Webb City Sentinel market column - 5-8-19

Plants, plants everywhere! This Saturday is our biggest day of the year for plant sales. It’s the Mother’s Day Market. You will find stunning hanging baskets, bedding plants, both veggies and flowers, pots of herb plants, and handcrafted planters overflowing with flowers. The Mother’s Day Market is probably our most beautiful day.

 It also holds beautiful memories for me. At this market I especially think of my dear friend Cindy who not only had an amazing green thumb, but started out right with beautiful baskets of flowers from the market, gifted to her by her loving family. I expect her daughters, now exceptional mothers themselves, will be at the market Saturday buying their own baskets, following in her footsteps.

The market is celebrating Mother’s Day by having a drawing on Saturday for a pretty spectacular basket. It not only will have honey, soap, lotion, blueberry jam, apple butter, a handcrafted spoon holder, and a pie, but will also include flowers from E & O Produce AND from Braker Berry Farm. Here’s the catch. You don’t enter your name in the drawing. Instead you enter your mother’s or that of another mother dear to you. The winner will be drawn at 11:30 and the “basket” can be picked up at the market before 2 pm. Some mother is going to get an extra special market gift this year.

But if your mother does win don’t fret, because you can pick up lots of lovely gifts for her (or yourself). Jane’s Art Glass is back on Saturday with all kinds from pretty handcrafted art glass – some practical like spoon holders, some for fun and beauty like ornaments to hang in the window. Visit our soap crafters for delightful soaps, lotions, and bath bombs. 

My mother always expected something personal, i.e. not something for the kitchen!. But if your mom feels differently, you might consider sharpening her knives Saturday, or picking up some local raw honey, or smoked salts or seasonings, or freshly roasted coffee beans. Or bring dinner home in the form of an artisan pasta dish from MaMa JoJo’s or a fresh fruit or green salad from FitFoods.

Better yet, bring her to the market for breakfast and let her stroll through the market and pick out her own present(s). Cooking for a Cause benefits the Ronald McDonald House. This special place provides a home away from home for families with a seriously ill child or an ill expectant mother being treated at Mercy Hospital or Freeman Hospital. It’s a big day for us because we’re both celebrating 20 years!. There will be a custom-made coloring page for kids celebrating our partnership for family health. Breakfast will be scrambled eggs, sausages, biscuit and gravy, hash brown casserole, and coffee or juice for $6. 

Scott Eastman will be on the market stage Saturday. 

To back up a few days, tomorrow will be a great day to pick up some of that produce that goes so fast on Saturdays. Brakers and Harmony have the first of the tomatoes. Fue Yang has strawberries, they’ll go really fast. And of course the tables are loaded with greens, sweet potatoes, green garlic, asparagus, green onions, rhubarb, carrots, radishes, and much more.

Just Jake and Corky play on Thursday.  FitFoods will serve two choices for lunch, both with lemonade included – Oven fried chicken and pasta salad for $7 and chicken salad in a lettuce cup for $5.

The weekday markets are a great time to shop the market. There’s a good selection of produce, meat, eggs, honey, baked goods and more, but the parking is easy and the pavilion less crowded.

On Tuesday we expect freshly prepared Asian and Mexican food for supper. Yoga at the Market starts at 5:45. Richard H. Hughes performs. And, yes, we will probably have lots of plants.

The last average frost date is long past. Time to get your plants!

 

Webb City Sentinel market column - 4-30-19

The market is entering that fun stage when new things pop up at almost every market. Just in the flower category, the choices will change and multiply as we approach the Mother’s Day market on May 11 which will be a virtual festival of flowers. Whether you’re looking for hanging baskets – and oh, my we have some beauties – or bedding plants or planters, you will spoiled for choice. 

Tomorrow, in the flower department, there will be hanging baskets from Braker’s and delightful handcrafted planters filled with flowers from Fairhaven. We welcome Stormy Farms from Carthage who will have pork and chicken. Garrett Family Farm will also be at the market with their all-natural beef, chicken, pork, and eggs. Four farms will be at the market with lots of local fresh produce, including a few new items like bamboo shoots, as well as familiar but beautiful lettuce, spinach, kale, radishes, sweet potatoes, and much more. We also expect Kettle Corn, jams and jellies, honey, baked goods, and soaps. Lunch is served by Fit Foods and will be lasagna, garlic bread, “build your own salad” featuring market greens, and lemonade for $6.50.

