Embrace Local Living at the 1st Annual Smallholding Festival

Have you ever wanted to keep bees for honey? Do you think raising chickens sounds like fun? Want to learn how to make cheese and yogurt? Have a longing to make vinegar for your pantry or cure your own bacon? Want to build your own wood-fired pizza oven? Well, there is an upcoming Bucks County event made just for you.

Pull together your locavore spirit, your DIY sensibilities, and a carload of friends and family and head to the The First Annual Smallholding Festival Saturday, July 9, 2011, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Linden Hill Gardens in beautiful Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

A smallholding offers its owners the pleasure of backyard self-sufficiency through the raising of animals and the growing of fruits and vegetables. The Smallholding Festival will be a day of learning devoted to becoming self-sufficient in your own backyard, garden, and kitchen.

At The Smallholding Festival a bevy of experts will be on hand to demonstrate the how-to. Meet a forager who finds amazing edible ingredients in the woods, fields, and even in backyards. Talk to seed experts about what to plant and when, and learn about canning vegetables, fruits, and jams. Join us for a day of outdoor fun, live music, delicious food, and a learning experience to take home and share.

But that's not all. Come meet honored guests Margo True and her Sunset magazine coauthors of The One-Block Feast. No one has captured locavore spirit better than this wonderful group of enthusiasts who started the James Beard Award-winning blog, The One-Block Diet. The team took the block around their California office (really no bigger than a suburban backyard garden), and started an experiment to see how self-sufficient they could be. Together they raised chickens, a cow, snails; learned to make beer; grew olives; cultivated mushrooms; made cheese and butter; and even grew their own tea leaves and saffron. The blog about their adventures led to writing their book and this was the inspiration for our festival.

The Smallholding Festival – Saturday, July 9, 2011 – 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Linden Hill Gardens, 8230 Easton Road (Route 611), Ottsville, PA 18942

Admission is an eco-friendly $12.00 per carload (that's as many friends and family as you can pile into your car).