Webb City Sentinel market column - 6/11/19

It’s berry time at the market! Yesterday we were expecting blueberries from Robertson Farms. They came with a full load, but we also had berries from Braker Farm (blueberries), Pates Orchard (blackberries), Mooberrie Farm (blueberries), Yang Family Farm (strawberries – but not many!), and Agee Herbs, Fruit, and Vegetables (blackberries and black raspberries). We will soon be knee deep in berries so get ready!  Time to eat fresh, bake goodies, and freeze for the winter. Load up while you can – it’s berry season.

Today the market serves lunch at the Webb City Library from noon to one. The kids will eat ham & cheese sliders, fresh sugar snap peas and fresh blueberries, plus white or chocolate milk. All children, 1 through 18, are welcome. The Children’s Summer Reading Program for elementary kids starts right after lunch.

Thursday, the free kids meal is Frito pie, plus cherry tomatoes and cucumber slices.

For adults, FitFoods will have vegetarian baked ziti, chicken Florentine, or asparagus and bow tie pasta, plus salad and garlic bread for $7. Songbird Kitchen plans to be at the market with egg rolls and other Asian treats. Drew Pommert will be on the market stage.

MU Extension will teach you how to prepare Swiss chard, with garlic scapes and bacon bits. And you’ll get a taste too!  Garlic scapes are in season right now. The late Frank Reiter, known as The Market Dude for his creative cooking demonstrations, introduced me to scapes. It’s a hidden treasure for both the farmer and the diner. In order to encourage garlic to concentrate its energy on developing the bulb, the farmer cuts the green top off the plant before it flowers. Until we knew better around here, the farmer just pitched the tops in the compost pile. But guess what? Garlic tops, aka scapes, are tasty!  Mince them up and add them to stir fry or a sauté or frittata and they lend a mild garlic flavor. Grab a sample tomorrow at the Extension table. 

We debut a new market event tomorrow – Story Time at the Market. Our newest volunteer, Ms. Deb, who is a retired teacher, will be near the Kids Tent to share the joy of reading from 12:30 to 1. Join her for stories, poems, and songs about bugs and a funny donkey. Activities are targeted to 3-6 years old, but all are welcome.

There will be lots of kids at the market tomorrow. In addition, to the children at the kids tent having lunch (we’ve averaging 200 kids each market day lately!) we’re expecting 60 students from Sarcoxie for a field trip. They visit the market and learn about where their food comes from, listen to the music, and ride the streetcar, and then they get to go to the playground and splash pad. What a fun field trip!

Speaking of the splash pad, a friend who works for the Joplin Globe was at the market yesterday with a couple of other staffers. They’d been doing a photo shoot at the splash pad and playground area for a feature in JMagazine. We all agreed that King Jack Park was the place to be this summer!

Saturday Clickety Clack – We’re Reading Down the Track rolls for the first time this year. We’ll be reading a Berenstain Bears book – All Aboard. Free tickets are available on Eventbrite starting at noon today (you can also get them on the market’s facebook page). If you can’t get a ticket, come on anyway. We usually have extra seats, especially between 9 and 10 am.

Webb City’s Queen of Crafts Lisa Sweet will be at the Clickety Clack craft table just south of the Kids Tent. She created a coloring page based on the book for the kids to color.

Cooking for a Cause will be staffed by volunteers from Webb City Masonic Lodge #512 and Webb Chapter #204, Order of the Eastern Star. They will donate their profits to Duo for Dogs which provides service and support dogs to help with mobility assistance, veteran assistance, healthcare facilities, and more. Farm fresh scrambled eggs, biscuit and gravy, sausage, hashbrown casserole, and juice or coffee for $6. 

If you’re looking for lunch, stop by MaMa JoJo’s for some fabulous fresh pasta dishes (they have lattes and other fancy drinks too). FitFoods will have protein bites, fruit cups, salads, and wraps.

Trilogy will be on the market stage.

Chuck Lonardo shares his culinary secrets Saturday with "Veggies 2.0, cooking with onions".