Just Jake and Corky will be on the market stage.Saturday brings truck loads of flowers and other lovelies. Jane’s Glass will be set up with gifts for mom (and others). Savory Sauce is back, as is Cottage Small Coffee Roasters. Cottage Small sell bags of freshly roasted coffee beans, as well as doing cold brews. You can also sample their beans at MaMa JoJo’s where they are used to make cappuccino and lattes. Yes, Chef JT is at it again. He loves buying restaurant equipment and loves even more raising the culinary bar at the market. Enjoy artisan pasta and freshly made sauces at his stand. You can eat-in or take-out the prepared pasta dish with your choice of sauce or buy the components and create a meal at home.

PEO is doing Cooking for a Cause Saturday. All their profits go to fund scholarships at Cottey College. Breakfast is scrambled farm fresh eggs, hashbrown casserole, biscuit and gravy, and coffee or juice for $6.

Last week Lincoln 4-H did Cooking for a Cause and their sponsor just happened to be a mushroom farmer. You can bet that we got her signed up for the food safety course and for the market. Woo Hoo – mushrooms in June if all goes well!

The Granny Chicks will be on the market stage so bring your dancin’ shoes.

Saturday the Kids Garden Club celebrates Let’s Plant a Garden Day when all kids, through college, receive a beautiful tomato plant grown by Tim Green of Green’s Greenhouse and Gardens, as well as instructions on how to plant and care for it.

Tuesday we expect Ghetto Taco, with street tacos with your choice of beef, chicken, marinated pork, or Mexican sausage, plus beans and rice. Max Barnett will be on the market stage. Market Yoga starts at 5:45. Bring a mat and a small donation. There will be flowers and produce galore, honey, baked goods and more. And probably a few surprises. Come and see what’s blooming at the market.

Webb City Sentinel - market column 4/16/19

I'd like to tell you about a book by the title: What Do You Do With An Idea?, by Kobi Yamada.  I encourage you to read this book even if it is just to admire the mysteriously beautiful illustrations.  A child is struck with an idea and goes on this journey to find out what the idea would be.  Why am I telling you about this book?  Because 20 years ago the people of Webb City had an idea.  That idea has transformed into WCFM.

This Saturday the Webb City Farmers Market will launch our 20th year.  We will, from then on, be open 3 days a week!  Tuesdays 4-7pm, Thursdays 11am-2pm, Saturdays 9am-12pm

We will have kids planting wildflower seeds in a bed located near the entrance to the north parking area.  WCFM and everyone one associated with the market would like to honor the memory of Vi Green with this garden. Vi was a special friend to us and will be loved and remembered through this garden.

In the spirit of planting things MidMissouri Bank has sponsored a tree give away.  Come see the selection of native bare root trees available near the info table.  Also, the Kids Gardening Club has bare root blackberry bushes and almost as exciting, they may have a taste of blackberry cobbler.  These little tykes can taste what flavors their new plant can produce.

This anniversary year is going to be fun. I encourage you to follow our facebook page.  Please, we want you to get the information you need and welcome your questions.  An example of what you can learn if you follow us is when the Market WIC Program starts or when a certain produce item is in, such as, Asparagus... which is here by the way! Yum. 

A line or so up I mentioned the Market WIC Program. Many already know that during the summer WCFM offers coupons once a week to households so they can purchase a little more fresh food on a weekly basis.  This is important because fresh food expires and families should have a steady opportunity to have fresh foods on the table.  Thanks to the support of our community we'll open the program strong once school is out and keep it open as long as the private funding lasts.  That is one reason we will open the 2019 Cooking for a Cause Breakfast this year in benefit to the Market WIC Program tomorrow.  And, at the request of vendors, we'll start serving breakfast at 8:30 on Saturdays this year.

