Webb City Sentinel column - 8/31/12

Okra - learn to Creole it on Tuesday!

I’ve been away for a couple of weeks seeing some of the great cities of central Europe and a lot of its countryside as well. I saw some pretty spectacular things and met some lovely people, but as always, it is good to be home.

Within 12 hours of being home, I was reminded that Webb City is a very good place indeed to live. I was speaking to one of my farmers on the phone Thursday morning when I heard a thump. I abruptly said “Gotta go, bye.” I knew it had to be my mother taking a tumble while she watered plants. Indeed I found her on the floor in the reception room next to my office. She was struggling to sit up, holding her left hand. I’d no sooner helped her into a sitting position when in walked Jackie Clark and two other Webb City firemen, Doug Moore and Scott Pink. My first thought was that they were making their annual inspection of commercial property, but no, they were just driving by and Doug had seen Mother fall inside the office. Now that’s paying attention. Doug, who is a paramedic, gave Mother a quick going-over. Then he and Scott helped her into a chair. Meanwhile Jackie had called the ambulance. Did you know that the ambulance crew will come and evaluate the situation and if they don’t take you anywhere there is no charge?

After an evaluation, the paramedics recommended I take Mother to Urgent Care and have the hand x-rayed just in case there was a fracture.

So three happy things – no fracture was revealed by the x-ray and Mother will be fine, our Webb City firemen are wonderful and if you think you have a health emergency, in Webb City you can call the ambulance service for a professional evaluation without worrying about wasting your money. If you end up spending money taking the ambulance, it was well-spent on a potentially life-threatening emergency.

By the way, another thing Webb City has over central Europe is that our city has not been destroyed by wars over and over again. The palace at Budapest had been destroyed 86 times in the last 1,000 years. That’s about once every two or three generations. Well, OK - I'm math challenged - it's probably more like once in every four or five generations. Still I expect most generations experienced the destruction and/or the reconstruction.

And there’s also language. I was told by a Hungarian that their language was one of the most beautiful languages in the world and that it was a shame only 15 million people spoke it. About a billion people speak English, so we can talk to a lot more people – which is lucky for us because we Americans usually only speak English. Unlike us, about half of those billion people who speak English learned it as a second language.

In addition to your produce, you could pick up some language skills at the market. Many of our Hmong farmers speak not only Hmong and some English, but also Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotian and French. In fact, one family speaks primarily in French. When I first visited the farm of the Yang family several years ago, their teenage son served as translator as we went through the fields. It slowly dawned on me that I could understand some of the conversation between mother and son. No, I had not miraculously learned Hmong, they were speaking in French. In fact, the son is French, having been born in France where the family lived prior to coming to the United States. Ma Yang and her husband Tang are very kind to let me practice my high school French on them whenever we’re at the market. I long ago forgot everything I knew about French verb tenses so I must sound atrocious, but they encourage me.

Since I am blessed with a French daughter-in-law I have picked up a few French phrases that Emmanuelle often uses with my granddaughter Madeleine, but I’m not sure how useful “walk, walk!”, “open your mouth” and “don’t spit” are going to be in other settings. The Yangs are helping me expand to “Good day”, “how are you?” and “is that zucchini?”.

It should be a good morning or bon jour today at the market. In previous years, the forecast of rain could mean a very slow market day, but I am confident that our vendors and customers will come out in force and rejoice in the rain. Granny Shaffer’s at the Market is serving ham, scalloped potatoes, a veggie side, peach crisp and a drink for $6. The Loose Notes are playing. Today is the last day for Lady Abigail’s Bakery. Abigail has taken on a full time job elsewhere. Hazel’s Bakery will be adding Tuesdays and Fridays to their Saturday schedule starting September 11th.

Tomorrow, the Webb City Choir Boosters are serving breakfast from 9 to 11. Center Creek Bluegrass is playing.

On Tuesday, Bill Adkins is slated to play, but he’s under the weather, so watch our facebook page in case that changes. Granny Shaffer’s at the Market will have hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken salad sandwiches and chef salad. Tom Rhodes will be our only baker, so if you want baked sweets, load up today and tomorrow. Carolyn Smith will be at our good-for-you cooking demonstration table with Creole Okra.

Next Saturday is our annual Arts in the Park day so we’re pulling out all the stops with three musical groups – at 9 am, Rob and Drew Pommert play, at 10 the Suzuki String Academy plays and at 11 Heartland Opera brings family friendly versions of songs from their Hot Scandals show playing next Friday and Saturday night at the Route 66 Civic Center.

See you at the market!

Webb City Sentinel Column - 8/24/12

I have to admit that right this minute, as I sit on a ship on the Danube listening to a concert of arias, the farmers market could seem remote. But though a long way away, the market’s people and products are not really far from my mind. And, too, food is always of interest to me.

My husband Phil who ramrods the Saturday breakfast emails me that the CP Center volunteers did a fabulous job preparing and serving breakfast last week and that they were wonderfully supported by the community. I hope for the same results tomorrow when the high school band boosters do breakfast. Now that school is back in session, we really need our customers and friends to come out on Saturdays. This becomes even more important as the September festivals approach. No matter what your plans, I bet you can fit in breakfast at the market. Enjoy some lovely music, fresh local produce, new – or old - friends and have a great start to the weekend and create some wonderful memories for your children or grandchildren – and yourself.

A friend told me last month that his granddaughter made her annual visit recently and spotted his cloth shopping bag. Are we going to the market? He had used the bag when he took her to the market last summer. Who says kids don’t enjoy simple pleasures?
Actually we all enjoy such pleasures, regardless of age. I was surprised recently when volunteer Rick Ford shared with me some photos he’d taken at a Saturday market. One showed a view of a crowd of our Saturday shoppers. There were a few seniors like me, as well as teens and children, but most were young and mid-aged adults. When we opened 13 years ago, 80 percent of our customers were older than me. As I’ve aged, the customers have become younger! Now we run the gamut which is wonderful because not only does variety add spice to the market, but it also bodes well for our future. Now we just need to acquire more young farmers.

