It’s going to be another dandy market. I continue to be amazed at the way the market
has blossomed into a year-round market.
Even in the depths of winter we have tables loaded with fresh local
produce, baked goods, meats, eggs and other good things and usually a crowd to
buy them. When we began Winter Market
(and it was just twice a month then) there was no produce to be seen. Now some seven years later, after a lot of
investment, training and hard work on the part of our farmers, we can feed our
community year-round.
Mabel at Harmony Hill will serve her delicious ham and potato
soup with roll for $3.50 – eat-in or take-out.
Drew Pommert takes the market stage.
Market Lady Carolyn Smith is sharing Avocado Egg Salad served in a
won-ton cup with greens.
We welcome back Center Creek Farm. Farmer Sam had been off for a couple of
months after the birth of her first child, Rowan. I don’t know if Rowan will grace us with her
presence tomorrow, though I have no doubt that this summer she’ll join us as
one of the market kids, but Sam will have a table full of her very special
naturally grown greens.Green's Gardens and Greenhouse will be back at the market as well with a table loaded down with acorn and butternut squash.
It’s been a busy week of learning for the market. Tuesday evening we held our “Taste of Green”
class. Farmer Karen Scott, ably assisted
by her son and friends, served up some amazing greens. Ever had a salad with 17 varieties of
lettuce? We have. The discovery of the night, all the students
agreed, wasn’t green at all. It was a
small white salad radish that Karen grows on her farm, Oakwoods.
Wednesday, the market held its annual Farm Safety: from field
to market class - three and a half intensive hours focusing on best practices
to ensure that the food you find at the market, as well as at other markets, is
safe and free of contamination. I say
“other markets” because typically we have a lot of growers attend who sell at
other markets. This year we had growers
from Cedar County and from Neosho. Their
markets required attendance to sell, as do we.
Even though our growers must attend only once every five years (the
information doesn’t change much from year to year), we still had 15 growers
connected to our market attend. Many,
especially our Hmong farmers, attend every year. Our thanks to the Jasper County Health
Department, University of Missouri Extension and Lincoln University Extension
for providing the training.
Today and Monday we have workdays at the WCFM Winter Education
Site at the Yang Farm south of Rocky Comfort.
We hope to complete the high tunnels and the seed starting structure in
anticipation of our first workshop, Seed-Starting, slated for March 11. You can find information on that and other
workshops on the market website:
webbcityfamersmarket.com under the grower training tab.
And finally, we’re having our annual member meeting tomorrow afternoon. The members will be setting the details for
the new season. I’ll be reporting those
details to you next week.
We’ll see you at the market tomorrow.
We’re
open every Saturday from 9 to noon all year, rain or shine, in the pavilion
east of the Main Street entrance to King Jack Park. Sales and setbacks begin at
opening. The market accepts SNAP (food stamps), debit and credit cards. The
market is cancelled only if ice or snow make the roads unsafe for travel. For information, call 417 483-8139.
