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News

Update: Mobile Ag Lab is Delivering Great Science/Food Lessons for Many Thousands of Kids in MoCo

9/27/2017

 

3 years in - 31,500 Pre-k-5th Grade Students Served So Far, 51 MoCo Schools Visited

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Back in 2015 MCA was proud to partner with the Montgomery County Farm Bureau on a passion dear to both organizations - connecting the next generation with education about the importance of farms and farm products.  The plans for this collaboration came out of our Farming at Metro's Edge Conference in 2013.  The education took the form of a big mobile laboratory, provided by Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation (MAEF), stuffed with hands-on exhibits and activities about the role of agriculture in the everyday lives of students, and a trained educator to walk kids through it.  
To date, the mobile labs have visited 51 Elementary Schools in Montgomery County and 31,500 students have walked through its doors. The lab will visit every Elementary School in Montgomery County by the end of 2019. For a hands-on science field trip - you can't beat one that brings the experience to the school property.
The lab experience is getting rave reviews from teachers and students: 
"First of all our kids loved it, the teachers said the lessons were hands-on and supported age appropriate science curriculum."
"Thank your for organizing an incredibly awesome experience that I didn't know existed. "
"The 5th graders extracted DNA from a banana and were really excited about it."
To read more and see where the lab will visit next, see the full report.
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Royce Hanson Award 2017: The David Scott Family

9/27/2017

 

Please join us to celebrate the Scott Family on
​October 22 3-5pm at Blackrock Center for the Arts.

Event Wrap Up
"I love to farm because each day there is something different to get done. From planting and fertilizing to harvest it's something new each day. My grandfather used to say you only get about 50 chances to grow a crop in your lifetime, make the most of every one!" David Scott Jr. 
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David Scott Jr. and Sr. with their combine
Generations of the Scott family have been farming in rural Montgomery County and protecting land under agricultural easement. We celebrate theirlong stewardship of the land. David Scott Jr. is a star in our "Growing Legacy" film, click below for two stories from him on what his wife thinks of his combine harvester and the day they lost a whole crop of soybeans. 

Farm to Fork: Celebrating Community

9/18/2017

 
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A few spices  and a bit of citrus - the only things necessary to add to Reserve grown food, flowers, views, talent and hospitality at Farm to Fork. It was a magical evening for a great cause and we at MCA are so thankful, not just for the support that came from the event, but the way that all the different pieces of our local community came together to make the event happen. It was the manifestation in edible, sippable, memorable form of the work MCA has been doing to strengthen and protect Montgomery County's working landscape. 
We'd like to thank all that attended in support of MCA and the Ag Reserve, particularly our hosts the Langstaff family. David Langstaff put the evening and the Reserve in a wider context in his  excellent remarks):
But, we need to do more.  I encourage you to think about MCA and the Agricultural  Reserve in a broader context – as a push-back against the prevalent short-term thinking of our time, and as an investment in our long-term, and in our values,   It is our moment to act on our values… on the principles that bind our community -- as our founding fathers did in establishing the framework and principles of our country …. as President Roosevelt did in establishing national parks; as Frederic Law Olmstead and others did in setting aside land for Central Park;  and as Royce Hanson, working with many of you here, did in envisioning the Agricultural Reserve in Montgomery County, MD.

Read More

Local Food Round Up: Fall Colors on the Trees - Greens at the Market and Apple Sauce!

9/12/2017

 
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Josie Connell
Fall is a colorful time both on the trees and around the table - but for all the oranges and reds the dominant color at your farmers market is similar to what you'll find in early spring - green. 

As the weather chills, kale, spinach, chard (above) and other greens find relief from the heat of summer and grow well. Our friends at Plow and Stars Farm run a year round CSA and have shared a guide to greens along with a pinterest page full of local food recipes for year-round enjoyment. Just don't click over there on an empty stomach. 
Apple picking weather is also here. You can find great local orchards where you can make a day of picking your favorite variety.  Pick a few extra and make a freezer full of applesauce to last you till spring - all in your crock pot! Your house will smell like fall all day. 

Fall Brings Farm Inspired Art to Local Galleries

9/5/2017

 

Two opportunities to see art inspired by local food and the Ag Reserve

If we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce food, either. ~ Joseph Wood Krutch

The Ag Reserve is preserved as a working landscape to benefit the entire region in a number of practical ways. The food it makes is meant to nourish people, the landscapes protected to filter the water and air. That being said - it is gorgeous. The beauty of both the land and the food that comes from it will be on display in two gallery shows this fall. 
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Countryside Artisans Farm to Gallery
​
Black Rock Center for the Arts
Sept. 16 - October 28
Opening Reception on September 17 2-4pm
​This collection of rural Montgomery County artists has moved the Reserve to the gallery featuring pieces in textiles, fiber, stone, oils, watercolors, pastels, glass, wood, clay, stoneware, and porcelain. 
This show will be up during our Royce Hanson Award Ceremony at Black Rock on October 22 where we celebrate David Scott Jr. and his family. Stay tuned for details.
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"Foodies" A Juried Photo Exhibit ~ September 16-October 22
Glen Echo Photoworks
Reception and Gallery Talk: September 15 7-9pm
Calling all Gastronomes! Photoworks Gallery announces FOODIES, our Fall 2017 Photography Exhibition. Juried by Debra Moser (VisArts, Edible DC), this exhibit will highlight the good, the bad and the tasty of our cultural obsession with eating as a hobby.
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ABOUT US
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Montgomery Countryside Alliance
P.O Box 24, Poolesville, MD  20837
301-461-9831  •  ​info@mocoalliance.org
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MCA is proud to announce that we have been recognized for a third time as one of the best small charities in the D.C. region by Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington. A panel of 110 expert reviewers from area foundations, corporate giving programs, and peer non-profit organizations evaluated 270 applications.

​MCA is known as an effective and innovative non-profit whose efforts to preserve and promote Montgomery County’s nationally recognized 93,000 acre Ag Reserve have brought increased public and governmental support of local food production and farmland and open space preservation. Most importantly, MCA’s efforts are putting more farmers on the ground and keeping them there.
COPYRIGHT © MONTGOMERY COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE 2008