Sad to say, we are losing one of our younger farmers – Hector Troyer who, with his family, is moving to the Stockton area to run a home for troubled teens. This will be his last season with us for at least two years. He and Lois will be wonderful mentors for the teens but we are sure going to miss them.

Should you know of anyone interested in learning to farm, young or old, stop by the information table. We can hook them up with training or possibly even an internship opportunity.

Granny Shaffer’s at the Market is serving beef and noodles today with potatoes and gravy, drink and dessert for $6. They’ll also have chef salad. Gospel Strings performs.

Tomorrow as I said earlier the band boosters serve breakfast. Red Bridge plays. Trish Reed will demonstrate how to pickle okra.

Tuesday, Granny Shaffer’s will serve hot dogs, hamburgers, chef salad and chicken salad sandwiches. Erik Brown and the Flatlanders perform. Carolyn Smith demonstrates a grain salad chock full of veggies - Southwestern Quinoa Salad.

Here’s a bit of serendipity. My traveling companion Joan Letsinger and I arrived after dark last week into our hotel in Prague. It faced a long narrow central park. Imagine my delight when the next morning we stepped out of the building to find a small open air market right at our front door. A couple of produce stands, a couple of bakers, others selling wine, olives and olive oils, a few crafts. The produce at European markets looks perfect and is beautifully displayed, but you can tell by the variety that it is not all coming from one farm and it’s pretty obvious that the seller hasn’t grown any of it. They just buy it, display it and sell it. They are not producer-only markets like we often have in the US. The big give-away is the smell or rather the lack of smell. At our market, smells fill the pavilion – peaches and melons, especially, but also the herbs and the roasting peppers. So soak up the market this weekend and next Tuesday with all your senses – and enjoy being in Webb City where your food comes straight from the hands that grew it.

Webb City Sentinel column - 8-18-12

The cooler weather has been a welcome break for all of us, especially for our farmers. You can imagine the stress of working every day outside in the July heat and the reduced rewards it produced in terms of production and extra work it created in irrigating. Unfortunately, it’s a rare farmer around here that can simply turn on the pump. For most, limited water means watering the crops in sections. At least one of my farmers can only water at night because their residential well cannot keep up with household needs and field needs at the same time so they end up working day and night. And, almost all our farmers have to make choices – like do I keep the blackberry bushes alive or the tomato plants alive, or do I keep the tomatoes alive or the squash alive.

The prospects are looking brighter for several of our market farmers, including the one irrigating off his residential well, because they are drilling new wells funded in part by the Governor’s emergency drought order. At least four of our farmers are drilling wells that will salvage their summer crops and enable them to produce a fall crop. I still have at least four more farmers that also need more reliable water. One of them is watering from her residential well which is located a good quarter mile from her 4 acres of crops. Every time I visit, her van’s cargo space is loaded with gallon milk jugs filled with water that she rations out to her plantings. Imagine trying to keep four acres alive that way. It’s just not possible.

In the 13 years the market has been open, we’ve had one really wonderful season when the temperatures and rainfall were perfect all summer. We’ve had three brutal summers, with the worst being this year and last. If these brutal years are our new normal, improved water sources and improved watering systems are the only way we can hope to have local produce during the summer. My farmers are already well on their way to improved watering systems. None use overhead watering anymore. All have switched to drip irrigation which uses much less water. Now many still need wells or ponds to supply that water and thanks to the governor’s program, we’re four farms closer to securing our supply of local produce. Here’s hoping for the other four farms.

Another positive funding experience we’ve had this year has been our grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health. MFFH was created when Blue Cross/Blue Shield converted from a nonprofit to a for-profit company. They were not allowed to take their “profits” into the new company so they created a foundation that promotes better health in Missouri. Last year Freeman Hospital received a grant from them that helped them start their farmers markets in Joplin and Neosho. This year, we received a small grant that has allowed us to have cooking demonstrations on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The demonstrations have been very well received and, hopefully, have taught folks ways to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into their diets. That's one of our demonstrators, nutritionist Susan Pittman, in the photo. We hope, of course, that we get to team with MFFH on many other projects in the future.

I was checking out at a grocery store last week, getting some balsamic vinegar for one of the demonstrations, when the cashier asked “why is it that Webb City’s market has so much going on?” I think there are lots of reasons. Our volunteers are essential for many of the things we do, as are our vendors. Our vendors don’t just set up and sell. They set up, and then help each other or the volunteers. For example, the Lee family who sell at the north end of the pavilion always take down and stow our market umbrellas at the end of market. Seems like a small enough task, but after a long day of working in 100+ degrees, it takes commitment to take on another hot task. Robin Green of Green’s Greenhouse always wipes off our tables and benches before market. And, of course, our farmers are key in our educational efforts, whether it’s the Kids Community Garden or the annual Food Safety workshop. The fact that the media is generous in their coverage and the Sentinel generous in their ads allows us to spread the word about all the activities and what’s in season. And finally, those grants make a huge difference – whether they’re for education like the USDA specialty crops grants that we’ve received three years running (and we’re pretty sure we’re in line for another one this year that will bring a major conference on Winter Produce Production to Webb City), or the Missouri Arts Council grant that has helped fund our music for 10 years or our Ball Jar grant that allows us to introduce folks to food preservation or the MFFH grant will provides our cooking demonstrations. Yes, there’s a lot going on at the market.

Our Webb City folks will be particularly interested in next Tuesday’s cooking demonstration because it is the debut of Carolyn Smith at the market. Carolyn was the Family and Consumer Science instructor at Webb City High School prior to her retirement. She will demonstrate healthy lunches that can be packed for school or work.