Tuesday is Eat Street!  It’s a food truck feast. Already confirmed are Culver Creek Eatery (BBQ), MaMa JoJo’s Pasta, Songbird Kitchen, Danny Jim’s PB&J, Ghetto Taco, Kings Kettle Corn, and Squeezers Lemonade.

Eat Street is open from 4 to 8:30. It will be located just west of the market between the market and the kitchen so you will probably want to enter the market from the south entrance from Hall Street and Garrison Street where there will be plenty of parking. Handicapped parking will still be located north of the pavilion.

Drew Pommert will be on the market stage during market and another musician takes over at 6:30. The chalk art area will be set up for kids near the music. There will also be a photo booth, so bring a camera – or a smart phone.

The market will be open from 4 to 7 as usual, though some vendors may stay later. Eat Street is open till 8:30.

The free kids meal is served from 4:30 to 6:30 on Tuesdays. The menu is ham and market potatoes with other market veggies or fruit. 

Kids Yoga starts at 5 north of the kids tent. Adult Yoga starts at 5:45 north of the streetcar barn. Both classes are donation-based and for beginner to intermediate.

As you can tell from the length of this column, we have begun the high season in earnest and it only going to get better from here on out. Come join the fun!

Webb City Sentinel market column - 5/29/19

Mike Wiggins of Granny Shaffers fame stopped by the market yesterday. He was picking up tomatoes for the restaurant. I love a restaurant that goes the extra mile to bring fresh and local to their customers. 

Mike commented that the produce looked terrific, which it does. The main reason for that that our farmers have high tunnels. We do have some produce coming from the fields, but the farmers with two or more tables loaded with produce are mainly harvesting from their high tunnels which generally are unaffected by the rains. 

I hadn’t thought of this until Mike made his comment and I pointed out the farms at the market yesterday – Misty Morning has two tunnels, E & O has three, the Lee Family Farm has two, Yang Family Farm has three, Oakwoods has three (that's Doug putting up their third tunnel last year), Nature Valley has one, Harmony Hill has two, and Braker Farm has four.  That’s a lot of protected growing.

And we have at least three other farms which weren’t at the market yesterday who also have tunnels.

It all started over ten years ago when the market first partnered with MU Extension to hold high

tunnel workshops. Then we began our Winter Production Conferences which brought in national experts to teach our farmers, along with farmers from as far away as the Texas panhandle.

Training, state and federal support, and marvelous farmers are why even with difficult weather the market was loaded with fresh local produce yesterday – and will be tomorrow and Saturday. Oh, and there’s one more reason – customers!  The market just wouldn’t work without our customers who brave the rain or traffic to buy our farmers’ produce.

Someone else who benefits from our abundant produce are the kids who are also enjoying the taste of freshness. These are the menus for the Free Kids Meal.

Wednesday at the Webb City Library from noon to 1:  turkey, ham, and cheese wraps, apple sauce, market sugar snap peas, and milk.

 

Thursday at the market from 11 to 1: grilled hot dog, with apple sauce, market veggies, and milk.

Saturday at the market from 9 to 11:30:  Ham and egg casserole with a banana, milk and juice.

Tuesday at the market: homemade meatballs with spaghetti, apple sauce, market veggies, and milk.

The meal is free to all kids aged 1 through 18 regardless of where they live.

On Thursday the Webb City Police Department will be doing a free Kid Print at the Kids Tent. Parents and guardians can have their kids finger printed and take home the card. Hopefully it will just become a fun keepsake, but in the mean time they’ll have it in case of emergency.

FitFoods is serving roasted chicken, baked potato, salad and lemonade for $7 Thursday. MU Extension nutrition educators will be at the market with a good-for-you recipe to sample. Randy Corbin is on the market stage.

 

 Saturday is another special market, made even more so by the return of Marshal Mitchell. It’s been

several years since he’s been on the market stage but before he got so busy being in demand elsewhere he was a regular at the market. Likely he’ll have his cowboy hat on and be sitting on a saddle Saturday and I’m expecting his signature farewell of “Happy Trails to You.”  It will be a treat to have him back.

The Friends of the Webb City Library serve Cooking for a Cause. Biscuit and gravy, scrambled eggs, sausages, hashbrown casserole, market tomatoes slices, and coffee or juice for $6. The profits from your meal will help fund Clickety Clack and other Friends projects.

