Webb City Sentinel market column - 6/19/19

We’ve had some fun firsts this week. Our first Clickety Clack – We’re Reading Down the Track was Saturday. Despite awful weather, the street car was 90% full on every ride.

Next month we hope to tighten the schedule so we can fit in 3 extra runs because no one (at least no little ones) will want to miss Pete the Cat’s Train Ride on July 20.

I was amazed Saturday at the crowd in the pavilion. The wind was brutal and yet there were hundreds of people braving the weather to get their fresh produce, local meats, fried pies, flower baskets, and more. We have remarkable customers.

 Last night was our first real Eat Street at the Market. We tried to start it last month but floods interfered. This month was a success. There were four food trucks plus two dessert/snack vendors. The music was lovely - Drew Pommert for the first two hours, Ozark Raga for the second two hours, with some music by the Joplin High School cast of Grease, plus students of Pinocchio School of Dance. Almost 200 kids enjoyed a hearty meal of ham, new potatoes, and other market veggies. Lots of new customers came to the market, as well as our regulars. The next Eat Street will be on Tuesday, July 16, and we expect it will be even better.

Thursday we’ll have lots of hanging baskets. E & O still has plenty loaded with flowers, plus flowering bedding plants. The Carl Junction FFA will be at the market for the first time with hanging baskets featuring greenery such as ferns, wandering jew, and philodendron. The student group will use money from their sales for next year’s greenhouse projects. You might say it will be seed money.

FitFoods serves Frito chili pie with topping, plus pink lemonade for $5 tomorrow. Songbird Kitchen will have Asian cuisine. The Free Kids Meal Thursday is pepperoni pizza sliders, new potatoes, and cucumber slices, plus milk.

Max Barnett is on the market stage. 

Stop by the information table and sample some market made pizza sauce with zucchini sticks.  It’s part of a new market project that you can learn more about at the end of this column.

The delightful Ms Deb returns tomorrow for Storytime at the Market from 12:30 to 1 by the kids tent.

While she selects books suitable for 3 to 6 year olds, I noticed last week that kids of all ages (and a few parents and grandparents) were enjoying her engaging tales and songs.

Saturday the market is going to the birds! As part of our continuing celebration of our 20^th year we’re learning about the birds that supply the market with eggs. Garrett Farm is bringing a chicken for folks to see and Mad Quail is bringing a quail. They’ll be for looking only. Handling isn’t good for the bird and is pretty much a no-go for the health department. The birds will be located under the shade of a tree between the kids tent and the market pavilion. 
 

The Free Kids Meal will be yogurt oatmeal pancakes, a sausage patty, fruit juice, and milk.

In the pavilion on Saturday, you’ll hear the lively sounds of the Granny Chicks. Breakfast is served by the culinary arts students of Franklin Tech. They surprised us with the non-profit they’re supporting – it’s the market!! You can enjoy scrambled eggs, hashbrown casserole, sausage, biscuit and gravy, farm fresh tomato slices and coffee or juice for $6 while supporting the children’s program at the market.

Tuesday, we’re open from 4 to 6. The Free Kids Meal will be nachos with zucchini salsa. Ghetto Taco and Songbird Kitchen will have supper for the rest of us. Yoga starts at 5:45. 

And at every market there’ll be lots of fresh local produce. It is really pouring in now and we finally have enough to start a new project – value-adding surplus produce. Value-adding is an agriculture term for changing a raw product like tomatoes into something more valuable like salsa. As I write this our chef is at the market kitchen combining wonderful tomatoes from Green’s Greenhouse with zucchini from Harmony Hill, squash and carrots from Yang Family Farm, fresh herbs from Oakhill, and onions from E & O into the pizza sauce for Thursday’s pepperoni sliders for the kids meal. We’re combining the abundance from our farms with the mastery of our chef and the capability of our commercial kitchen and we expect top quality sauce fit for royalty – and our kids. (Photo below - chef skills + market kitchen commercial equipment = peeled tomatoes in minutes!)

Value-adding is a new step for the market. We appreciate that the Missouri Department of Agriculture providing us with a short-term grant to allow us to give this a try. With this season’s experience to build on, we hope in coming years to provide more sales for our farmers and great food for our kids. Who knows, we might even create a market brand and invite our customers buy some to take home.

Until then, sample the kids’ pizza sauce at the information table and be inspired to create something special in your own kitchen.