Today, Granny Shaffer’s at the Market is frying up catfish right at the market and serving it with fried potatoes and onions, coleslaw, green tomato relish, dessert and drink for $6. Jack and Lee Ann Sours play traditional music.

Tomorrow, we’re in for a treat when one of our area’s premier blue grass groups, No Apparent Reason, plays at the market. Not only will they put on a great show, but they are donating their fee from the market to Cooking for a Cause. The Saturday breakfast will benefit the CP Center here in Webb City. Breakfast, biscuits and gravy, sausage, fried or scrambled eggs, farm fresh tomatoes and drinks are served from 9 to 11.

Nutritionist Theresa Dohm demonstrates a good-for-you recipe tomorrow.

It’s another great weekend at the market. Don’t miss it.

Webb City Sentinel column - 8-10-12

It’s National Farmers Market Week but it’s a typical week in Webb City because we celebrate every week. For example, today we have Center Creek Bluegrass playing, plus a bonus - Sadie’s Dollar, a young local group, will play while the Center Creek players take a break for lunch. And they’ll certainly take a break because Granny Shaffer’s at the Market is serving their famous fried chicken, with potato salad, three-bean salad, drink and dessert. And that’s not all folks, because Jon Skinner, urban forester with the Missouri Department of Conservation, will be at the market to diagnosis bug and disease problems and advise you on late summer tree care and fall tree planting. Plus we’ll have our healthy recipes and food preservation table set up as we do at every market loaded with recipes and all sorts of canning goodies like labels, recipe booklets and coupons.

Tomorrow may be even more fun than today because nutritionist Susan Pittman will demonstrate Rigatoni with Grilled Vegetables. (That's Bob Foos demonstrating making Pesto last Tuesday.) Drew Pommert will play his guitar and sing. The streetcar will give free rides from 9 to 11. The Joplin Exchange Club will serve breakfast of biscuits and gravy, sausage, eggs, farm fresh tomatoes. All profits go to Healing the Family Counseling Center, a non-profit that works to build stronger families and prevent child abuse. Other non-profits at the market tomorrow include The Forget-Me-Not team raising funds for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s. They’ll have homebaked cookies for sale, as well as cold sodas and water, handcrafted flower clips and hair bows and insulated drink cups which can be personalized with the owner’s name. The A.D.K. Teacher Sorority will sell cardinal door stops to benefit Children’s Haven and the Children’s Center.

So you can see, every market is special – we don’t need a farmers market week for an excuse. However, our market is definitely part of the national celebration. The Farmers Market Coalition, which is the national organization of markets, sends out a press release every day during the national week. Each release centers on a different aspect of markets and is illustrated by the relevant activities of five markets nationwide. On Wednesday, Webb City was recognized for our mentoring program, improving farming skills. On Thursday we were recognized for our gleaning program, specifically all the produce our farmers donated last year that fed hundreds of volunteers working in the tornado fields.

Our mentoring program has garnered national attention several times. We are really fortunate to have both farmers and extension folks dedicated to improving the success of our market’s farmers. For example, on Monday I drove down to a farm in Anderson that needs a well. I had with me a very experienced farmer, plus two Extension consultants. (That's Ed Browning,left, Extension Ag Engineer Specialist, with our farmer.) I was there for transportation, organization and as “cultural attaché”. I don’t speak Hmong but I have worked with our Hmong farmers enough that I’m pretty good at asking the right questions and insisting on answers. (The Hmong are incredibly polite. If they don’t understand something, they’ll rarely indicate that, not wanting to inconvenience you. So I keep asking questions until I’m sure everyone is on the same page.) Two hours later, plans were in place. And in two weeks, the well will be too.

On the gleaning front, my farmers are continuing their tradition of generosity by donating produce at the end of every Tuesday market. And they are not alone, our customers are dropping by items and our bakers also make donations.

So Tuesday, if you’d like to give something to Crosslines, just drop it off at the information desk and we’ll pass it on when the truck arrives at 1.

We also have good-for-you recipes demonstrated on Tuesdays. Last week, Bob Foos demonstrated pesto and then market intern Lindsey Rollins used the pesto to make Grilled Eggplant and Tomato Stacks. Both recipes are easy, tasty and printed below.

Rob Pommert plays for the last time this Tuesday. He’s headed back to teach guitar at OCC. (But never fear, we have other musicians lined up to finish out the Tuesday season which will probably be September 25th.) Granny Shaffer’s at the market will have their chicken salad sandwiches, freshly grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and chef salads. And on every market day we’ll have lots of produce, baked goods, honey and other goodies.

Many of the ingredients of the recipes below are available at the market. These and other good-for-you recipes can be found at the market and at webbcityfarmersmarket.com.

Bob Foo’s Pesto recipe –

Darryl Alton introduced us to Pesto Genovese during the Webb City Farmers Market Pesto Festo! in 2005, I've been growing my own basil and making it every year since. You can make it in a food processor, but I prefer a mortar and pestle. Make several batches, freeze them in an ice cube tray for use throughout the year. I love it just melted in bow tie pasta.

4-6 cloves garlic
16 large leaves of basil
2 sprigs of parsley
6 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts, walnuts or pecans
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 or 2 allspice berries
1/2 cup olive oil

Pound garlic and salt together until thoroughly mashed. Add nuts and allspice berries and pound until smooth. Add basil, parsley and cheese, pounding until smooth. Put in a bowl and slowly add olive oil while stirring constantly. Stir until smooth. Use immediately or store in a jar topped by a thin layer of olive oil placed in the refrigerator.

Grilled Eggplant and Tomato Stacks

You can grill the eggplant rounds up to a day in advance, then assemble the eggplant, tomato and mozzarella “stacks” at the last minute. To make the eggplant and tomato stacks look symmetrical, use eggplant and tomatoes with approximately the same diameter.