The Kids Garden Club meets Saturday and it’s all about sunflowers.

Tuesday Ghetto Taco will be at the market with street tacos, plus beans and rice if you want the full meal – which I always do because Carlotta’s beans are wonderful. Yoga starts at 5:45. Sorry, I don’t know who is playing so it will be a surprise!

What won’t be surprising?  Loads of fresh and local, good meals, good music, good fun, and good folks. See you at the market!

Update - Max Barnett is playing Tuesday.

Webb City Sentinel market column - 5-22-19

I am sitting in the market pavilion writing this column the day before the Sentinel comes out. It is sunny with a light breeze. Blue skies are full of white clouds. Bill Adkins is playing gently in the north end of the pavilion. Customers are perusing the selections, many holding the hand of a child or with a babe in arms. Quiet chattering mixes with the fragrance of hundreds of flowers filling the market. It is a delightful change from the dark skies and deluge of the morning. 

School is out at 11 am tomorrow here in Webb City and the market serves its first Free Summer Kids Meal of the year starting at 11:01. The menu is chicken salad with crackers and tossed green salad featuring lettuce mix, tomatoes, cucumbers and edible pod peas, all fresh from the market. Milk is served at every Kids Meal. Thursdays’ Kids Meals is served from 11 to 1.

This is our fourth year of Kids Meals which are open to all children aged 1 through 18 regardless of residency or income. We look forward to introducing lots of children to healthy local foods here at the market and, surprise!, also at the library. The market will supply lunch from noon to 1 for the library’s summer reading program this year, starting with the kickoff of “The Universe of Stories” this Saturday at the library and on each Wednesday until the “send off” on Saturday, July 27.

Fit Foods is serving chicken fried rice and lemonade for $5 tomorrow. Drew Pommert is on the market stage.

Saturday, the Webb City Choir Boosters serve breakfast at Cooking for a Cause from 9 to 11. The Saturday Kids Meal is from 9 to 11:30 and this week will be a market fruit parfait and a market-made muffin. 

Robert Scott Bruce is on the market stage. Robert, who lives in Indianapolis, stops by the market once a year when he heads to Oklahoma to visit his parents. This year his folks are coming to see him in Webb City so maybe we’ll get to meet them. Robert sings in many genres and many languages and will perform a mixture of world folk, classical and popular music this Saturday.

It’s Taco Tuesday at the market!  The Free Kids Meal will be a taco with a fiesta salad. The Kids Meal is served from 4:30 to 6:30 on Tuesdays. 

E & O farm inspection

Drew Pommert is back on the market stage. Yoga at the market starts at 5:45. This donation-based class is for beginners and intermediate students. You’re welcome to borrow one of the market’s mats if you’d like to give it a try. 

Ghetto Taco will be on hand with street tacos. But if you prefer Egg Roll Tuesday, try Song Bird Kitchen.

Blooms mean Blackberries!

I made the first of our farm visits last Friday. It is definitely one of the perks of volunteering at the market. The highlight of the day was seeing the flowers at E & O Farm. They were beautiful. Owen says Esther is the brains of the flower operation. If so, she is one smart lady. The combinations of colors, shapes, textures of their flowering baskets are breathtaking. They still have a good supply, as does Braker Farm, so stop by and find something beautiful to put in your life this week.

Another treat was visiting Fairhaven Gardens. My, do they ever have loaded blackberry bushes. I think it’s going to be a blackberry summer for the market. They are also raising quail which you can expect to arrive at the market soon (frozen). And of course their gardens are planted with lots of veggies as well.

I also stopped by Sunny Lane Farm. Owner Greg Rasmussen had moved the sheep up to the corral by the barn so I could get a good look, but I asked him to turn them out to the pasture because I was taking photos for our social media pro Rachael and sheep look better on grass, plus that’s where they normally live at the farm. He said “Sure, I’ll lead them to the pasture.”  And sure enough, he did. He walked into the corral, opened the gate to the fields and headed out to the far pasture with some forty sheep and lambs following along. I felt a bit like I was in a parable. I have probably never seen such a pastoral scene. Greg is thoughtful and kind and I guess it should be no surprise that he makes a good shepherd. 

