CVKH Blog: Hootenanny set for July 16

Join us as we celebrate summer with our annual local food and music festival - the Hootenanny will be Saturday, July 16, starting at 3 p.m. and going until sundown.   

Performers include: Dirk Quinn, Aimee Wilson and the Factorye, Tara and Friends, Mostly Maybe, Cowmuddy, and a contra dance called by Joe Pescatore.

Come and enjoy music, organic food, artisan vendors, games and a hayride. Bring your own blanket or chair and stay a while.

$8 for advance tickets, $10 at the gate. Receive reduced meal price if you bring your own reusable plates and utensils.

To purchase tickets, email bernadette@camphillkimberton.org.

CVKH Blog: It's Pollinator Week!

Thanks to the efforts of Alice Dworkin, estate manager at Camphill Village Kimberton Hills, Kimberton, Pa., Governor Tom Corbett has issued an official proclamation naming June 20-26, 2011 “Pollinator Week” in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Pollinating animals, including bees, birds, butterflies, bats, beetles and others, are vital to our delicate ecosystem, supporting terrestrial wildlife, providing healthy watershed, and more. The work of pollinators ensures full harvests of crops and contributes to healthy plants everywhere.

Therefore, the hope of Pollinator Week is to share with the public the importance of pollinators.

In celebration of these important creatures and the work they do, the Camphill Café is offering a special menu for the week, featuring foods that are pollinated. The exceptional menu includes:

• Vegetables (carrots, onions, pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower, celery) with coconut milk and lemon over brown basmati rice

• Tomato soup with red pepper, bell pepper, chili pepper and coriander.

• Fruit crisps: cranberries and apples or raspberries, peach and mulberries

Many of the Café’s regular offerings also contain pollinated foods, including:
• Chicken salad: made with safflower oil, walnuts and cranberries.
• Salad dressing: made with local honey, safflower oil, sesame oil, apple cider.
• Mango lassi: made with mango and cardamom
• Chai: made with fennel and cardamom
• Iced tea: made with peach and clove

The Camphill Café is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. All foods are organic and as local as possible, many grown on-site in Camphill Kimberton’s Community Supported Agriculture garden. The Pollinator Week menu will be available from June 22-25.

On Wednesday, June 22, at 2 p.m. a tour of Camphill Kimberton’s gardens and orchard will be available for those interested in learning more about the diverse farm community. To reserve your space on the tour, please contact Bernadette Kovaleski at 610-935-8660 or bernadette@camphillkimberton.org by Monday, June 20.

Camphill Cafe Art Opening, Saturday, June 18 at 4 p.m.

On Saturday, June 18 at 4 p.m., the Camphill Café will host an art opening featuring the work of Kai Pedersen. Kai went to the Kimberton Waldorf School and graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. 

Food and drink will be available for purchase on Saturday evening. 

Learn more about the artist at http://www.kaipedersen.com/. 

CVKH Blog: Camphill Cafe Menu, June 15-18

Outdoor seating is available at the Camphill Cafe, open Wednesday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m, serving local, organic and biodynamic specialities.

This week's special is quiche with kale. The soup of the week is vegetable, brown rice, and coconut milk with ginger. 

Join us for lunch this week and stay tuned for an announcement about a special menu for Pollinator Week, June 20-26.

CVKH Blog: Family and Friends Day: Exploring our Social Responsibility

Saturday, June 4 was a beautiful day for our annual Family and Friends Day celebration.  Visitors from all over joined with us as we explored the theme of social responsibilty within the context of life in Kimberton Hills. 

The day began with a song performed by the CVKH Orchestra set to the tune of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."  The lyrics were written by Jessica Sabo and the crowd sang along. 

Mine ears have heard the rooster
as he crows o'er Pfeiffer Hill.
Calling time for work, to milk the cows,
to weave and mow and till.
Let us rise each day to greet the sun
and beauty of Camphill.
The Cows all say "Hello!"

