New York

We visited Abby’s old work place, the Union Square Farmer’s Market in Manhattan and played a short set at Farm Aid’s special event there. We visited Stewart and Paulina from Greener Pastures Wheat Grass stand, where Abby used to work and Amanda used to hang out.

That night we did a show at Irving Plaza and saw a lot of old friends in NY. Rick Whitmore and Jeff Koga even flew out from LA to see the shows.

Here we are celebrating Rick's birthday with Rick, Jeff, and Robin.

Next day, we rode our bikes to Randall Island for FARM AID. Many bands played and the venue had all local and organic food for the crowd and the performers.

(photo - Koga)

Daryl Hannah introduced our set, too.

Check out her website for interesting environmental tips!
http://dhlovelife.com/v2/opening/

This was a great tour and we learned a lot about how our food choices effect our bodies, our communities and our environment. We recommend visiting farms in your area. Investigate where the food you eat comes from. See how it's grown and raised. Is it shipped in from far distances? Is it treated with chemicals? Is it grown with care and love?
Thanks to all the farmers for the farm tours and for feeding us all. Let us all shop at farmer’s markets, coops and CSA’s to support our local farmers in the years to come. It's a delicious way to support our communities, lessen our dependency on petroleum, reduce our use of chemical pesticides, and keep our environment healthy.

We appreciate everyone for coming out to see us play. Thanks to Farm Aid and all the local farm organizations that helped us coordinate farms to visit and thanks to the farms that hosted concerts. Thanks to the Growing Connection for providing Earth Boxes for our raffles. Thanks to Paul Natkin for taking great photos, tour managing and being so chivalrous. Thanks to John and Greg for playing so well, for being Ice Cream Truck, and for doing all the hundred other things they did to make the tour go smoothly. Thanks to Brian Swanson for booking all our zany tours without complaining. Thanks to Nancy and Gary for doing extra work on this tour. Thanks to Paki Newall for helping us with publicity. Thanks to Koga for handling our myspace and shows pages and for taking so many photos!

Virginia and Maryland

We played at the Birchmere, the first time since our tour with Nancy Sinatra 3 years ago.
It was really a lot of fun...great audience.
Bob Patterson of "The Growing Connection" came to the show with some beautiful Earth Boxes of his own for our final Earth Box Raffle.
Here we are with Allison, Bob, and Amy

and here's our lovely Earth Box of herbs that has been doing quite well since it was planted a month ago on Windrose Farms.

We raised $2,405 for The Growing Connection by selling Earth Box raffle tickets. Thanks to all our fans for participating!
For more info on The Growing Connection or to order your own Earth Box, go to www.thegrowingconnection.org

We also played at the Ramshead and it was Ice Cream Truck’s final performance. We begged them not to disband, but they’re already planning their reunion tour.

Pennsylvania

We ventured into a cute old town called Millvale outside of Pittsburgh for our show at Mr. Smalls – which used to be a church. A fun fun crowd came out to hear us play. Thanks girls and boys!
We walked around Philadelphia to find a series of beautiful mosaic-covered buildings done by artist Isaiah Zagar.

Then last night we returned to World Café Live. We debut some new plastic outfits we made from bags our pal Don gave us back in Nebraska. Thanks Don! We’re still a couple thousand signatures away from filling our Plastic Reduction Petition. Please sign up at www.YouAndISaveTheWorld.org if you haven’t already. Our petition asks you to bring a reusable bag to the store and pushes for a national plastic tax on single-use plastic bags. Thanks gang.

Ohio

We had the joy of seeing Ty Barrett (add photo) at all our Ohio shows. Thanks for coming out and taping, Ty.
Columbus’s Capitol Theater was a beautiful space. In Cincinnati we played at a supposedly haunted Southgate House. Kent Stage in Kent was a cool folk music joint with plush red velvet seats and it might have been haunted too. We also played a lunch-time set at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH. They have a local foods program in their dining halls and sustainable agriculture courses at the university. Oh, Ohio!

Michigan

On the drive from Chicago to Ann Arbor, we stopped at a farm to play for some turkeys and Amanda sat in turkey shit.
We had a really fun show at The Ark in Ann Arbor. We visited Zingermann's Deli for lunch before and got a great cupcake and salads. Then off to Ohio...

Chicago

What fun we had in Chicago, our tour manager Paul's home town. We always love playing here.
Chicago has great food and we sampled alot of it. We played a lunchtime set for pizza eaters at Chicago's first certified organic restaurant, the new pizza joint "Crust". It was a benefit for the kids of Image Coop who made original silkscreened Ditty Bops/Crust shirts for the occasion.

Here's our friend Michael Altenberg of Crust:


and we had a yummy visit with Michelle and Valentine at "Bleeding Hearth Bakery" - the country's first certified organic bakery:


We also played two great nights at The Old Town School of Folk Music.
Thanks to Seedlings orchard for bringing organic peaches to sell.
Thanks to Bleeding Heart Bakery for selling pastries.
Thanks to Coop Image for making original Ditty Bops shirts for the night and
thanks to Michael Altenberg for delivering fresh hot pizzas from Crust to us on stage.

Lynn made us adorable veggie guys:


Sunday night we had a live webcast which will be archived soon...

Madison

Our show at the Barrymore theater had a full farmer's market set up in the lobby.
Thanks to Tag, Heather, Family Farm Defenders and all the farmers for making this such a success. there were berries, tomatoes, beans, garlic, flowers, goat's milk soaps, and more.
Lots of kids came and danced and Amanda's mom sang with her on stage. it was a lovely evening as usual in Madison, WI.