Oh my, as my mother would say “I’ve
been as busy as a cranberry merchant!” One
of the benefits of writing this column is that it makes me do my homework. I’ve
always wondered why cranberry merchants were so busy but never enough to
actually research it until now. I googled it and Mother left off the ending (or
I never paid attention to it) “in November”. Aha! Now that makes sense. And that’s how busy I’ve
been. And I’m not alone, the farmers have been even busier than me which is
very evident when you visit the market. Have you ever seen such an abundance of
produce? Tables piled over two feet high
with beets, carrots, turnips, bok choy, onions, cabbage. Tomatoes and blueberry
boxes spreading across the table tops. And always loads more produce in boxes and
crates behind the tables. Greg Braker already has so many tomatoes that he’s
selling 20 lb boxes for canning.
And speaking of canning, we’re loaded
with green beans! It is definitely time to enjoy those green beans and new
potatoes and can your green beans for the winter. We’ve even got the canner for
you. As part of our grant from Ball Jar, we’ll be giving away a full sized
canning kit once a month in June, July and August. So get your name in, we’re
drawing next week for the June winners. The drawing jar is on the Ball Jar
table near the information table. Ball Jar would love to have your email
address on that drawing slip so they can send you coupons and offers, but you
can just put down your phone number if you want. We don’t require an email
address for you to enter the drawing.
Carolyn Smith is one of our Market
Ladies again this year and she has taken on the Ball Jar challenge with zest. We
have lots of products from them that we’re using for demonstrations and
drawings. Carolyn’s been experimenting with them. So far she’s tried the
infuser – that’s a clear plastic device that screws on to the jar (or onto the Ball
jar that has a handle turning it into a mug). You fill the infuser with mint or
produce to flavor the water. There’s a spout on the top that you can drink through.
Last Tuesday Carolyn shared three infused drinks with our customers – tea flavored
with apple mint and honey, water infused with cucumber, lemon, lemon balm,
rosemary and lemon basil and a drink infused with blueberries, lemon, spearmint
and stevia. The tea was my favorite. Another Ball product she’s been
experimenting with is the Herb Keeper. So far she’s been impressed with the
staying power of the cut herbs she’s held in the fridge using the keeper.
Look for Carolyn most Tuesdays
demonstrating various ways to enjoy and preserve the harvest.
Speaking of Tuesdays, our new hours are
helping. In fact one of our regular customers stopped me right after opening
and said “you’ve done it again. You’ve created a monster on Tuesdays now.” And it was crowded when we first opened but
quickly cleared out. So much so that at closing only two of our farmers had
sold out. Another two had sparse looking tables, but nine farmers still had
tables loaded with produce. This is not because they hadn’t sold produce, they
had. We just have a lot of produce on Tuesdays, just as much if not more than
what we have on Saturdays. So if you’re running late and can’t get to the
Tuesday market at opening, don’t despair, we’ll probably have plenty to choose
from right up until we close at 6 o’clock. We can’t declare the Tuesday market
a success until we almost double the sales and we’re a long way off from that.
Today the market is open from 11 to 2. It
is Jim Agee’s first day selling this year. In addition to vegetables, he’ll
have raspberries, rhubarb, infused vinegars and fruit wood for smoking meat. Mary
Ann Pennington with Extension will demonstrate and sample chicken wraps made
with Sunny Lane Farms pastured poultry. If you haven’t given the farm’s
all-natural products a try, this is your chance. And we welcome smoothies back to the market today. Lauren Deleurer, who several years ago grew and sold bean sprouts at the market, opens "It's a Blenderful Life" with lovely cool smoothies and specialty drinks a the market today.
The Plainsfolk will play Irish and
other traditional music. Mike Wiggins tells me that Granny Shaffers at the
market is serving “Webb City’s Best Spaghetti Dinner with homemade bread”
which costs $5. They’ll also have chicken salad
sandwiches, chips and drinks for sale.
Tomorrow, Tony Bergkoetter performs. Cooking
for a Cause benefits the families with small children program of the Salvation
Army. Volunteers from the Joplin Exchange Club will serve farm fresh eggs
cooked to order, biscuits and gravy and sausage. While the music and food stops
at 11, we’ll have plenty of good things to buy until noon when we close.
On Tuesday the market will be open from
4 to 6 pm. The Pommerts will play and Dogs on the Roll will serve variations of
hot dogs, and Frito pie, pulled pork sandwiches, chips and drinks.
Blueberries are in season. Robertson
Family Farm has u-pick. You can get directions, hours and prices from them at
the market. You can also buy the berries picked, boxed and ready to eat at the
market. I’m passing on the heat and enjoying the flavor. See you at the market!
