Webb City Sentinel column - 11/20/15

Want to try Crockpot Squash Mac ‘N’ Cheese?  Come to the market tomorrow. We have a new Market Lady, Jordan Nichols, and she has created a recipe especially for the market by ramping up the health benefits – and taste – of macaroni and cheese. She’ll be serving it up tomorrow by the information table from 9 to noon.

Be sure to stop by Fairhaven’s table as well and check out this season’s pecan harvest. They’ll have picked out pecans. Carrole got busy in the kitchen this week and made batches of gooseberry jam and rhubarb jam to add to her already large offering of homemade jams and butters.  Right next door to them, Oakwoods will be giving out samples of a tasty dressing you can make with their roasted peppers.

We have a new honey vendor, Ed Cook, of Cook’s Berry Junction in Liberal. And we can also call him our salt vendor because he makes smoked seasoned salts. The choices are Sriracha, Truffle, Bourbon Bacon, Tequila Lime Dill, Adobe and Wasabi. I’m pretty sure Sriracha and Wasabi are HOT, and so not for me, but some of those others are tempting. They’ll make great stocking stuffers too.

And speaking, indirectly, of the holidays, we’ll be open this Saturday and next as usual, and also this Wednesday from 11 to 1 at the pavilion for our annual Holiday Market. We should have a good choice of produce, baked goods and other tasty treats as well as the wares of many of our Christkindlmarket vendors. If you want to pre-order baked goods, just stop by the baker’s booth this Saturday to place an order.  (That's bibb lettuce growing in one of the Braker Farm high tunnels - photographed yesterday)

We have a new Christkindlmarket vendor who I have been trying to recruit for years. Lee Ann Sours is known at the market as one of our fiddle players, but she is also an accomplished weaver and textile artist. At last she will be at the market with some of her lovely hats and scarves. Her supply is limited so this may be her only appearance. Don’t miss it.

Mark Barger will play his Native American flutes tomorrow. We won’t have a prepared meal, but Hazel’s Bakery will have some tasty muffins – I know because that’s what I had for breakfast last Saturday – and Holy Grounds will serve hot drinks. Enjoy the sounds and tastes of the market while you’re here, and challenge someone to a game. Our game table last week was constantly busy with folks, both young and old, playing checkers, chess and dominos and the little ones coloring. 

This past week we recognized some special people at the market. Each year the market board selects a market Champion, someone who has made a difference at the market. Past recipients include Karen McGlamery, Janet Taylor and Donna Krudwig, volunteer managers, as well as Extension educators Patrick Byers and Shon Bishop. Park Director Tom Reeder and the Perry Foundation are both part of that elite group. This year our Champion is Marilyn Thornberry who has volunteered countless hours at the information desk for over ten years. She is a Champion of the first order.

We also select a recipient for the Golden Washrag Award. The award gets its name from the efforts of the first recipient. About eight years ago, we began asking vendors to pitch in at the market, helping with set up or take down. Robin Green, with Green’s Greenhouse and Gardens, was the first to volunteer and spent that summer wiping down the tables and benches, hence the washrag name. The second year Nancy Rasmussen was the winner after having cleaned the market bathrooms all year. Yes, we have some pretty glamorous jobs at the market. Many other vendors have been thanked with the award – in 2011 all our Hmong vendors were recognized for the tons of produce they donated to feed the volunteers in the tornado recovery effort.

 This year, the award went to Tami Fredrickson and Missy Jones. (Tami's on the left, Missy on the right) Most market days this summer, despite working incredibly long hours at the farm, they stayed and helped close up the market. Now Missy and Tami are putting in hours and hours getting the market’s kitchen ready. If you want something clean, call this team. They do amazing work. So three cheers for Marilyn, Tami and Missy. They deserve thanks from everyone connected with the market and they sure have mine.

We’ll see you at the market tomorrow. It’s going to be another wonderful day!

Webb City Sentinel market column - 11/13/15

What a wonderful start we had last Saturday for our Winter Market.  It was busy, it was festive, it was loaded with vendors and their beautiful products and it’s going to be just as good tomorrow.  Who knows?  Maybe even better.

