FARMINGTON - During “Ready, Set, Cook!,” a cooking showdown held last Sunday, July 11 at Tunxis Plantation Country Club in Farmington, guests watched four teams, comprised of renowned chefs, local celebrities and executive sponsors, compete to create two delicious meals.

Country Club of Farmington chefs, both of which appeared on the reality TV show “Hell’s Kitchen,” Kevin Cottle and Van Hurd, Executive Chef at The Copper Beech Inn and winner of the reality TV show “Chopped,” and Executive Chef and partner of Dish Bar and Grill William Carbone competed on teams with local celebrities using the freshest foods from local food sponsors!

To find out more, check out the July 15 issue of The Valley Press. 

For a full photo slide-show of the event, click here.

SIMSBURY - Before you’re a farmer, you have to be a pea pod.

At least that’s how it is during the Community Farm of Simsbury’s summer camp program. The camp offers several classifications of campers including the active farmers, the oldest group, the growing famers which includes students in first through fifth grade, the pea pods, children age 3 to 5-years-old, and the wee farmers, children age 18 months to two years who attend the camp for two hours in the morning with their parents.

The camp also offers the Montessori-based Farm Experience for students who have finished their first year of upper elementary education at a Montessori school. While the Montessori program is three weeks, the rest of the summer sessions are offer by the week.

“Most of our kids are from Simsbury, Avon, Granby, pretty much the entire Valley. We also have kids in the Montessori program that come in from Hartford,” explained the farm’s Executive Director Tim Goodwin.

The camp philosophy, as listed on the farm’s web site, reads, “Community Farm of Simsbury delivers unique, hands-on, farm-based teaching strategies to enhance student learning, while promoting the preservation of precious natural resources, and educating students as to the importance of building sustainable food systems and protecting local farms.”

To learn more about a typical summer day at the Community Farm of Simsbury and to see more photos, check out the July 15 issue of The Valley Press.

For a full photo slide-show of the event, click

here.