Mark your calendar: the 7th annual Eastern Triangle Farm Tour is set for Sept. 15 and 16.

The public can visit 23 farms from Moncure to Louisburg between 1-5 p.m. each day. The event happens rain or shine.

A few of the participating farms include the SEEDS educational garden near downtown Durham, the goat cheese makers at Prodigal Farm in north Durham, the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle Farm in Raleigh and Turtle Mist Farm in Franklinton, which is home to sheep, cattle, turkeys, ducks, quail, peafowl, guineas and Berkshire hogs.

The farm tour costs $25 per car if you purchase tickets ahead of time. Tickets can be purchased online at www.carolinafarmstewards.org/etft/ or at Harmony Farms store in Raleigh or Whole Foods stores throughout the Triangle.

If you wait until the day of the event, tickets cost $30 for the tour or $10 per farm.

The tour is still looking for volunteers. For more information, go to www.carolinafarmstewards.org/ft-volunteer/
 

Roth Brewing Co. is hosting its annual wings festival from noon-4 p.m. Sept. 8 and tickets are now available.

The North Raleigh brewery will have between 15 and 20 vendors selling wings, including Gorman Street Pub, Hooters and Fox and Hound Bar & Grill. Judges will name first, second and third place winners, as well as an honorable mention for the best wings.

The brewery also will release its Forgotten Hollow Cinnamon Porter during the event. And there will be live music by such rockabilly bands as The Straight 8s and the Rusted Rails. The brewery is located at 5907 Triangle Dr.

Tickets cost $20 and can be purchased online at rothbrewing.com/wingsfest/.
 

Cut your costs in half on your next lunch or dinner out with this generous offer from the folks at Rocky Top Hospitality.

Sign up for the company's newsletter and receive by email a Buy One, Get One Free coupon good at any of its restaurants.

Rocky Top operates several eateries in the Triangle, including Twisted Fork, Tribeca Tavern and the Daily Planet Cafe, which is part of the new Nature Reserarch Center of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh.

Red-light cameras caused problems for Cary on several fronts, so the town council decided this month to get rid of them.

Raleigh's red-light camera program is different from Cary's.  It survived a brush with extinction last year when some city council members wanted to get rid of it.  But somehow, these robot ticket-writers have been less controversial in Raleigh than in Cary.  How come? (8/14/12 update: see today's Road Worrier with reader comments.)

I'm writing about Raleigh's red-light cameras today.  If you've received one of these $50 tickets in the last year or two, I'd like to hear from you.  Was it fair?  Were you guilty?  Do you think these cameras make our intersections safer?  Or do you think Raleigh should unplug its red-light cameras, too? 

Please email me with your thoughts, and your name and daytime phone number.

Greg Cox takes a different approach this week with the restaurant review: taking a look at two bars, Calavera in downtown Raleigh and Vinos Finos y Picadas in North Raleigh.

He awards no stars but still wants to draw attention to this tequila bar and wine bar respectively. Go HERE to read the review.

A survey of the greenest U.S. cities shows that Raleigh is among the tops in the nation in offering eco-friendly services.

Developer Greg Hatem is opening a second location of The Pit restaurant, Raleigh's popular cloth napkin barbecue restaurant.

The second location will be next door to Durham's Fullsteam Brewery in a former 7Up bottling plant on the corner of Rigsbee and Geer streets. Hatem says he will close today on the purchase of the 30,000-square feet building that also houses Fullsteam, which will become a tenant. 

That area of Durham is a popular night spot between Fullsteam, Motorco Music Hall, Geer Street Garden restaurant and bar and all the food trucks that park there nightly.

Hatem says he will convert 10,000 to 12,000 square feet of the unoccupied part of the building into the second Pit location. Hatem says a second story on part of the building will enable them to create a 2,000-square-foot rooftop patio with a view of the city.

Hatem says he hopes the new Pit restaurant will open in about 10 months. He noted that the purchase came with a 1-acre parking lot about two blocks away and another along Geer Street. Plus, there will be space in the building for another tenant, Hatem says.

"It will be our biggest restaurant," Hatem says.

His company also owns The Raleigh Times, The Morning Times, Sitti and Gravy, all in downtown Raleigh.

I have a story about The Bomb Squad cook team that tried to take first place at Ray Price Harley-Davidson's annual wings cook-off four years in a row. Go HERE to read about them.

(First-time competitors Pilar Smith and Robert Free of Sanford pictured above; photo by staff photographer Chuck Liddy.)

And be sure to check out our photo gallery from the competition.

Chef April Bloomfield of the famed Spotted Pig has a new cookbook. Check out an interview with her from The Chicago Tribune.

Suzanne Havala Hobbs' On the Table column is about eating healthy fats in avocados.

For more avocado inspiration, Linda Gassenheimer's Quick Fix column shares recipes for fish tacos with avocado salad.

Diane Rossen Worthington's Seriously Simple column shares a recipe for grilled corn.

We share a story from TheKitchn.com with a recipe for a strawberry milkshake.

We share a Minneapolis Star-Tribune story with a recipe for flatbreads.

This is a story to save: what foods to pitch after the power goes out.

We share a Chicago Tribune story with a recipe for tropical mango-chicken salad.

Finally, here's an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story about how eating fruits and vegetables help keep you hydrated despite the hot weather.

Captrust, a financial advising firm, is hosting a food truck rodeo at North Hills mall from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 6.

Ten percent of all sales will be donated to the Payton Wright Foundation, which raises money for pediatric brain cancer research and to support families dealing with this diagnosis.

The event will happen in the parking lot behind Bruegger's. The trucks include Klausie's Pizza, Chirba Chirba Dumpling, Captain Ponchos Taco Truck, Gussy's Greek Street Food, Olde North State BBQ, Big City Sandwiches, Big John's Hot & Spicy (although their Facebook page says they are off the road), Kona Ice and Lumpy's Ice Cream.

For more information about the event, go to the Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/OkqV1J.

For more information about the foundation, go to paytonwright.org.

And to see a complete list of the Triangle's food trucks, go HERE.
 

I was on furlough last week and out sick Monday. I want to make sure you saw these stories in the N&O while I was out:

• Wilbur's Barbecue in Goldsboro marked 50 years. Read Josh Shaffer's story.
• Kathleen Purvis wrote a story about the popularity of Greek yogurt.
• Greg Cox offered a list of good burger joints in Friday's Cheap Eats list.
• Bolt Bistro & Bar will open in the former Mint location in downtown Raleigh. Go HERE to read that business story.
• And Durham photographer Kate Medley has a collection of food photos up at UNC-Chapel Hill until mid-August. Go HERE for that story.