Don’t you love finishing big projects? Me too!
I still have the close-out paperwork to do, but this week I finish two
big projects. One was the Free Kids Meal
which we concluded yesterday. Now admittedly,
I certainly don’t do the lion’s share of the work on that project. We had an amazing head cook, Syerra, who
devised menus that the kids loved and made cooking for as many as 198 children
look easy. She was ably assisted by
Kelly. They have made such a great team
that they will continue at the market as vendors – The Sassy Salad Gals. Their Greek salad last Saturday was
wonderful.
Other volunteers, such as the Carl Junction
Lions and Leos (above), the Brashear brothers, the Melton kids, Mike and his
granddaughters, the Keller-Williams team and others made serving 5,000 meals to
kids this summer a fun and happy experience.
Our thanks to all! Including our
growers who supplied hundreds of pounds of fresh produce for the kids.
The other project completed this week was the
Missouri Tomato Conference. This was a
project of the market and MU and LU Extension.
We brought in one of the nation’s top tomato experts and one of the top
pest experts. We were hoping for 50
attendees, we ended up with 85. The
program Monday was excellent and as usual Granny Shaffers did a great job with
the lunch. Mike always tells his chef
Alice that the menu is “market surprise” when we hold a conference there
because I never know until about three days before what produce we’ll want
included. This time our farmers provided melons for
dessert, which folks loved, and sweet peppers, tomatoes, sprouts and lettuce
for the salad.
On Monday we had presentations all day. During lunch one of the farmers asked me “how
do you convince your customers that tomatoes grown in high tunnels are as good as
field tomatoes?” (Remember a high tunnel
is like a Quonset hut covered in plastic with the tomatoes planted in the
ground.) I replied “how do you like the tomatoes in your salad?” “They are excellent.” “Those are high tunnel tomatoes. We don’t have to convince our customers
because the tomatoes themselves convince them.”
Of course, the conference covered both field
tomatoes and tomatoes grown under protection but it was clear that the experts thought
the latter was the future of local food.
The farm tours yesterday morning were equally elucidating. (Photo - Dr. Rick Snyder of Mississippi discusses support systems for tomatoes) Our host farms, E & O Produce, Misty
Morning Farms, and Braker Farm were incredibly generous to take time to get
ready for folks to come traipsing through their farms during the busiest time
of the year. And we were rather a
sight. To prevent transmission of any
soil born diseases, everyone slipped on blue plastic booties (they look a bit
like wearing blue sacks on your feet.) which were replaced for each farm visit. We also gave gloves to anyone who used tobacco
because tobacco mosaic disease is easily transmitted to tomatoes. This is the kind of thing you learn at a
Tomato Conference!
We’re also probably wrapping up a third
project this week, though I wish we weren’t.
I have to finalize the numbers yet but I expect we will deplete our
funding for our partnership with Feed the Heart, the Carterville food pantry
after tomorrow’s pick up of melons and sweet corn for 130 families. It’s been a great partnership, allowing our
farmers to sell surplus top quality produce to the market which we can then
provide to those in need.
Meanwhile, the market continues to be a place for everyone to
secure that same top quality produce from their local farmers. We have tons of
produce – especially tomatoes, melons and sweet corn.
Tomorrow Stewart’s Bakery will serve pinto beans with ham,
fried potatoes, & cornbread for $6, and fruit salad or chef salad for $5
each. The Sours and the Young Geezers
play.
On Saturday Stewart's Bakery will have chili with a mini
cinnamon roll for $5/pint. Cooking for a Cause on Saturday benefits Eastmorland
School children with autism - proceeds used for them to participate in Special
Olympics and other activities. Served from 9 to 11 - biscuits and gravy,
sausages, market tomatoes and coffee or oj for $3.50. Two farm fresh eggs
cooked to order $1.
Richard Hugh Roberts is on the market stage.
Tuesday there will be supper choices by Stewart’s Bakery and
the fabulous Geriatrics take the stage.
See you at the market!