Makes 6 servings

2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 medium eggplant (3/4-1 pound), cut into 6 rounds about 1/2 inch thick
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, divided
6 teaspoons prepared pesto
2 large beefsteak tomatoes, each cut into 3 slices about 3/4 inch thick
4 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into 6 thin slices
6 fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Preheat grill to medium-high or place a grill pan over medium-high heat until hot.

Use 2 teaspoons oil to brush both sides of eggplant slices; sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Grill the eggplant slices for 5 minutes. Turn; continue grilling until tender and marked with grill lines, 3 to 5 minutes more. Transfer to a large platter.

Spread each eggplant slice with 1 teaspoon pesto. Top with a slice of tomato, a slice of mozzarella and a basil leaf.

Drizzle vinegar and the remaining 1 tablespoon oil over the towers; sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper.

Webb City Sentinel Column 8-3-12

As we’ve watched our home gardens wither and blow away, I expect many in our area think there is no local produce at the farmers market. But actually we’re still overflowing with a wide variety of produce.

The Kids Community Garden, sponsored by the market on school grounds just east of the middle school, tells us why.

Our honey vendor tilled a large unplanted section of the garden Tuesday after market (in 100+ degree weather) and mentors Tim Green and Dale Mermoud worked with the young gardeners raking out the weeds. There were lots of tilled-up weeds because we’d been using sprinklers which “rain” on the planted and the unplanted ground. Those weed seeds were just laying in the fallow ground waiting for some moisture. We’ve since switched to soaker hoses that only water the crop rows.

It seemed like the kids were ankle-deep in dust as they raked. The soil is so dry. But upon closer inspection of the rest of the garden, we found the crops growing well. The kids picked five quart boxes of tomatoes. The okra and sweet potato plants look great even though they haven’t been watered in a couple of weeks. With a weekly watering the green bean, bell pepper and squash plants look good too. (The rows are mulched with straw to keep the weeds down and to retain moisture.)

We have found the same situation on our farms that have irrigation. Despite the heat and drought the crops continue to produce. Most of our farmers have to pick and choose what to water. Their fields are too big and their water supply too limited to water everything even though they use drip-irrigation which is the most efficient method.

The heat-loving, or should I say, the heat-tolerating plants like okra, peppers, melons and egg plant continue to thrive in this hot weather. Many of the other summer crops continue to produce but not at the quantity that we’d see with normal temperatures and some rain.

While cherry tomatoes do not seem to be affected by the heat, regular tomatoes need the night time temperature to drop to the 70 degrees or below for their fruit to set on well. So far, we continue to have a good supply of tomatoes. They are a bit smaller and not as pretty but they sure taste good. In fact, I think the ones we got at the market last week were the best-tasting we’ve ever had at the Nichols-Richardson table.

The market continues to connect our farmers with the expertise to cope with these conditions. Tim Green, of Green’s Greenhouse, is an expert tomato grower. As the market’s board president, he often goes with me to inspect our farms and I always love to have him along because he readily shares his tricks of the trade – like pinning row cover to the west side of tomato rows to reduce sun scald. Tim is one reason our farmers have so much to bring to market despite the weather.

Tim knows, as do most of our growers, that better farmers make for a better market and a better market is good for everyone who sells and shops there.

So what’s happening at the market besides loads of produce? Today we have homemade chicken and noodles for lunch and the Plainsfolk play traditional music.

Tomorrow, nutritionist Theresa Dohm demonstrates Farmers Market Potato Salad. Pick up the recipe and try a sample at her table by the central entrance. The Chert Glades Master Naturalists serve breakfast from 9 to 11. They are a group of volunteers who promote awareness and preservation of natural resources in our area.
Hawthorne plays traditional music and music from the Civil War era.

On Tuesday, our market intern continues our good-for-you recipe program with demonstrations on making Pesto and Grilled Eggplant and Tomato Stacks. Those are both treats you won’t want to miss! But if you do, all our recipes are posted on webbcityfarmersmarket.com.

Also on Tuesday Rob Pommert will play and Granny Shaffers serves hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken salad sandwiches and chef salads. And don’t forget the Crosslines truck which comes every Tuesday between 1 and 2 pm. Over the last two Tuesdays our farmers have donated over 400 pounds of fresh produce to feed their neighbors in need and several customers have brought by canned goods. Let’s keep it up!

See you at the market where you can eat well and do good, too.

Sentinel column - 7/27/12

(That's a photo of Kay McLaughlin "taking" a cookie from an image of her late husband Bill at the mural celebration. See this week's Sentinel for more photos)

We’ve been doing farm visits the last few weeks and, of course, we’re finding the fields and gardens stressed by the heat and drought. Fortunately for those of us who shop at the market, many of our farmers have irrigation and are able to keep their plants alive and producing even in this brutal weather. If you’ve been at the market lately, you may have noticed that the produce is not as pretty as it was a couple of weeks ago, but the taste is still excellent and the abundance is amazing. In fact, our farmers were bringing in so much from their fields that on Tuesdays, our slow day, they were taking way too much home. So much, in fact that steps had to be taken. Of course, I continue to urge our customers to put the market on their to-do list for Tuesdays. We have all the produce that we have on Fridays, but not nearly the crowds, lines or parking challenges. But even with more customers, we still have surplus produce so I contacted Crosslines, our regional food and clothing pantry. Crosslines is supported by about 60 area churches. It is very effective in serving those in need and has checks in place to prevent those who would take advantage from doing so. Folks who get help at Crosslines truly need the help.

