Are you tired of amazing giveaways yet? Nah, me neither.
The second annual Mother Earth News Fair in Puyallup (“pyew-AL-up,” for non-Washingtonians) is happening soon, on the weekend of June 2-3, and I’ve got a pair of tickets to give away.
We went last year and it was fantastic. I saw Joel Salatin, who is my-kind-of-crazy, speak about environmentalism, government regulation, pastured animal rotation and how farmers can actually make money raising pastured beef, hogs and chickens.
Joel Salatin in person: get there early, it was standing room only.
There was a ton to see: lots of greeny vendors hawking their wares, 4H kids showing off their heritage goats, practical demos and informative lectures on hundreds of topics, historical re-enactors churning butter and grinding coffee by hand and more.
Face to face with cuteness.
The Fair was good-ish for kids. The only problem we ran into was that the kids wanted to see the kid demonstration stuff (excellent!), but that meant we weren’t seeing the adult demonstration stuff (frustrating). Ah well, these are the small sacrifices we make for the family.
A dedicated area for kids kept my daughter happy. Cupcakes kept my son happy.
If you are in the area (and if you know how to say Puyallup without a pronunciation guide you are probably in the area) I strongly encourage you to go. I’ll be there both days, attempting to win a free top bar beekeeping hive or gorgeous grain mill by stuffing the drawing box when the vendors aren’t looking. Shhh – don’t tell.
Passes for the whole weekend, both Saturday the 2nd and Sunday the 3rd, are $30 at the gate ($25 if you pre-order) and kids 17 and under are free.
Let’s Go To The Fair!
Mother Earth News is offering NW Edible readers the chance to win a pair of full weekend tickets (both days – a $60 value) to the 2012 Puyallup Mother Earth News fair.
Here’s the deal: two tickets will be held at will call under the winner’s name. The tickets are not transferable, and they are not salable. So, please only enter to win these tickets if you can actually attend the fair in Puyallup on the weekend of June 2nd. I know we all like the chance to get free stuff, but let’s all play fair (hah! fair pun!) so that these tickets don’t languish unused.
To enter, leave a comment below telling me what you are most excited to see at the Mother Earth News Fair that isn’t Joel Salatin (because that’s too obvious). Not sure? Check out Mother Earth News’s event information page or the lineup of speakers that will be at the Fair to get a taste of what you will see and learn.
And if you go, please come say hi!
Contest closes 10 pm PST on Friday, May 18th. Winner will be announced Saturday, May 19th. If you are into giveaways, don’t forget to enter to win one of five reCAP Mason Jar Pour Caps, too. It’s open through Thursday, May 17th.
(You should know that Mother Earth News is providing me with comp tickets to the 2012 Fair. But I would have gone anyway and paid my own money to do so, just like I did last year.)
Update: Entries for this contest are now closed. Thank you to all who entered.
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That sounds like a fabulous weekend, and thanks for the pronunciation tip. Joe Salatin is one of my heroes, even if he is a crazy creationist.
I had to laugh at this: demonstrations of grinding coffee by hand!
That used to be my Dad’s job. The coffee grinder was mounted on the kitchen wall. Older models were clasped between the knees, which explains this riddle: “Women used to have it between their legs, but now it hangs on the wall”. Snicker snicker. Coffee making was a a serious daily ritual in those days before machines. The first pouring of water on to the drip filter had to be just enough to wet the grounds. Small amounts were judiciously added afterwards, till a wicked dark brown concentrate was achieved. It was served with lots of hot but not quite boiling milk. Guess m parents were drinking Latte and didn’t know it.
Oh, I would love to win these tickets, I live just one town away from Puyallup, so I will definitely go if I win. Ivette Soler is talking about the edible front yard, so I’d love to hear that. As well as anything that has to do with chickens.
I’d love to find out about solar. I didn’t think solar was possible in this area since we don’t get much sun.
We’re already going, so I’ll save the tickets for someone else to win. I’m so excited and bought myself the ticket for mother’s day!
Most important question though…will the Puyallup Fair scone people be in attendance?
Sarah C – I am excited to go too! And, I would think if there’s scones they will be fresh milled whole grain flour with just milked cowmilk cream! 🙂
Okay, so I read the comments BEFORE the post…I tend to be a “horse before the cart” kind of person I think…anyways, I would love to learn more about backyard chickens, and also collecting rain water! Thanks! And, it would be fun to say “hi” to you too!
Wow, I had no idea there were so many seminars! I’d like to attend a couple on beekeeping, and home dairy. Sounds great!
We are planning on going so it would be great to win tickets. Thanks for the tip about kids. We were thinking that it would be best to get a sitter for our nearly 3 year old and you have confirmed it for us.
I want to see it all. Ok, mostly the renewable energy stuff. And canning. I had to miss last year’s event due to a prior commitment and am really looking forward to it. See you there!
Decisions. Decisions. I can’t decide which I’m more excited about–Linda Conroy’s Wild Edibles, or Matt Reed’s Natural Beekeeping. They’re at the same time, so I’m going to have to choose. Not fair! (no pun intended)
I’m excited about it all! I went last year, and loved it. I think my favorite part was getting ideas for a mud/cob oven. Now if I can just drag my husband to that one again and get him all interested in actually building one… I think that’s what I’m looking forward to most again, getting all excited about different projects and getting some inspiration.
