Steak Pizzaiola anyone? The engaging, passionate and effusive Chuck Lonardo is demonstrating Steak Pizzaiola at the market tomorrow. It will feature meat from Sunny Lane Farm and peppers from Green’s Greenhouse. I guarantee you will be both entertained and delighted.
Another treat in store is chili for Super Bowl
Sunday. Linda Stewart (aka Stewart’s Bakery) is selling it for take-out by the
pint, quart and gallon. Now, this was new to me, but there are folks around
here who think you should have a cinnamon roll to cap off your chili. (Personally,
I need no excuse at all to have a cinnamon roll.) Apparently, the Carl Junction schools always
serve that combo. So Linda is making up a big batch of her cinnamon rolls and
will sell them singly, in pairs or by the half dozen tomorrow. Of course, you
don’t have to wait for the Super Bowl. You can enjoy the chili and cinnamon
roll right at the market as well as a breakfast of biscuit and gravy, sausage,
scrambled eggs and hash brown casserole.
Want to keep up with the bakery? Search for “Stewarts Bakery” on facebook.
William Adkins takes the market stage. At 10 am Andrew McGowan and Sam Burnside
perform a bit of their preshow for "Love Letters" which will be on
February 11 at Joplin Little Theatre. "Love Letters" stars our very own
volunteer cart driver De Hunt and his talented wife Gwen.
We should have lots of lovely fresh produce. Oakwoods
had wheat grass last week and lots of other beautiful greens. It is a great
time of year to load up on beautiful tender lettuces.
I got to visit Oakwoods Farm this week in
preparation for our Winter Production Conference coming up on February 13 and
14. Oakwoods will be the site of our farm visit. In past conferences we’ve
visited Braker Berry Farm, Greens Greenhouse and Garden, and Center Creek Farm where
we saw a variety of winter production structures and activities. Oakwoods will
be equally educational with its two low tech high tunnels in full production, its
seed starting greenhouse, post production space and dual cooling storage spaces.
We’ll also be learning about field production and protection during the winter
and get lessons on the hand tools they use as well as their value-added
production (in layman’s terms – how they make their chili seasoning). It will
be the perfect way to end what we think is going to be our best conference yet. 
But back to tomorrow - we’re expecting ten
farmers with a wide variety of local produce and five ranchers with eggs, pork, beef, chicken and lamb. Penn Acres even had duck eggs last week.
We also expect to have freshly roasted coffee beans, raw food bars, pecans,
jams and jellies, good-for-you handcrafted cracker, kettle corn, and handmade
soaps.
Last Saturday’s Kids Garden Club was a big hit.
About 40 children put faces on clay pots and seeded them with wheat grass. Hopefully
they are now faithfully watering them and keeping them in a sunny window. The
Kids Garden Club returns next week with a fun gardening activity.
Brave the cold, we’ll not only have the lights
on for you, but also the big heaters. See you tomorrow.