Our surplus comes at an opportune time for Crosslines. Demands on their food pantry have almost doubled in the last two years. Most food donations are canned or processed foods, so when I contacted their director about sending a truck to the market on Tuesdays for fresh produce, the answer was quick – when do we start? Last Tuesday a big box truck with the Crosslines logo splashed across it backed up to the market at 1 pm. Farmers had been advised of the gleaning program last week so they were ready with their donations. Box loads of eggplant, squash, zucchini, cucumbers and especially tomatoes appeared until the entire bed of the truck was covered. Crosslines volunteer Mike Tamburrino was thrilled. He said “it would have been worth coming for one of these big boxes of tomatoes, but this is wonderful.”

The Crosslines truck is scheduled to come to the market every Tuesday between 1 and 2 until the surplus dwindles. And the gleaning program is open to everyone. If you’d like to buy something at the market for Crosslines on a Tuesday or bring something from home, you can leave it at the information desk and we’ll load it when the truck arrives. They always welcome fresh fruits and vegetables, canned food, staples, and other products like toilet paper.

Today at the market, Granny Shaffer’s is serving spaghetti red, drink and dessert for $6. Webb City’s own Gospel Strings is performing from 11 to 1.

Saturday, as always, is packed with activities. Trish Reed, who catered the Friday meals for several years and is an experienced canner, will be demonstrating how to make and can salsa and how to can tomatoes. It’s all part of our healthy-eating program to encourage folks to eat more fruits and veggies.

Mark Barger returns to play his Native American flutes.

MSSU’s Educational Talent Search serves our Cooking for a Cause breakfast. This program identifies qualified students, grade 6 through 12, with the potential for success in college and encourages them to complete high school and pursue higher education. The program is sponsoring an all-community service day on Saturday for the students involved. Some will be at the market, while others will visit residents at Spring River Christian Village, work at the Salvation Army Thrift Store or help build a community garden in Joplin. The money raised at the market provides lunch for the kids Saturday and rewards like school supplies for participating. Most of the kids in the program are members of families with very limited resources so school supplies are a strong encouragement to them.

On Tuesday, Rob Pommert plays, Granny Shaffer’s serves lunch and the Crosslines truck will visit. Our market intern Lindsay Rollins will demonstrate a good-for-you recipe at the market cooking table. She did Greek Salad last Tuesday – delicious, cool, refreshing and full of nutrition.

Greek salad

1 sliced cucumber, seeded
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, dices
Pint of cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 red onion, sliced
1/2 pound feta cheese
1/2 cup calamata olives, pitted

Vinaigrette

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Combine cucumber, peppers, tomatoes and onion in a large bowl.

In a small bowl, mix together all vinaigrette ingredients except olive oil. Whisk in olive oil.

Pour vinaigrette over vegetables, add cheese and olives and toss lightly.

Lots of endearing things happen in and around the market. To introduce one that happened this week, I want to quote a column from 2010:

I started my day off right this morning. My friend Carol Ott called to tell me a “Nickyism”. Her son Nicky is a young man with a huge heart but limited mental abilities. Nicky goes to church with many of the market volunteers and we can always count on an enthusiastic hug whenever we see him.

Carol said she always begins the day by asking Nicky what he’d like to do. Tuesday his immediate response was “I need to go to that market.” Carol wasn’t sure what Nicky meant, so she asked what market. “That friendly market where everyone says hi to me.” Do you mean the farmers market? “Yes, I need to go to the friendly farmers market.”

Nicky has been ringing the opening bell for me on Fridays this year and we received the following message from a customer on the market Facebook page in regard to that:

So I was at the market this morning and the young man who gets to ring the bell ran up to me and gave me a big ol’ bear hug. It took me by surprise, I was not expecting that at all....but I have to say it made my day!!! I didn't even care that we were both sweating bullets. He was so excited to ring the bell and I just wish we could all have that zest for life!!!

Webb City Sentinel Column 7-20-12

Choices – there’s lots of them at the market. Not only choices in selecting the vendor you patronize and in which type of product you buy, but choices in varieties. It’s cantaloupe season at the market and there are at least three varieties available – the perennial favorite – Athena, and two new melons, Sophie’s Choice and a French melon. I’ve only tried the latter so far, but it was delicious. In fact, my husband Phil said it was as close to a perfect melon as he’d ever tasted.

Choice is one of the market’s strengths because those three melons represent the offerings of just two farms out of several growing melons. Of course, we have even more choices when it comes to tomatoes. I think there were over 20 varieties when I last counted, from cherries to 2 pound giants, and from hybrids to heirlooms. (Love this photo that volunteer Rick Ford took of one of our customers selecting tomatoes)

We’ve been seeing lots of canners – tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini – going out of the market. Last week, Fairhaven offered Brandywine Pinks for canning. Now, that’s a rare opportunity to get an heirloom at bulk rates. I’ve been told that the Pinks make a wonderful juice.

Canners are typically less than perfect produce, what you might call ugly, but perfect in freshness and in taste. And, as one of my farmers said to me in June, the more abundant the harvest, the better the canners get. Currently the harvest is extremely abundant so you can expect some good-looking canners.

All this is a nice change from last year when the harvest was so lean that our farmers didn’t have any surplus, and frankly, pretty much everything was ugly. That made it tough to succeed with our food preservation education program funded by Jarden, the makers of Ball and Kerr. We had the requisite number of canning demonstrations, but nothing for folks to can.

This year, after receiving the grant again, we’ve doubled our demonstrations and the interest created among our customers has resulted in lots of sales for our farmers, as well as a lot of local produce being put up for winter use. My favorite canning story thus far was from a customer who stopped by to say that his mentally challenged son had thoroughly enjoyed putting up pickles this summer after learning how at the market. I expect he’ll enjoy serving and eating them this winter even more.

Tomorrow, Susan Pittman, one of our market nutritionists, will demonstrate peach freezer jam, both regular and sugar-free. It’s super easy and, with local peaches, bound to be delicious, but that you can check for yourself because she will have samples. Our market intern, Lindsay Rollins, will be testing pressure cooker gauges as well so bring your gauge if you would like it checked. The tester will be available at every market through September.