In addition to most of last week’s vendors, we’ll have some additonal vendors – Mende Staggs is coming for the first time in months with her pink oyster mushrooms.  They’ll go fast!  In the Christkindlmarket, BHaynes returns with her delightful hats and scarves made out of repurposed sweaters.

Market Lady Carolyn Smith makes her first appearance of the year with Hearty Autumn Salad.  The recipe is printed below, but come sample it on tomorrow and pick up some of the ingredients.  Carolyn managed to secure recipe booklets and some reusable bags from Ott’s dressing who donated the dressing for the demonstration.  The first 25 families who ask, get a bag!

Rob Pommert will play his gentle popular tunes.  Hazel’s Bakery will have muffins you can enjoy for breakfast.  Hebrew Holy Grounds promised to have coffee.

Anna Leonard, a certified application counselor with Mercy Hospital, will be at the market tomorrow to provide information on the Affordable Care Act and on obtaining health insurance through the Marketplace. 

It’s the Fall at the market.  Bring a camera (or your phone) and take a photo with the market scarecrows.  They are sitting just inside the market’s north and south entrances amid pumpkins and gourds donated by Fredrickson Farm’s Pumpkin Patch.  How’s that for good timing?  The Pumpkin Patch closed on October 31 and the winter market began the first Saturday in November and we got as many of their fall decorations as we could haul off!  And their generosity doesn’t end there.  Tami & Steve Fredrickson spent Thursday tearing the roof off the market bathrooms and will be working with some professional roofers they hoodwinked into volunteering to put on the new roof today. 

People sometimes give me a lot of credit for the market, but believe me, it’s a team effort and you couldn’t ask for a better team.

We’ll see you at the market tomorrow.

HEARTY AUTUMN SALAD

Layer the following ingredients on a salad plate or in a salad bowl.

 

Kale, torn in bite-size pieces (or substitute your favorite salad greens)

Dried cranberries

Butternut squash (shredded or cut in thin pieces)*

Beet (shredded or cut in thin pieces)*

Apple slices

Feta cheese

Toasted pecans (or substitute your favorite nuts)

Salt and pepper to taste

Serve with Ott's Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing

*If you prefer roasted vegetables, cut the squash and beets in cubes, toss in a small amount of oil, and roast.

Webb City Sentinel market column - 11-6-15 Kay is Back!

You might think that things would be winding down at the market, but not so. In fact, we’re gearing up for one of our busy seasons!  

Tomorrow is the first Saturday of Christkindlmarket, and that news means we’re in for lots of treats, but how about this?  Hazel’s Bakery is back!  Kay McLaughlin is coming out of retirement for the second time, lured by the promise of the market kitchen. She is using her small inspected kitchen for the next couple of weeks but looking forward to cutting her baking time in half once the market kitchen and its convection ovens are fully operational. So we’re already reaping benefits from the market kitchen and it’s not even open for business yet. 

Kay, and her pies, cakes, cookies and fruit breads, will be set up next to Fredrickson Farms, because her apprentices are none other than Tami and Missy of that very farm. They’ve been elbow deep in flour for the last couple of days. Tami is our board president and she figured this would be a great way to learn all about the market kitchen (plus, she’s also her own best customer. She put in an order for 20 pies for the Lord’s Acre supper at her church tomorrow night.).

Another vendor expected at the market this Saturday is one that we’ve seen far too little of this year - Amos Apiaries with their local honey. They plan to come about once a month, so tomorrow’s the day to stock up, both for yourself and for gifts for the holidays.

  

The pavilion should be packed tomorrow. We have seven farms bringing produce. Robertson Family Farm is bringing frozen blueberries from their harvest this year and blueberry syrups. Misty Morning Farm will have cracked pecans, and they’re super fresh, harvested and cracked the week of sale. M & M Bistro returns with their Mediterranean menu of gyros, chicken wraps, hummus and tabouleh plates, plus the best baklava you’ve ever eaten.

 

And good eating you can take home can be found at The Red Tamale who will be selling handmade frozen tamales in the Christkindlmarket on the south end. We always vet prepared foods prior to accepting vendors. I knew we had a winner when the taste tester (my husband, Phil) declared the tamales superb. 

