hannah (for Mass Farmers Markets)

Re: how to standardize formatting?

[ron_newman]

Copy all of the text, delete it, switch to the HTML editor, and paste it back in. Then judiciously add in some occasional bolding and italics if you want. Thanks.

Re: how to standardize formatting?

[ma-farm-market.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Ron! Will do ....

Re: how to standardize formatting?

[ron_newman]

And once you've done that, you can either use HTML to put the links back in, or switch back to the Rich Text editor to do that. But for most purposes, we consider the Rich Text editor to be Evil. Thanks.

Re: how to standardize formatting?

[ron_newman]

You also need to turn off the "Disable Auto-formatting" checkbox.

[ma-farm-market.livejournal.com]

I'm working on it ... should be readable now.

The joys of small non-profits. No IT department, just lots of (okay, 3) self-taught former farmers, teachers, bakers, etc ....

[ron_newman]

Simpler is better. Plain text is better than rich text. Please try this:

Copy all the text and delete it. Switch from "Rich Text" to "HTML". Turn off the "Disable auto-formatting" box. Paste the text back in. Thanks.

[richips.livejournal.com]

you could get a high school volunteer, teenagers and computers go hand in hand these days.

this sounds great, by the way, i wish i could afford it.
i love the MA Farmers Market resource.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I'm curious about the "hearty locally grown supper"; can you post a menu or anything like that?

[ma-farm-market.livejournal.com]

No specific menu; basically Bob Sargent (the chef) is going to improvise the sides with the vegetables that are looking best at market in mid-October, and promises a multitude of pork dishes to accompany them. I'd predict that we will see cabbage, potatoes, and other hearty fall veggie sides, as well as greens and (if there hasn't been a hard frost yet), local tomatoes!

Dessert will be cider donuts and apple crisp, and we are working on ice cream to accompany it ...

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

Are there vegetarian or otherwise pork-free dinner options? I was interested until I got to the part where the menu seemed rather intently focused on pork.

[ron_newman]

Seconded. I don't keep kosher but I still try to minimize my pork consumption.

I agree...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

No pork in my diet, not for religious reasons.

Not so veg-friendly

[ma-farm-market.livejournal.com]

Thanks for bringing this up -- this event is not especially vegetarian-friendly. There will be some vegetarian sides, but some will be made with pork.

Our original title for this event was "Urban Barn Dance and Pig Roast," so yes -- it is rather intently focused on pork. As a pork-loving Unitarian of Russian Jewish descent, I have been calling it Treif-Fest 08.

I hope those of you not put off by the menu will join us!

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

I don't keep kosher, but my Jewish upbringing has left me unlikely to ever try anything with pork in it.

My personal dietary preferences aside, I think it's important to accommodate vegetarians when organizing a meal that they might attend. I would expect an organization like Mass Farmers Markets to be extremely (almost obsessively) vegetarian-friendly, given the extent to which vegetarians tend to support local farmers markets and CSAs.

Vegatarian events

[ma-farm-market.livejournal.com]

We have held several vegetarian-friendly events in the past (including our annual Redbones event at Davis, at which *only* veggies are grilled), and plan to continue to hold veg-friendly events in the future.

We are also excited about highlighting local meat production, and this event gives us a great chance to do that.

Re: Vegatarian events

[ron_newman]

Which is great; I just wish you had some other meat as well.

[obie119.livejournal.com]

Just a note for those who *do* eat pork - I've been eating Stillman's pork for the past year or two, and there is nothing like it. It is like a died-and-gone-to-heaven sort of thing for you pig-lovers.

That's in addition to the other great stuff at the event as well. Hope you can join us!

hear hear!

[jaybird1981.livejournal.com]

Ohmygawd, YES!!! Stillman's meat is amazing. It's because of them that I have been (re)introduced to the sublime joys of pork. The Italian sausage? Fabulous (The lamb version also great.) The chops? Heaven.

And the Stillman's folks at the farmers' markets are really nice, too.

Yay Stillman's! Yay meat! YAY PORK FAT!

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I've written instructions on fixing formatting that worked for the Second Chance folks, so maybe you could give it a try:

1. Edit the post (click on the little pencil icon)
2. While viewing it as "Rich Text", select all the text and copy the contents into your clipboard
3. Switch to the "HTML" tab
4. Uncheck the "Disable auto-formatting" box
5. Paste the text in
6. Save the post

Thanks!