City Folk's Farm Shop First Look

handmade tools at city folk's farm City Folk's Farm Shop opens today in North Clintonville. Located at 4760 North High Street, at the intersection of Beechwold and High, City Folk's is a sustainably-minded urban homesteading store. They stock gardening, house keeping, and animal husbandry supplies for central Ohio backyard growers. Lil and I stopped in yesterday to see the store before the soft opening.

keep bees please city folk's

It's hard not to scheme and dream in City Folk's. Tucked into corners of the store are charming handmade bat, bee, bird, and worm houses. A rack on the wall holds the most rustically beautiful hand tools I have ever seen. Everything a homesteader needs from laundry detergent to cheese making supplies to dehydrators are stocked in the welcoming, well lit show room.

colorful pots and gloves at city folk's farm shop

Seeds from a variety of organic and heirloom producers are stacked in colorful packages just waiting to burst into plants. Pots in a variety of sustainably sourced materials are available to fill with bulk or bagged organic soil.

chicken supplies at city folk's

The back of the store houses a selection of chicken feed, soil, and amendments that can be loaded right out the back door into the parking lot.

City Folk's Farm Shop obviously has a preference for local, sustainably made tools - a preference I share. Shop keeper Shawn is committed to providing what local homesteaders need and welcomes our ideas. She put together a schedule of educational events to be held in store, including Backyard Chicken Basics (April 15, 3:30-4:30 pm) and Homesteading with Children (June 3, 3:30-4:30 pm) led by yours truly. See the full calendar on the City Folk's event page.

City Folk's opens today with hours from 10 am - 6 pm. They are planning a grand opening celebration for Earth Day weekend, April 21-22. Visit soon to outfit yourself for the spring growing season.

Disclosure: City Folk's hired me to write copy for their website and manage their social media account during opening. This post was not part of our agreement and opinions are my own.

Columbus Winter Farmer's Market

I visited the Columbus Winter Farmer's Market this past Saturday January 16, 2010 for the first time.  It is held at First Unitarian Universalist Church in Clintonville. The market is small but well attended by vendors and consumers.  Tables in the center allowed patrons to enjoy their ready to eat purchases, including coffee from Crimson Cup.

I am teaching a Kids Cook class about honey on February 11 but I was the student at the Honey Health Farms stand.  Dale Benedict educated me about bee pollen and generously discounted my purchases to share with the class.

The Carousel Watergardens Farm stand held the only produce in the market.  They offer winter meat and egg CSAs and are signing up for summer too.  What a treat to enjoy fresh local produce at this time of year!

I tasted my first Brezel pretzel Saturday.  It was deliciously buttery and had just the right amount of salt.  Next time I will have to order ahead so I can taste their specialty flavors that were sold out by the time I made my way to this busy table.

Lil's favorite table was the one staffed by Osage Lane Creamery.  That kid loves her cheese!  We have a round of their goat's milk feta in the fridge that she can't wait to open.

More vendors included my friend Barbie Luna of Luna Burger ( another friend, Eliza of Beginnings to Birth is in front of the table), Frijolito farm chicken, Rausch beef, three baking vendors and an apple farmer.  The Columbus winter farmer's market will be open Saturdays 2/6, 2/27, 3/6, 3/20, 4/3, and 4/17 from 10 AM - 1 PM.  Come and enjoy local food treasures!

Sharing the Harvest

At the beginning of the growing season, we committed to share 10% of our backyard garden harvest through the Garden Challenge.  This hasn't been easy because much of our harvest has been light so far.  We also don't want to share delicate items that might go bad at the food pantry. Today, though, we had plenty to give.  We picked four peppers, a bagful of kale and two squash and went over to the Clintonville Beechwold Community Resource Center.

lil donation

Lil was so proud she carried everything in herself.  It was adorable and I hope she's learning a very important lesson.