We’ll also have an information table from George Washington Carver National Monument. You may think only of peanuts when you think of Carver, but he was very strong on tomatoes as well, writing many pamphlets exploring a multitude of uses for tomatoes.

In his pamphlet, How to Grow the Tomato and 115 Ways to Prepare it for the Table, Professor Carver not only has the 115 recipes but also detailed instructions on growing and storing tomatoes. I’ve reprinted one of his recipes below. It doesn’t exactly fit our good-for-you recipe category, but I expect you could substitute Splenda for the sugar and reduce the calories considerably. Just remember that Splenda substitutes for sugar by the cup, not by the pound.

NO. 52. GREEN TOMATO SWEET PICKLES (DELICIOUS)

Take:
7 pounds green tomatoes
4 pounds sugar
1 pound of seeded raisins
3 quarts vinegar
Cinnamon, spice, ginger, and cloves to taste

Cut the tomatoes in 1/2 inch slices, and soak for 24 hours in a water bucket of cold water, in which is 3/4 of a pint of lime; then soak in cold water for two hours or until there is no taste of the lime. Drain thoroughly, add to the vinegar and spices, boil in the syrup two hours, seal in well sterilized glass jars.

Another special activity tomorrow is a demonstration hive from Amos Apiaries. The hive is sealed so there’s no risk of stings but the glass panels allow an intriguing look into the workings of bees.

The ever-popular Granny Chicks perform tomorrow. The breakfast, which is served until 11, benefits NALA, which teaches reading and math skills to adults and English to immigrants.

Today, Granny Shaffer’s at the Market serves chicken enchilada, beans and rice, dessert and drink for $6. It is a very substantial meal. The Sours play traditional music.

Tomorrow night we celebrate the market’s community mural. We begin at 7:30 with a very little bit of speechifying and then enjoy the music of Center Creek Bluegrass and look at those busy bees in the Amos demonstration hive again while we all munch on some market treats. Hazel’s Bakery is bringing cookies in honor of Bill McLaughlin. Bill is the only officially identifiable person in the mural, although it’s easy to spot others who were used as models by the artists.

Bill was the cookie baker at Hazel’s and husband to pie baker Kay. He was known for his ready smile and propensity for giving every child who came by their table a free cookie. That’s what he’s doing in the mural.

So come eat a cookie in Bill’s memory and celebrate the mural and the market. Art and the market go together like tomato and basil.

Webb City Sentinel column - 7-13-12

And the tomato contest winners are –

Best Red Tomato – Fairhaven Berry and Produce, Harwood, Mo

Best Other Color Tomato (in this case, yellow) – Green’s Greenhouse and Gardens, Galena, Ks

Best Small Tomato (the chocolate cherry won for the second year in a row) – Fairhaven again!

Heaviest Tomato, weighing in at 2.35 pounds – Frederickson Farms, Carl Junction
Weirdest Tomato – Fairhaven one more time.

Fairhaven wins Weirdest every year because Carrole Palmer takes her contests very seriously. She always keeps an eye out for a curious tomato with a “face” and decks it out with a little straw hat or some other prop that makes it stand out. The Weirdest Tomato contest is always customers’ choice and this year Carrole’s tomato won every single vote.

Our thanks to judges Mike Wiggins of Granny Shaffer’s, Chef Scott Teal of the Holiday Inn and tomato connoisseur Bill Perry. (that's Bill on the left, Scott on the right.)

Now that Tomato Day and 4th of July are over we can get back to our every day routine at the market. Routines like William Adkins playing and singing easy listening favorites along with his original songs today. Bill has only been playing the guitar for about four years but sounds like he was born with one in his hands. Lunch today is ham and beans with fried potatoes, cornbread, drink and dessert for $6. As always, Granny Shaffer’s will also have chef salad and slices of pie available.

The main event today will be the crowd. We’re expecting a big one with the Globe food feature Wednesday on Lady Abigail’s pies and with a cooking segment on KOAM yesterday featuring peaches. I made John Pate promise to bring me LOADS of peaches this weekend before I was willing to even mention the word “peaches” on air.

So I expect it to be very busy for the first half hour of market today. After that hopefully the parking and the crowds will ease.

Tomorrow has even more going on, beginning with free streetcar rides from 9 to 11. Be sure to say thanks to the driver and conductor. They are volunteers and have put in an enormous amount of effort in bringing this delightful Webb City treasure to life.

Trish Reed, who catered the Friday meals last year, will demonstrate how to make and preserve pickles. She’ll also have samples of that cool summer dish, cucumber and onions. The reason for two dishes is that the food code doesn’t allow us to give samples to the public of privately made pickles. Training at a special school and a canning permit is required. But we could hardly have a cooking demo without samples, so we’ll have a related dish that we can sample legally.

Tomorrow is also our Art Market and the Joplin Business Women will be on hand selling their all metal knives and spatulas. I loaded up on them last time they came. Don’t tell anyone, but all my nieces and nephews are getting knives and spatulas for Christmas this year. How great is that – already done with some of my shopping!

Center Creek Bluegrass will play tomorrow and while they take their break Sadie’s Dollar will make their market debut. This young foursome sings gospel and contemporary pieces. Center Creek is generously providing their sound system along with guidance. It rather mirrors the market’s attitude as a whole.

We encourage mentoring. The market has partnered with our most experienced and successful growers and with Extension for over five years in training our less experienced farmers in best agricultural practices. Last year on farm visits I began to see many farms incorporating the training into their fields. But this year has been even better. Last week our inspection team visited three farms and saw, for the very first time, drip irrigation in action on those farms. Previously they either had no water in the fields or were trying to use small sprinklers. In the summers we’ve been having lately, the former was a disaster and the latter was extremely inefficient and ineffective. An added disadvantage is that getting the plant wet can lead to increased pest problems. It’s far better to water the root zone.

