Saturday's Local Living Harvest Fest, held at the Mouzon House Restaurant and Parting Glass Pub in Saratoga Springs, was a great celebration of local farms, food, community and music.  The Mouzon House started things off at noon favorite local band Railbird introducing, Farmony, songs about our hard working farmer neighbors and their challenges.

Chef Dave Pedinotti dazzled the hungry crowd with a cooking demonstration featuring localy sourced ingredients.  Kids had a room all to themselves where they could make their own lunch and work on creative crafts.  Each room of the Mouzon House was utilized to showcase local independent businesses.  The 2010 Local Living Guide, a book of discounts and information about our community was released to the public.

Perhaps the highlight of this part of the event was the showing of the Farmony movie trailer.  Railbird songstress Sarah Pedinotti introduced the upcoming documentary about local farms and their importance to our health and community.

Farmony (Harvest Fest trailer) from DreamBig Media Group on Vimeo.

Several hours later, part 2 began with the Slowdown at the Parting Glass Pub.  A discussion about Slow Money was delivered by Jasmine Stine of the Berkshares program in Great Barrington, MA.  Jasmine explained the value of local currency in creating vibrant local economies to the capacity crowd.  The presentation was followed up by Slow Food, a buffet of salad, stew and apple crisp for dessert.  All the fod was provided by local farmers.  The event concluded with Ashley Pond Band, who delivered her signature slo-core electric blues to the audience.

The general consensus of the attendees was that this event was a real treat, and they look forward to more of the same.

Special thanks go out to the event sponsors Capital District Local First, Green Conscience Home and Garden, Adirondack Solar and Bonacio Construction.  The food featured in the delicious was provided by Mack Brook Farm, New Minglewood Organics, Kilpatrick Family Farm, Bread Basket Bakery, Saratoga Apple and Olde Saratoga Brewing Co.