Farm Film Fest 6 in Chatham

Farm Film Fest 6 at the Crandell Theater in Chatham made for a very nice late winter afternoon filled with thinking about farms, farmers and farming.   I called Zena, Goddess of Fire and we were all over it. The fest is a collaborative effort between The Chatham Agricultural Partnership, The Chatham Film Club, and The Columbia Land Conservancy. Two 60 minute works were the bookends for a small group of short pieces and there were food and drinks at the pub afterwards.

The lineup:
Growing Cities
Crafting the Cider Comeback
Community Garden
Hopped Upstate: The Rise of Local Hop Farming in New York
Locust Hill Farm
Trowbridge Farms - Angus Cattle
Cow Power
The Beekeeper is on the program, but it was not shown at the festival due to technical difficulties with the sound. It's on vimeo - just follow the information on the festival website.

There are summaries of the films on the site, so I won't go over each one.

I was very excited to see a nice and cute documentary of urban farming in "Growing Cities" and thought immediately of our urban farm here in Albany: Radix . I was great to see all the ways that urban farms have become an important element in the social fabric in San Francisco, Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, New Orleans and even Omaha. The celebration of cider in "Crafting the Cider Comeback" made me all excited to participate in the Hudson Valley Cider Week coming up in the fall. This link is for the 2013 information, which will likely be set up for 2014 sometime in the summer.

The others were all good little documentaries that pack a lot of information into a couple hours of entertainment.

I'm sure the Goddess and I will be looking out for this festival next spring, while we're waiting for the lettuces and garlic scapes to break the soil's surface.  Yum.

On the way home from Chatham we stopped at The Berry Farm to  see what they've been growing in their greenhouses and Tierra Farms, both on rt. 203 between Chatham center and Kinderhook.  The Berry Farm never disappoints, so we picked up a few delights.  Tierra Farms is worth a trip from Albany when you are looking for all organic nuts, nut butters, dried fruits and their well-known coffee.