I will wrap this up, but first, announcements. The Mayfields bring their welcoming music to the stage. Fairhaven is coming with jams & jellies, fruit butters, plants and more.  Ask about espresso at Mama JoJo's Pasta stand.  Soroptimist International raises money in order to hold a summer camp for children in foster care.

Now if you will remember I mentioned a book at the beginning.  I ran across a line towards the end that struck me as what Webb City must feel about our farmers market: "I don't know how to describe it, but it went from being here to being everywhere. It wasn't just a part of me anymore... it was now a part of everything."

See you Saturday... and Tuesday (4 to 7 pm) ... and Thursday (11 to 2 pm).

Webb City Sentinel market column - 2/20/19

What a winter we’re having! Being enclosed and heated doesn’t help much if the roads are icy. The forecast this Saturday is just rain, so bring your umbrella and head over to the market. It’s supposed to be a heat wave, over 50 degrees!

You’ll get to enjoy that fabulous pasta I raved about last week. MaMa JoJo’s will also have soup – creamy chicken noodle, plus a second that Chef JT is keeping under wraps.

Fit Foods is serving breakfast:  scrambled eggs, sausage, hashbrown casserole and a choice of biscuits and gravy or buttermilk blueberry biscuits, and of coffee or OJ for $5.

Max Barnett will be on the market stage.

The Kids Garden Club will plant and decorate egg carton salad gardens. It’s come and go from 9 to noon and free. Master gardener Eric gives adults gardening advice as well as working with the kiddos.

Four farms - Braker, Harmony, Misty Morning, and Oak Woods - will have lots of greens, root crops, and other goodies. We’ll have honey, eggs, pork, beef, chicken and lamb, jams and jellies, smoked seasonings and dip mixes, plus our crafters 2Ts Soap and Stuff, Delightful Gifts (fire starters), Garden ‘n’ Goat soaps, Twice as Sharp knife and blade sharpening, and Joplin Business Women with Rada utensils.

Winter is the season of training for market operators as well as market farmers. Our market assistant Rachael went to her first Missouri Farmers Market Association annual meeting for us last weekend. I want to close with her report to me:

Friday morning’s weather had me wondering if it was wise to attend the conference in Jeff City, especially after fishtailing the entire length of the bridge right before Mt. Vernon on I-70. With white knuckles gripping the steering wheel, I decided to press on. I am happy I did. That evening Adam Mefrakis, a produce safety inspection for the Missouri Department of Agriculture, gave us an overview of the federal Produce Safety Rule. He emphasized the importance of growers following the rule to keep our community safe from food contamination outbreaks, and our farmers and market safe from liability. (note from Eileen – the market has been training our farmers on food safety for over a decade. Our farmers are professionals and work hard to keep our fresh local produce safe.)

Saturday was saturated with good information. It was fun being part of a group who, like me, geek out over locally sourced foods and providing a venue for our small farmers to sell.

Farmers markets exist in small towns, urban neighborhoods, and everywhere in between because individuals like those I met this weekend believe that fresh foods are important for the health of our neighbors and of our farming neighbor.

I want to use what I learned at the conference to give Webb City Farmers Market a great anniversary year, which means I need to hear from you. The market will have clip boards set up by the information table with questions for you to answer – like, what does the market need, what do you love about the market – as well as sheets seeking your suggestions. Our hope is to make sure the vision and mission of the market continues to reflect the values and needs of our community. You can help our 20^th year the best ever.

The market recently held its annual members meeting. The members set April 20 as our opening date for the regular season. After that we’ll be open Tuesday from 4 to 7 pm, Thursday from 11 to 2, and of course Saturday from 9 to noon. The applications for 2019 are on the market’s website webbcityfarmersmarket.com and at the market information table. Whether you want to sell, volunteer, demonstrate, or play and sing on the market stage, you can now apply to be part of the market’s 20^th year. See you Saturday!

Webb City Sentinel market column - 2/13/19

We’re looking forward (I am making air quotes here) to another chilly Saturday so the pavilion will be buttoned up and the heaters going full blast.

