Strawberries at the Davidson Farmer's Market.

This Saturday, April 28, Davidson Farmer’s Market will hold its annual Strawberry Shortcake Day from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. – or whenever the shortcakes run out! Read the full story

By CAMILA DOMONOSKE
DavidsonNews.net

Get ready for a packed couple of weekends as we head towards summertime. Pretty soon it will be prime strawberry-picking season and all you local foodies can take advantage of delicious local fruits and vegetables – whether you’re cooking them up at home or enjoying them at area restaurants. Between trips to the Davidson Farmer’s Market and local farm stands, check out Art on the Green (and the Concert on the Green!) this weekend, and Cinco de Mayo and Kentucky Derby parties next weekend. Music, art, mint juleps, and margaritas – for the next few weeks, this area’s got them all. Read the full story

The 2012 Davidson Farmer's Market season begins Saturday, with six new vendors joining returning favorites. (Davidson Farmers Market and DavidsonNews.net file photos)

By KATIE LOVETT
DavidsonNews.net

Davidson Farmer’s Market will come out of winter mode and return for its fifth year of full weekly markets this Saturday, April 7, in downtown Davidson. As the new spring/summer season begins, the market will feature favorite veteran vendors and welcome new ones selling everything from gourmet chocolate to cheese to breakfast sandwiches.

The market is open every Saturday 8 a.m. to noon through October on the market ground, off South Main Street next to Davidson Town Hall. This Saturday’s events include chef Vera Samuels, who will be demonstrating how to cook Easter Brunch French Toast and Moroccan Kale Salad. Read the full story

John Herron with some of his company's produce. Many varieties grow on the plastic bag set-ups behind him. (KATIE LOVETT/DavidsonNews.net)

By KATIE LOVETT
DavidsonNews.net

LANDIS – Tucked away down the Rowan County back roads of Landis, N.C., lies the old, abandoned Linn Cotton Mill. Once a bustling textile production center, this space now serves as home to hundreds upon hundreds of  . . .  mushrooms?

The current tenant, Cottonmill Mushroom Farms, is churning out 500 pounds of oyster and shitake mushrooms each week under the guidance of founder and owner John Herron. In 2007, Mr. Herron adopted and transformed the dusty, humid mill basement into a climate-controlled production center.

“The first time I came, it was 100 degrees outside but just 80 degrees inside,” Mr. Herron said of his decision to set up shop in the old cotton mill in Landis, north of Kannapolis. That’s when he knew the space would be the perfect hub for his project. Read the full story

Historic Brattonsville historical interpreters cut the hog up the old-fashioned way. (Tanner Latham/WFAE)

“I dig pig,” says Tanner Latham of WFAE-FM. He recently led a group of co-workers to Historic Brattonsville, in York County, S.C., for an old-fashioned hog-butchering – once a common sight in hog country at this time of year. Historical interpreters demonstrated the skills and activities of an 18th-century hog butchering.

Among those in on the action was Dan Huntley, sometimes known as Dan the Pig Man – a barbecue maven who has sold his wares at the Davidson Farmer’s Market.

Organizes gave “visitors a look at how 18th Century locals would have used as much of a pig as possible. There was obviously the salt curing and smoking,” Mr. Latham writes on the WFAE-FM blog, WFAEats.

Read more: Jan. 20, 2012, “Cuttin’ Up in Brattonsville.”

WFAE is a news partner of DavidsonNews.net.

Thomas Marlow at Flatiron Kitchen (David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net)

Thomas Marlow has cooked at big restaurants, worked as a personal chef, and studied cooking in Asia. Now, at 25, the Johnson & Wales trained chef is taking over the kitchen at Flatiron Kitchen + Taphouse in Davidson.

He’s making his debut just as Flatiron gets ready for the Queen’s Feast, working on new lunch and dinner menus and cooking up new ways to reach diners in north Mecklenburg and south Iredell. He comes to Flatiron from Mimosa Grill in Charlotte, where he worked as sous chef under Jon Fortes. Read the full story