If I were in Philly, I’d be most interested in seeing Temple Grandin. So sad she wasn’t coming out our way. 🙁
I’m not sure I can pick just one thing to be most excited about!! The garden info, how to make cheese or yogurt, info on goats and chickens, beekeeping! So many good things with so little time! I’ll have to plan strategically to fit everything in! Hope I win! Thanks for the chance!
The sheer amount of workshops is overwhelming. Perhaps starting with the “Live Simply” workshop would be the best approach! Although I’d also love to take in some chicken info, and hubby is most looking forward to the blacksmithing workshop. I can’t wait, this has been on my calendar for months!
We are moving into a new house and I am excited about al the possibilities. We will finally have a bit of land. I need to find out more about the wild edibles, bee keeping, chicken/goat keeping and growing a medicine cabinet. My husband is interested in the solar, fermenting/brewing and gardening. We would love to go…
There are so many reasons I want to go to that fair!
I live in Portland and would love to make it a day trip…
There are too many to choose from, the DIY solar, the beekeeping, the distillation, aquaponics, Chinese medicinal herbs….
I’m local so I could definitely attend. I can’t decide what I’m most excited by, but they certainly have some celebrities this year. I’d like to see Ivette Soler, Lloyd Kahn, Linda Gilkeson and Diane Ott Whealy talk! And of course, plenty of adorable animals.
And there’s also a bow & arrow making lecture, which would probably come in handy should I ever find myself in the Hunger Games. So, yes, plenty to be excited about!
We would love to go! It’s worth a ferry ride just to see the goats!
We are in month 3 of living 1n our first home, and we have spent every non-office-working hour doing something in the yard… we are raising chickens for the first time, we have built 4 raised beds and are learning to grow enough veggies to (try to) offset some of our food costs, and we are doing everything that we can to lower our utilities and environmental impact “greening” our entire house. I am most excited about the prospect of searching out information on perennial food plants so that we can populate our little 1/3 acre plot with nourishing, and hopefully beautiful, landscaping!
Thanks for running this giveaway, hope to see you there, my wife and I love your blog!
That looks like a really great line-up and I would not be able to go without winning tickets so I’m all in!
I have tried not to buy any new books in the last couple of months because I have heard that the bookstore at the fair is AMAZING! I am looking most forward to everything the fair offers, but also to fulfill my ever growing library on gardening and self sustainability.
Will Allen is a dynamic man I would love to meet in person. Food justice!
I’ve been trying to convince DH that it will be fun! I’d love to see the bookstore and the foraging workshop.
Pro tip: If you don’t win the giveaway but bring an old cell phone to the Fair to recycle, our sponsor T-Mobile will let you in for FREE!
–Erica from the Fair (See you in June!)
What an exciting event! I can’t wait to see, well everything!!
I am marking my calendar right now for 11:30 on Saturday: Ivette Soler’s presentation on the edible front yard!
Definitely finding out more about solar.
I signed up to volunteer MONTHS ago, so am comped in already. 🙂 AND I get a t-shirt to go with the one from last year. 😀
So, I’m not really entering….but the non-Salatin part I’m looking forward to is the Brigadoon-esque atmosphere and the networking! Am still in contact with folks I met there last year, and making arrangements to meet up with folks at the Fair. 🙂
I have been a Mother Earth News fan for sooooo many years. I am excited about NW solar and permaculture. And anything to do with herbs and edible flowers. And Will Allen!
I’m looking forward to it all. It’s my first time and my daughters first time. Figured I would try to win tickets and if I don’t then I’ll head over and buy a pair. We want to learn more about farming and Chickens.
Will. Allen.
I’m squealing like a tween who just saw Justin Bieber walking in her neighborhood!
I’m moving to the Midwest in August to retrain as a lawyer focused on urban agriculture and food law, and I credit Will Allen with a lot of my inspiration. But because of the moving costs (moving myself, a toddler and two curmudgeon cats is spendy than I’d thought, even with purging most belongings), I had planned to skip the fair this year (I went last year and learned A LOT). But that was before I found out about Will. Allen.
Here’s hoping you pick me. 🙂
Thank you for doing this!
I’m having a difficult time picking one thing I’m interested in: DIY solar, solar in the NW, savory jams, wild edibles, how women are transforming food, beekeeping and the talks from the Chinese Medicine Assoc.
So many great offerings, but I’ve been struggling with stretching my garden into the winter months, so Dr. Gilkeson’s talk “Planting for Year-Round Harvests ont he Pacific Northwest Coast” peaked my interes. 🙂
My wife and I are just getting into “homesteading” and could use lots more information to make a go of it. Winning the tickets would be great. Thanks
We’re really interested in solar heating/solar power. It seems it’s just so unaffordable and we’re looking for ways to offset the initial investment so that it pays for itself quicker. There’s so much to see and do at this fair that it was hard to choose just one thing we wanted to see the most.
How can an old-in-body but young-in-mind couple build a small home for themselves? Terry Phelan and Dan Chiran green construction ideas would be interesting to hear as we think ahead to building our own small home.
I really, really, really want to go to the Chicken Whispering workshop!
I would love to meet Jon kohler from growin your greens. We watch his videos all the time and hope he will be there this year. We just bought a house a.month ago and we are putting in beds, so would like to speak to him. We unfortunately missed the fair last year and will go regardless if we win tics or not.
I would have a hard time picking, but I think I’d try to hit at least Planting for Year Round Harvests and The Real Dirt on Home Composting.
Oh and our chicken coop is being delivered today, so we need to learn more about our chicken raising at the fair! We have 3 about 5 wks old!
so so so excited to talk about MUSHROOMS!!!!!