We’re expecting five farms with local produce, three ranchers with local meats, and egg ranchers, plus honey, jams and jellies, freshly roasted coffee beans, 2Ts soaps, Joplin Business Women, and our knife sharpener.

MaMa JoJo’s can’t be at the market, but Fit Foods has stepped up and will have scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy, hashbrowns and drink for $5.

The Little Peoples Garden is also scheduled to be at the market with their freshly made egg rolls.

Richard Hugh Roberts will be on the market stage. Our musicians are such troopers. Cold weather?  They just dress for the occasion!

As always, the market will be open unless the roads are made unsafe by ice.

I just finished a major project for the market yesterday. You may remember that the market has held four regional two-day conferences on winter production over the last five years. You reap the benefits of that training every Saturday during winter.

This year, at the suggestion of the Missouri Department of Agriculture, we moved that conference to another part of the state. The “we” I refer to includes Patrick Byers and Robert Balek of MU Extension, Shon Bishop and David Middleton of LU Co-operative Extension and myself.  The photo is of us and our presenters:  Paul and Sandy Arnold, Matt Kleinhenz, Jason Hirtz, and Liz Graznak.  

The market has been a key player because we don’t have all the paperwork and hierarchy of the universities so it is a much simpler proposition for us to apply for and administer a grant. And, frankly, we make a good team. They have the education skills and I’m naive enough to think we can do projects of regional, even national consequence.

The conference was held at the George Washington Carver Farm owned by Lincoln University and it was an ideal setting and incredibly generous of LU to offer it for free. I was also particularly pleased that both the interim dean of the LU department of agriculture and the head of LU Co-operative Extension stopped by. I want them to know what jewels they have in Shon and David. The dean was so impressed that he asked for photos and an article to include in university communications.

We plan to bring this training back to Webb City in a few years, but after four conferences our growers are pretty well trained, though Karen Scott of Oakwoods made the trip up to Jeff City, as did several other growers from Joplin and Springfield. There were growers from the Kansas City and St. Louis areas, as well as one from Iowa, but most were from central Missouri, which was our hope. We were also pleased that three of the folks we work with at the Missouri Department of Agriculture were able to attend and see what they have been supporting for many years. It was fun to learn that the photos and information I sent them about our Year-Round Education Center had been included as an example of an excellent grant project in the fact sheet provided by the national association of state ag departments lobbying congress on the recent farm bill.

Our presenters were top notch, including a very successful farming couple from up-state New York and an Extension professor from Ohio State. Our presenters also included exceptional Missouri winter farmers Liz Graznack of Jamestown and Jason Hirtz of Mount Vernon, as well as our southwest Missouri Extension team of Shon, David, Patrick, and Robert. Remember when I mentioned projects of national consequence?  The professor from Ohio State had been recommended to me, I called him out of the blue, and his response?  “I’d love to come. I’ve been wanting to attend that conference for years.”  Who knew?  Not me for sure although the professor from New York I’d called earlier apparently did. He had just booked his family vacation for the same week as the conference but said, “Let me know as soon as you set the date for 2020. I want to come.”

I haven’t seen the attendee evaluations yet, but they’ll be a great learning tool for the conference planned for the St. Louis area next year. But I know it was successful for at least one grower. She made an important statement during our last session which was basically a last conversation when attendees and presenters all gathered in a large circle. The farmer commented that she had planned to start winter farming but after learning how challenging winter production is, she decided to continue to use her winters for repairing farm equipment and planning for the spring. 

Now, that may sound like an unsatisfactory conference result to you, but her next statement will give you a clearer understanding:  “And I want to thank you for saving me thousands of dollars and thousands of hours of hard work and tons of stress.”

The purpose of the conference is not just to increase winter production, but rather to give farmers the information to make good choices regarding winter growing. Some farmers left knowing winter production was not for them, at least for now, while others left equipped with the knowledge and networks that would help them begin winter production or, for experienced growers, become more successful.

Winter farming is not for everyone, but aren’t we fortunate that it is right for some of our farmers?  Savor that good fortune when you dig into that spectacular pasta sauce this week, or a luscious green salad you make, or a lovely sweet potato casserole. Life is good in Webb City.