This column started with delight at the market, moved to beauty at E & O and returned to delight at Sunny Lane. Beauty and delight can be found in the ordinary and the extraordinary and frequently in life at the market. May you find beauty and delight in your life this week.

Webb City Sentinel market column - 5-15-109

The market season continues to race along. I can hardly keep up. This Thursday we’ll still have plenty of flowers, both in baskets and handcrafted planters. Just Jake and Corky will be on the market stage. FitFoods and will serve “Build Your Own Burrito Bowl” – grilled chicken or shrimp, cilantro lime rice, salsa, guacamole, lettuce, cheese, corn and black bean salsa, plus lemonade for $7.

  You’ll notice another event happening in the kids’ tent Thursday. Sorry, it’s just for our city friends – city staff, employees, officials, and volunteers. We’ll hold our annual Thank You Lunch Thursday and we’re hoping for a big turnout – maybe even fire trucks and police cars! This is our way of recognizing all the help we receive from the city in so many ways. 

Yea! Fire trucks, police cars, public works, even a street sweeper!

When I go to state market meetings and tell them about the many ways our city supports the market, other managers are amazed. Often they are doing battle with their own city and here we are singing our city’s praises, and rightly so. There probably isn’t a department that hasn’t pitched in to make the market better. In fact, yesterday there was a team of park workers putting up our kids tent. We loan them our tent for the Easter Egg Hunt. They store it and put it up and take it down for us. Everybody wins!  (And speaking of winning, notice in the photo the permanent fence around the kids play area north of their tent.  The parks department had some surplus fencing and put it up for us.  It looks great and will make the area so much safer for the kids.  Yep, we've got a pretty fine city.)

On Saturday Beyond the Edge makes its debut at the market. This eclectic folk group has played at the market before in other configurations and with other names, one of which brought The Market Song to life. This is a song that is featured on our web site and is about our very own market. Listen for it Saturday. It’s lots of fun.

The Kids’ Garden Club is “What’s All the Buzz About?”  Kids will plant nasturtium whose bright blooms attract bees. There will be a bee craft and a bee anatomy coloring sheet. Helm Family Farm will have an observation hive on display and kids (and adults) can try on the gear that a beekeeper wears when working with bees. The Kids’ Garden Club is free and runs from 9 to noon.

Cooking for a Cause on Saturday benefits the Webb City High School Band Boosters.

On Tuesday, we have our first Eat Street at the Market. This new food truck event will run from 4 to 8:30 on the third Tuesday of the month. Parking will be a bit different because the food trucks will set up between the market pavilion and the market kitchen so there will be no drive through beside the market. Most folks will want to go south on Hall Street and access the market from Garrison Street where there will be plenty of parking. Handicapped parking will still be located north of the pavilion.

We’re starting small with just a few top quality eateries, live music, and a chalk drawing area for kids. As we learn more about food truck events, we hope to build this into a major monthly event. 

Our first Eat Street will feature Ghetto Taco with street tacos, Songbird Kitchens with Asian delights, Culver Creek Eatery with BBQ, Jim’s PB&J with gourmet sandwiches, and Apple Road Farms with sweets.

One reason we are blocking the road beside the market for Eat Street is that there is discussion of expanding the pavilion by building an arm west to the kitchen. We thought it wise to see what that would do to traffic and parking so we can anticipate any challenges before something permanent is set in concrete. Eat Street offers us the chance to see the future and adjust for success.

Yoga at the Market starts at 5:45 every Tuesday.

 

To race ahead a whole week – next Thursday is our first Free Kids Meal - chicken salad with crackers and market veggies. From the 23^rd of May through mid-August, we’ll have a tasty meal for kids aged 1 through 18 at every market. 

With school letting out, those of you associated with the schools may be looking for some meaningful volunteer work. Stop by the information table during market. Whether it’s a once a month helping with a kids activity or once a week driving the market cart or any number of other volunteer opportunities, we would welcome your help during this our busiest time when we’re full of produce, people, food, music, and fun.