Fall is in the air and fall crops are pouring
into the market. We still have plenty of summer crops, but now we have winter
squash like spaghetti, acorn and butternut, the lettuces are reappearing, as is
the boc choy and other greens, and the pumpkins and decorative gourds are
wonderful.
You’ve probably noticed Owen Detweiler
at E & O Produce in the north part of the pavilion. He and his wife Edith
are new growers with us this year, though they’re not new growers. Previously
they had only sold through the Lamar Farmers Market and the Lamar Produce
Auction. Owen, as I have mentioned before, loves growing melons. I think he
must just love growing big round produce because he is bringing a wonderful
collection of pumpkins, large and small, and decorative gourds of all shapes
and colors. You will not want to miss his stand on Saturday. (Owen normally comes
on Tuesdays and Saturdays.)
Saturday is also the day to load up on
sweet potatoes and jams and jellies because that’s when Fairhaven will be at
the market this week.
Which is not to say that we won’t have
plenty of choices today as well. We’ll have at least eight farms at the market
today and probably ten tomorrow.
For years Friday was our biggest market
of the week and the market vendors most sought to attend. When we started the
Saturday market some seven years ago, it was a mighty small market, both in
terms of customers and vendors and in produce. One Saturday that first year we
closed with about two turnips in the place!
My, how the times have changed. I knew
that Saturdays would grow. Saturday is, after all, the most popular market day
nationwide. Last year Friday and Saturday ran about even in terms of sales and
customers. This year, Saturday has taken the lead, a substantial lead.
We always drop a market day during
October, and then go to one day a week starting in November. Last year we
dropped Tuesday in October and, for the first time, dropped Friday in November.
This year the farmers said that Saturday has become such a big day that they cannot
supply enough produce on Saturday if they sell on Friday. So come October, we
are dropping Friday and keeping Tuesday and Saturday. That schedule should be
much, much better for the farmers who need to space their two harvests out during
the week rather than trying to harvest two days in a row. We hope our Friday
customers will join us either on Saturday or Tuesday, or both. The October
schedule should result in two markets a week loaded with produce.
The Kids Community Garden is pretty
much finished for the year. We still have sweet potatoes to dig and cover crops
to sow but there is not nearly enough to keep 30 children busy for an hour, so
during the fall we focus on fresh produce, what it is, how to prepare it, what
it tastes like. This week, it was boc choy and butternut squash, but we started
out with Orange Crisp watermelon. Each child received a slice and instructions
to close their eyes when they tried the first bite. “It tastes like watermelon!!” That’s because it IS watermelon, orange
watermelon.
I went through the motions of preparing
the boc choy but it was too windy to actually cook it. Hopefully that, and the
recipe, was enough for the kids to take home the very ample supply provided by
market gardeners and try it with their families. I also went through the
motions of preparing the butternut squash, but since that can be baked ahead of
time, they did get to sample it. There was a very eager cluster of students
around the box of butternut when it was time to divide up the produce. The
recipe for both the boc choy and the butternut squash are available at the
information table at the market.
Today at the market the Plainsfolk are
playing and M & M Bistro will serve beef/lamb pita wraps, as well as
chicken pita wraps.
Tomorrow we celebrate Arts in the Park.
There will be children’s arts activities from 9 to noon courtesy of the Spiva
Art Center and Wildcat Glades. WildHeart, emmy-award-winning musicians - they focus on kids, the environment and animals - performs at 9, 10, and 11 (right). Drew
Pommert plays at 9:30 and 10:30 and the cast of JLT in Concert perform at
11:30.
Cooking for a Cause supports Lafayette
House, our regional domestic violence shelter. Volunteers will serve biscuits
and gravy, sausage, eggs cooked to order and coffee and juice until 11.
Tuesday, Rob Pommert plays. Carmine’s
Wood Fired Pizza makes pizza to order.
I want to close with a conversation I
overheard at the garden Wednesday. A young man called his mother to say he was
ready to be picked up and to say “Let’s have stuffed peppers for dinner – I have
five bell peppers! And let’s try boc
choy, too. I have boc choy and I know how to cook it!”
There’s plenty of boc choy at the
market and we can show you how to cook it, too!