In the Christkindlmarket, which will be open in conjunction with the farmers market every Saturday from 9 to noon until Christmas, you’ll find some old favorites like woodworkers Ed Grundy and the Chaffin Family, seamstress Edith Bayless, as well as Willow Island with felted and knitted items, Copper Leaf Pottery and Odd Duck Soaps. We also have some new crafters you won’t want to miss.

Christkindlmarkets are an old tradition of open air holiday markets in German-speaking areas of Europe. We spread ours over two months of Saturdays so we celebrate two holidays with harvest decorations until Thanksgiving and then Christmas decorations and music after Thanksgiving. (Yes, Jesse DeGonia, that is how it is done.) 

And we do all this celebrating with the sidewalls down on the pavilion and with the heaters warming us. So come to the farmers market/Christkindlmarket, pose for a photo with the scarecrows, grab some hot chocolate, fresh produce, lunch for later, some gifts and learn how to make a holiday recipe. You may want to do a little jig too if you can’t resist the music.

Marshall Mitchell, our cowboy singer, will perform from 9 to 11. The Market Dude, Frank Reiter, will demonstrate Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Cranberries with toasted pecans and goat cheese, drizzled with balsamic honey.

 

Watch the market come alive while we celebrate yet another season. See you at the market! 

Webb City Sentinel market column - 10-30-15

I’ve got a Halloween treat for you - something by a talented new writer!

One of our young vendors, Mabel Brubacker, recently sent me this remembrance of the 2015 growing season which I think you will enjoy.  (She wrote this while on a trip out west - that's her at the Grand Canyon.)

It might be hard to create a clear picture with a blurry mixture of planting, weeding, harvesting and selling in my memory, so maybe I'll just write about each activity, which repeated itself throughout the summer and is mostly all we did!

We had a wet year which made planting hard and gave the weeds the upper hand, but all in all we had a pretty good year for produce. Every few weeks we started another setting of 3-4,000 plants. David and Matthew did most of that, filling the trays with dirt and planting a seed in each pot, then Dad kept the plants watered till they were ready to be transplanted into the plastic mulch in the produce field. That was a long job for the whole crew! One person would punch holes in the plastic, some would plant the seedlings into the holes, others followed up with water, and then finally a large handful of dirt went around the plants.

Weeding seemed never ending and a losing battle this year with all the rain, and the weeds did get the upper hand, despite the hours upon hours we spent trying to subdue them. Often it was so wet they just transplanted themselves after we hoed them out and continued growing. Then produce picking days...morning to night days, busy with picking the veggies, washing them and packing them into crates. We had the whole nine yards at one time or the other. 

Market days are work and kept us hopping too: three days a week each to Springfield and Webb City... but selling is the rewarding part of raising produce - piling the fruit of your labors on the tables and watching happy customers choose what's most appealing to them and walk away with a bagful!  The market in Webb City is my favorite! 

And we girls also do some baking...I enjoy baking and started off doing it myself and selling in Springfield. We prefer to use whole wheat flour and started off with mostly that kind of baked goods, but when the main baker in the Webb City market retired we started baking for that market. My sisters began helping since I couldn't do it all anymore. We also decided to make things with white flour since the many of the customers seem to prefer that. I still make whole wheat bread and that sells more by far than the white bread. I also use whole wheat flour in the cinnamon rolls and cheese breads I make. Ruth has mastered the cookies, Sarah makes pies and quick breads, and Mary does the cakes, bars and pumpkin rolls. Those sell like hot cakes! 

So that's what we've been busy with, in addition to daily housework, canning and freezing fruits and vegetables.

In October produce season was slowing, but we stayed busy getting ready for our long trip to the west coast for the wedding. (Mabel’s brother Lloyd was married last week.) It feels good to have most of the things wrapped up we'd been hoping to. 

The winter squash are all harvested and most of the produce patches plowed down. We worked up some Concord grapes the other week, mostly into juice, then last week we got our yearly apple order from Waverly, and put up 75 gallons of cider, some applesauce, and pie filling.

Mabel is part of Harmony Hill Farm near Wentworth. Like our other farmers, the Brubackers work very hard but love what they do. Many of us will be happy to see them tomorrow after their two week absence for the wedding.