Glory, glory, such a pleasure
Glory, glory, to see you here.
Glory, glory, try the cookies!
The Cows all say "Hello!"

We knit and weave with fibers sheared
and spun all naturally
Cooking lunch with vegetables that
grow biodynamically
Let us thank the cows for milk that makes
our yogurt and our cheese.
The Cows all say "Hello!"

Glory, glory, such a pleasure

Glory, glory, to see you here.
Glory, glory, Thanks for singing!
We all say "Hello!"

The afternoon continued with presentations about our garden, forestry project and development work, followed by a delicious lunch on the green.  After lunch, our visitors had a chance to participate in fleecing, playing with the orchestra, walking the woodlands and more. 

A great day was enjoyed by all!  Thank you!

CVKH Blog: Phoenixville Area Middle School students grant $1,000 to Camphill Kimberton's CSA

Camphill Village Kimberton Hills recently received a $1,000 grant from Phoenixville Area Middle School’s Help4Others group.


Help4Others, or H40, is a Youth in Philanthropy Group at the Phoenixville Area Middle School. This group of 14 eighth grade students meets once a week to learn more about needs in their community and how people give back. With guidance from their teachers, Gina Keenan and Monica Daley, they reviewed proposals submitted by non-profit organizations and visited sites in order to help them determine how to best distribute funds.

Out of nine area non-profits the students selected, Camphill Village Kimberton Hills received funding to purchase strawberries and supplies for the Sankanac Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Garden. The Sankanac CSA at Camphill Kimberton grows vegetables and produce on approximately 12 acres that feed the 100 village residents and an additional 150 families outside the community. CSA members sign up and pay a fee at the beginning of the year, which then enables the farmer, Todd Newlin, to buy seed, supplies, and equipment. Newlin, along with people with and without disabilities, ready the soil, greenhouses and seedlings. Starting at the end of May and continuing through October, CSA members visit the farm each week to pick up that week’s harvest. Every growing season differs slightly depending on the weather. Buying fresh and local produce has many benefits to personal health and to the environment.

Youth in Philanthropy, now its seventh year at both the middle school and high school, is supported by the Phoenixville Community Health Foundation. The program is intended to help young people gain a deeper understanding of needs, charity and volunteerism within their own community.

Lynn Pike Hartman, vice president of programs at the Foundation, spoke at the award presentation held on Wednesday. Hartman used the analogy of the strawberries purchased for Camphill Kimberton to express to the students how important their work in H4O has been. Just as the strawberries need careful, diligent tending in order to become thoroughly red and delicious, the H4O has been proof that through their hard work they now have evidence of reaping what they have sown.

“If you plant honesty, you reap trust,” said Hartman. “If you plant goodness, you reap friendships. If you plant hard work, you reap success, and if you plant charity, then you reap heartfelt joy. Remember this joy and that you can bring this feeling into your lives every day.”

Other award recipients included The Clinic, Police Athletic League, Good Samaritan Shelter, Mom’s House, PACS, Healthy Start, and the Southeastern PA Autism Resource Center.

CVKH Blog: Events in May, June and July

Camphill Village Kimberton Hills will be host to a number of events this spring and summer.  Mark your calendars to join us for the following:

The Dylan Babitch Trio, May 27 at 8 p.m. in Rose Hall, featuring Dylan Babitch on piano; Jason Fraticelli on upright bass; and Mike Mahoney on drums.  $10 admission. 



Family and Friends Day, June 4 at 10 a.m., our annual gathering of our friends and family.

Im-pulse Eurythmy Performance, June 19 at 4 p.m. in Rose Hall, featuring a unique configuration of nine Waldorf graduates - five from Brazil and four from the United States, presenting their graduation performance.



Talk on the Egyptian Book of the Dead, July 3 in Rose Hall, presented by Denis Ruff.



Hootenanny, July 16, from 3 p.m. until dark on the Kepler Green, featuring local music and food, along with games and vendors.  Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 that day.  Contact 610-935-8660 for advance tickets.