This Sunday, Oct. 4, offers two great reasons to get up and out of the house early: taste locally produced foods prepared by top area chefs at the Baltimore farmers market, then tour solar-powered homes and businesses and get your questions answered about renewable energy and energy-efficient design.

At the downtown farmers market, from 8 a.m. 'til noon, you can see and taste foods prepared by a dozen local chefs paired up with market farmers. The event is sponsored by Toyota, which will be offering marketgoers rides in a 3rd Generation Prius or a 2009 Highlander Hybrid. Check it out, underneath the Jones Falls Expressway at Holliday and Saratoga streets.

If you're not too stuffed after that, you can take a free, self-guided B'more B'green Solar Tour of 10 area homes and businesses. Sponsored by solar energy businesses and trade groups, it's a chance to see and learn about ways to green your nest with everything from solar arrays to green roofs, strawbale walls, rain barrels and more. You've got to love the tour's name - though we have to point out it's in no way afffiliated w/ our B'more Green blog. The places are open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. And at the end, there's a picnic at Black Ankle Vineyard, a green-certified winery in Mt. Airy.  To learn more and get a map of places to visit, go here.

(Baltimore Sun photo by Algerina Perna)