Our family looks forward to the annual pilgrimage to State College for the Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) conference the first week in February.  The three day event is packed with inspirational workshops of ordinary farmers doing extraordinary farming. 

After ten years we know to expect the experience will be graced with movies, meals, and vendors promoting local sustainable interests.  We relish the opportunity to kindle new friends and connect with lifelong ones. 

One such acquaintance richly blessed our lives two years ago --Steve and Jenn Kurian from Bloomsburg.  This school teacher/tree trimmer couple shared a PASA dinner and their Alaskan fishing adventure with Rusty.

He discovered how they grew up in the country and couldn’t afford the luxury of seafood.  As adults they traveled to Alaska to fish and brought back a cooler of salmon for friends and family.  Enjoyed by so many, Steve and Jenn returned the following years and eventually bought their own thirty-two foot boat and now provide wild Alaskan salmon at affordable prices for rural Pennsylvanians.  

Wild salmon is a great source of vitamins A, D, B6 and E, as well as good amounts of calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium and phosphorus.  The omega-three fatty acids in this cold water fish help reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke having shown to improve symptoms of immune and inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease.   

For years the boys grudgingly slurped their tablespoon of cod liver oil chased with organic ginger ale.  Now they are hooked on the Kurian’s marvelous brain food.  The high quality polyunsaturated sockeye salmon is administered without any opposition.  In fact, they ask for it weekly fully aware of the healthy benefits.  The flavor of the wild caught salmon is rich, but not fishy, solid but still flaky and pleasing to the palate. 

They also know this salmon is responsibly and sustainably harvested.  In the opposite arena “farm fed” and “ocean raised” fish are usually fed antibiotics in their pellet food artificially-colored to make the fish look pink.  Often the fish are fed genetically-modified corn and confined in pens that promote disease and weaken the muscle.   

Jenn and Steve spend seven summer weeks in the great Northwest where they flash freeze and vacuum seal their crop full of quality and taste year round.  Their product can be found online, at farmer’s market, and through local buying clubs.  For recipes, beautiful photos, and purchasing information go to www.wildforsalmon.com but they usually sell out before their next trip to Bristol Bay. 

We look forward to seeing our fishing friends at PASA next week and to catching up on fishing stories. 

For the past twelve years we have treated the winter blues with a special treat:  a trip to Pennsylvania’s Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) annual conference in State College.  Most years we report out after the event; to be proactive we are offering this opportunity early on inviting all of you to join us!            


This year’s conference titled “The Sustainable Challenge:  Providing for a Livable Tomorrow” promises to be the best PASA event yet.   Do you have children or teens?  Bring them along February 4-6, 2010; PASA School is a huge hit.

Plan to recharge your batteries with sustainable living workshops, meals, trade show, and entertainment.  The preconference will give you a full day in topics, for example, Green Living for Teens, Pastured Poultry, and High Tunnel Production concluding with dancing and networking.  The next two days offers sixty workshops including building a cheese cave, lacto-fermentation, composting, raising rabbits, growing ginseng, root cellar storage, and nutritional alchemy of plant bio-diversity.

The keynote speakers are topnotch.  Michael Reynolds, the designer of the Earthship, will open up the conference Friday morning.  Later that evening his documentary, Garbage Warrior, will feature sustainable housing techniques.  The closing speaker, Lisa Hamilton, a photographic journalist will share her farming, ranching, butchering, and baking stories.

Each day you may start in a knitting circle, yoga class or auction -- all will entice you to value local products, services, and artwork while benefiting the lifeblood of sustainable farmers, consumers, educators, and chefs.   Plan ahead to purchase meal tickets with locally-grown food prepared by Pennsylvanian chefs; the culinary creations are incredible.

We are proud to be lifetime members of an organization with organization. Hundreds of committed hours of preparation await you as you pilgrimage to this sustainable Mecca.   Check out www.pasafarming.org; we’ll see you there.