At all three farms, we saw high value crops looking remarkably good despite the drought and high temperatures.

There’s plenty more training to be done and we’re already working on this winter’s program, but it was wonderful to see everyone’s efforts bearing fruit.

Another market project, the mural, is bearing fruit downtown at the intersection of Broadway and Main. The market mural celebration will be Saturday, July 21, at 7:30 pm. Center Creek Bluegrass will play. Refreshments will include cookies like those Bill McLaughlin enjoyed sharing with children when he was at the market. Bill is the only officially recognizable figure in the mural. Kyle McKenzie, our lead artist, actually used photos provided by the family to capture his profile. All the other figures are supposed to be generic, although the bee keeper is a dead give-away and a couple of others are pretty easy to spot.

Kyle has been given a hard time by some because he didn’t include me in the mural. I told him not to, but have since reconsidered. I’m claiming one of the bees as my image because I like to stay busy. Be sure and bring your camera to the celebration and capture your image “in” the market.

Tuesday we’ll have our usual menu of hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken salad sandwiches and chef salads. Rob Pommert will play. Vickie Fuller, culinary arts instructor at Monette, will demonstrate a good-for-you recipe on Tuesday.

If all these things don’t tempt you to come to the market, let me just mention – the melons are in!

Webb City Sentinel column - 7-6-12

Summer always seems to race by, but never so much as this year. In the past we have celebrated tomatoes at the end of July when we are overflowing with them. This year, that would be this week, a full two weeks early. Even the heirlooms, always the last to harvest, are coming in by the basketful.

All of which means that Tomato Day is tomorrow. Entries should be turned in at the information table between 8:30 and 9 am tomorrow. Winners will be announced at 10:30 and displayed until 11:30. Bring 2 tomatoes each to enter the Best Red and Best Other Color categories, and bring four for the Best Small category. Only one tomato is required for each entry in the Largest/Heaviest and the Weirdest tomato categories. Props are allowed in the Weirdest category. Market tokens are awarded as prizes.

Tomatoes will also be the star at the cooking demonstration table. Susan Pittman, diabetes educator, will demonstrate Cucumber, Tomato and Red Onion Salad throughout the morning. Visitors can sample the salad and another dish, Fire & Ice Tomatoes, as well as a few of the tomatoes at the market.

As always, we have many varieties for sale at the market, the perfectly red and round hybrids, the colorful and many-sized heirlooms, and for the first time, a mix of the two. Tim Green of Green’s Greenhouse planted a brand new variety that is purported to have the look and taste of an heirloom Brandywine, but the reliability and productiveness of a hybrid Better Boy. Tim wasn’t too sure about it initially. He loves the perfection of the hybrid and was put off by the shape and look of this new tomato. It’s big and lumpy and a kind of pinkish color. But we did a taste test and it passed with flying colors. Look for it in the contests. I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t place well.

Another reason we moved up Tomato Day is that we don’t know what the future holds. My farmers tell me that the tomatoes are still setting fruit but if the heat continues we may see a substantial drop off in supply by the end of July. In the meantime, we have farmers selling canning tomatoes by the box, especially on Tuesdays when sales are a bit slow compared to Friday or Saturday. Just ask at your favorite stand if they’re selling in bulk. They may have it right then and there or they may take an order for pick-up at a later market.

If you’re looking to do major canning in the fall, see if your farmer won’t plant you a couple of rows of beets, green beans, zucchini, cucumbers or whatever you fancy for fall harvest.

Don’t know how to can? Next Saturday, Trish Reed will be demonstrating pickling at the cooking table. She’ll also have dill mix samples, coupons and recipes to get you started in food preservation.

Tuesday was a challenging but good day. As always, it was a banner day being the day before Independence Day. Lots of people were eating fresh for the Fourth. In fact, well over a thousand. But there were some down moments, like when an obstacle was thrown in front of me that a little cooperation would have eliminated, but that cooperation was not forthcoming. After some gnashing of teeth I called on a friend who is a real problem-solver. Problem solved. Then I noticed that the market’s hose and hose reel had been stolen. Really, we knew it was bound to happen someday and should perhaps be thankful that it stayed in place by the market’s hydrant for more than three years. Guess I’ll have to get a reel that can be rolled into the storage shed after the floor is power-washed.

But for every down moment there always seems to be a high one. Saturday we mistakenly charged someone 20 cents instead of $20 for tokens. I didn’t know the lady, but found her address and dropped her a note. The next market she came by and paid the difference though she was under no legal obligation to do so. She is so much more typical of our community than the person who stole the hose.

We had a young helper at one of our farm stands pass out in the heat a week ago. By the time I got back from the cook shack with ice, cold water and a towel, one of our customers who was clearly a nurse had taken over and stayed with the young woman until she recovered. The nurse left without my even getting a chance to say thank you, so if you’re reading this “Thank you SO much.”

Friday I had a mix-up with scheduling the streetcar for visiting school children. In a panic I called the streetcar volunteers and before the children had even finished their scavenger hunt in the market, Jim Dawson and Lee Englert had the car ready to go.

Tuesday De Hunt, our Friday volunteer cart driver, appeared. He realized that it would be a busy day and perhaps his services would be needed though we don’t usually run the cart on Tuesdays. Forty-two passengers and one dog later, De had also made four trips hauling just produce.

Tuesday, another unexpected volunteer, Janet Taylor, appeared. We are so lucky to have such a competent and cheerful volunteer. She will be running the tomato contests for us on tomorrow. Frankly, I think she could take on any project we throw at her.

And on Tuesday a young man came to the market hoping for some kind of work helping one of the vendors load their trucks. No such work is available, but I talked to a vendor who has quite a few people working for him. He agreed to talk to the young man who left with a smile after their visit. I don’t know whether he had a job or just good advice, but whatever he received, it was apparently what he needed.
I am so fortunate in the people I meet and work with at the market. It confirms my faith in the goodness of people.

