Fill up your food calendar

Need something to do? Take your pick:

• Set aside a weekend Sept. 17-18 to stomp around in the dirt. The third annual Charlotte Area Farm Tour, hosted by the group Know Your Farms, will highlight 30 local farms, everything from the state's first certified-organic dairy to an ostrich farm. The tour is self-guided, with farms located in clusters around the Charlotte region. For $25, you get a map and a vehicle pass (or cycle group, for pedal pushers). Details and tickets are available online at knowyourfarms.com/tour, or you can buy them at The Milky Way, the Common Market or the Bradford Store.

BTW, Know Your Farms was founded by local-food advocate Christy Shi. Now that she has a new job, as manager of the planned 7Venth Market at 7th Street Station, KYF is headed by her brother, Wes Shi.

• Celebrate your family recipes and share a meal with an older family member as part of the Homemade Memories Recipe Contest, sponsored by Mecklenburg's office of the nonprofit Home Instead Senior Care office. The Craving Companionship program encourages families to make a meal and share it with older family members who live alone. For the contest, you can enter a favorite family recipe and share a story about it. Grand prize is a $500 Visa gift card, and recipes may be used for a "Homemade Memories" cookbook being printed by Home Instead. The deadline is Sept. 15. Get details and post entries at www.mealsandcompanionship.com.

• Help out some older vets Aug. 20 in Mint Hill: The Masonic Lodge of Mint Hill, 10224 Lawers Road, will hold a "rockin' oldies dinner show" to raise money for the N.C. State Korean War Veterans Memorial. Dinner is chicken and dumplings from 5-6 p.m., followed by music from the 1950s to the 1970s (hey, wait - when did the '70s get to be oldies? That's MY generation). Tickets are $20, RSVPs are preferred. Call 704-545-6618 and leave a message with your name and how many tickets you're buying.