 

Another vendor we’ll welcome back tomorrow is Cottage Small Coffee Roasters. We’ve been missing Josh and Genevieve Moore and their excellent coffee beans most of the summer while they secured a new roaster. Finally, they’re back!

Tomorrow is our last Cooking for a Cause of the Season. It benefits the Joplin Humane Society. Pancakes, grilled ham and eggs to order.

The Mayfields from Ozark are playing. AND it’s Halloween so everyone who shows up in a costume gets a free mini-bag of kettle corn!  (Alright, even kids in regular clothes are going to get a bag too.)

 

Don’t forget that Tuesday markets are done for the season. Next Saturday we start our Christkindlmarket so expect to see lots of  gift ideas, as well as many of our regular vendors loaded with produce, baked goods, eggs, meats and other goodies. We’ll also have a new vendor with cracked pecans that she’s harvesting just for you this week. Watch for details in next week’s column.

Webb City Sentinel market column - 10/23/15

I’m back and it’s a little disorienting. I wasn’t gone that long, just 5 weeks. It was summer when I left and it’s full blown fall now and this coming week ends the regular season at the market and we begin the winter market. Things are moving way too fast. (It doesn’t help that I spent those five weeks enjoying a tropical Australian spring so basically I’m experiencing a full year in 6 weeks. Ah, life in the fast lane.)

(All photos are from this week.)

Next week is our last Tuesday market of the year so if you love the evening market, it will be your last chance to enjoy it until April.

Tuesday has been the market step-child for years with much lower sales than we saw on either of the other two market days. We tried all sorts of ideas to improve sales - special activities, sampling (remember Tasty Tuesdays?), changing hours, extra publicity. Finally this year, we found the magic combination. The vendors decided to change the hours from 4 to 6 to 4 to 7. (That being said, we’ll only be open from 4 to 6 this Tuesday because it’s getting so dark so early. It’s not fun packing up the market in the pitch black.)

The longer hours made a lot more sense for serving meals and the vendors thought three hours would be more convenient for customers than two.

This year, since we received some funding for food stamp matching, we decided to do that program on Tuesdays. That allowed us to learn the system on a quieter day and draw a few more customers as well. We were not sure how long the funding would last so doing it one day a week rather than three gave us some feel for numbers. By August we were confident we’d have funding for the full year, especially since we had joined a research project that dramatically expanded our funding, so we expanded to all three market days.

Our wonderful nutrition educators from Extension asked if they could do their cooking demonstrations on Tuesdays. It meant they had to put in after work hours but since their mission is in part to educate low income people on how to incorporate more fresh local produce into their diets, it made a very good fit with the food stamp match.

And then we started the free kids lunch and, wow! Tuesdays had arrived.

Next year we’ll need to think about Fridays, which seriously slumped this year. I wonder how our customers would feel about us going to just Tuesday and Saturday or to Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday? The vendors and the board have not discussed a change, but we always welcome customer input. Let us know what you think. And if you have ideas to perk up Fridays, let us know that too.

Tomorrow we have two favorites:

The Mayfields are playing. We expect them as a duet, but sometimes there are more and they magically turn into Red Bridge Trio. Whatever configuration appears you can expect lots of high energy bluegrass and gospel.

Cooking for a Cause benefits our regional food pantry, Crosslines. Breakfast will be cooked to order pancakes, grilled ham and farm fresh eggs. Both music and meal run from 9 to 11. The market is open till noon on Saturdays.

Speaking of eggs, we are finally getting a good supply. Those hens apparently love fall and we’re seeing over 100 dozen at each market. Enjoy them while the hens are happy.

The Radiology Club from MSSU will have a bake sale on Saturday (and yes, they will be baking in the traditional manner, not zapping the baked goods).

Jim Oxley will be at the market Saturday with his lovely hand-made dresses for little girls.

On Tuesday, the Pommerts will play and Carmine’s will bake artisan pizzas to order. Jordan Nichols, who is a dietician with Mercy Clinic Endocrinology, will demonstrate and share samples of Carrot Apple Harvest Salad. Jordan specializes in recipes for diabetics but I think we’ll all enjoy this regardless of our dietary restrictions.

We’ll have lots of fresh local produce, so come celebrate our last Tuesday and feast on local fresh produce this wee