Today we have the horticulturists with University of Missouri and Lincoln University at the market to give advice on garden and lawn problems. The Sours will play traditional music.

Granny Shaffers at the Market serves home-style chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, bread, dessert & drink for $6. There is also chef salad and a drink for $6.

Tomorrow, the Green Earth Band plays. Be sure to ask them to play “The Market Song” written especially for our market. It is just one more example of an unexpected lovely gift.

Breakfast benefits the college scholarships that PEO awards.

Next Tuesday, we have our usual hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken salad sandwiches and chef salads. Rob Pommert plays.

We’ll see you at the market.

Sentinel column - 6/29/12

We’re entering the biggest week of the year at the market – when our customers bring out those grills and gather with family and friends to celebrate the 4th of July.

This Saturday, the market will celebrate the holiday by hosting its Cooking for a Cause breakfast to benefit Crosslines, our regional food and clothing pantry. For the last 10 years, it’s been our biggest fundraiser of the year. My husband, Phil Richardson, who ramrods the Saturday breakfast, is gearing up to cook extra quantities of farm fresh eggs cooked to order, biscuits, gravy and sausages. Lisa Sweet has organized friends and members of Central United Methodist church to prepare and serve the breakfast. I’ll be getting out the donation jar so we can all demonstrate one of the best things about our country and citizens – generosity towards our neighbors in need. America has a big heart and we see it every year when it comes to supporting Crosslines.

(Last week's Cooking for a Cause volunteers for Crimestoppers.)

And this should be the best Crosslines year yet because the Saturday market has come of age. We added Saturdays to the market schedule about four years ago. Saturday is far and away the most popular market day nationwide, but we were a bit slow on following suit. When we opened in 2000, Carthage had the only other farmers market in the area and they were open on Wednesday and Saturday. We thought it wise to be open on different days. At the time we thought we would be competing for customers. That shows what novices we were. Actually, farmers are usually in far shorter supply than customers for markets. We’re lucky here in southwest Missouri that there are so many small farmers. In many other parts of the state, markets are searching for farmers. We have for several years directed farmers to other markets unless they have a product that’s missing at ours.

Five years ago we realized that none of our farmers sold at Carthage. Adding Saturdays was an opportunity for our farmers to increase their sales, though it also meant more hours for our volunteers. But it was time. We had way too many customers and vendors coming on Fridays and it was our hope that we could bump some into Saturday. And, too, we had many folks who could not come to a weekday market because of their work schedule and we didn’t like leaving them out almost as much as they didn’t like being left out.

The first couple of years our Saturday market was small. Word was still getting out to the customers and we didn’t have a lot of produce on Saturdays. Last year Saturdays had grown to the point of being similar to the Tuesday market in terms of sales and customers which meant it was about half of Friday.

As I began reviewing vendor applications this year, I still was in the mindset that we needed to build Saturdays. I should have considered a little more carefully because we are absolutely packed now with vendors on Saturdays. It’s often as full or even fuller than on Fridays. And sales are way up. Saturdays have been running at about 80% of Fridays and are continuing to increase. I don’t think it will be long before Saturday surpasses Friday as our biggest market of the week.

Saturday has a lot of other pluses from the market’s standpoint. Because it’s hard for some vendors to do two days in a row, we have been able to bring in new vendors on Saturdays. Hazel’s Bakery is a Saturday-only baker. Several of our small egg ranchers are Saturday only. Certain types of crafts are currently allowed on Saturdays.

Saturday is our day for nutrition education when we demonstrate a healthy, easy recipe using market produce. Tomorrow Trish Reed, who catered our Friday meals for several years, will demonstrate (and you can sample) Chilled Cucumber Soup. Now doesn’t that sound good in the midst of this heat we’re experiencing? (photo: Trish teaching folks at the market how to make sugar-free freezer jam.)

On Saturdays we can book bands unavailable weekdays. And on Saturdays we’re seeing lots and lots of young families.

Saturday is also a relatively calm day compared to Friday. Last Saturday we did have well over one thousand customers but they didn’t all come through in the first half-hour. Instead they filtered in throughout the morning, making for a much more pleasant experience than the “search and secure” approach many of our Friday customers take when market opens.

Luckily, this year we’re experiencing such abundance that there’s no need to brave the crowds at opening. Folks can come at 11:30 on Fridays and still get everything we started out with (excepting for blackberries, which are nearing the end of their season). By then, the lines are usually short or non-existent and the traffic and parking much easier. In fact, we’ve been sending home some sweet corn and tomatoes at every market lately and even sent peaches home a couple of days. The market is just loaded with produce.

Today we have Center Creek Bluegrass playing. Granny Shaffer’s at the Market is serving meatloaf and mashed potatoes for lunch ($6). And, in keeping with the season and the market setting, they also have boiled and buttered sweet corn from Wells Farm for $2 an ear.

Tomorrow, Red Bridge Bluegrass will keep your toes tapping with their high energy style and four-part harmonies while you enjoy breakfast and shopping.

Tuesday, July 3rd, should be a big day for the market. Just as Black Friday on the day after Thanksgiving is a big day for retailers, the day before the 4th of July is typically our biggest day of the year. We might call it our Red, White and Blue day for lots of reasons. Small businesses, which are the backbone of our nation’s economy, incubate and flourish at the market. We’re a tossed salad of American citizens ranging from those with Native American roots to first generation immigrants. The market is full of small farmers and ranchers following in the footsteps of the independent, self-sufficient farmers and ranchers who settled this country. The American Dream? Most of our market folks feel they’re living it. We love what we do.

Zoua Hang Yang shares the market experience with students from the Webb City school district - everybody gets a cucumber!