Webb City Sentinel market column - 5/30/18

We started our kids meals off with a bang Saturday.  Last year our highest meal count on a Saturday was about 90.  Last Saturday we almost hit 200!  And the amazing part was that our head cook, Kelly, wasn't even phased.  "I fixed for a few extra."  Going to a breakfast for the first hour and a lunch for the last two seems more responsive to family plans.  We thought from the beginning that Saturdays were going to be a busy day for the kids meal and now, with the new schedule, it appears that they will be.  

My grandkids are visiting for a couple of weeks and 2-year-old Wyatt enjoyed his first kids meal yesterday.  He loved the taco, not so much the market veggies.  But he did follow his parents rule and take a bite of the sugar snap peas, cucumber and tomato.  It helped that I took a bite first.  Folks who know say just keep reintroducing new foods to children and they'll come to enjoy them.  I was really pleased that during the state's annual meal training I learned that it was OK for parents to encourage their children by modeling with a bite.  Adults are not to eat the kids' food but if it helps them try the cucumber, sure, Dad, take a little bite and rave!  Also be sure to stop by the MU Extension cooking demo.  The nutrition educators plan to be at the market pretty most Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Yesterday's recipe was kale chips using market kale.  Eden said she had lots of folks surprised to find them tasty.

Tomorrow we're open from 11 to 2.  The free kids meal is served from 11 to 1 and will be beef nachos, market veggies and milk.  Apple Road Farm is serving chicken jambalaya with homemade rolls and dessert for $6.  Just Jake and Corky are on the market stage.  We'll have all our usual Thursday vendors, plus The Red Tamale.  They are doing a great business on Saturday but don't want to miss our weekday customers so they're giving two days a week a try.  Extension is demonstrating kale smoothies.

Saturday is another full day.  The kids meal is biscuit and gravy, orange juice and milk from 9 to 10.  From 10:10 to noon, it is a hot dog, market veggies and milk.  Cooking for a Cause - scrambled farm fresh eggs, sausage, biscuit and gravy, slices of local tomato, hashbrown casserole, coffee or juice for $6 - will benefit the Webb City High School Reddettes.

The Granny Chicks will be on the market stage.  Spiva is bringing Veggie Art to the market.  This fun event is free and lets kids create their own art using market veggies.  Colorful and fun creatures emerge from the pile of squash, zucchini or whatever else is in good supply.  (File photo is of Katey Fredrickson at our zukemobile day a loooong time ago.  Katey is a teenager now!)  

 

What a kid can do with a zuke!  

Another free event that everyone will enjoy is a ride on Old No. 60.  Webb City's restored streetcar will pull out of the depot just west of the market about every 20 minutes from 9 to noon.  The ride through the park only takes about 15 minutes.

We restart our WIC coupon program on Saturday.  Families can bring their WIC coupons once a week to the information table and receive two $5 coupons good for fresh, uncut fruits and vegetables, meat and eggs.  The coupons are good only for the day they are received and, of course, no change is given.  This program is funded through many sources, all private.  Empty Bowls organized by Phoenix Fired Art is the major funder, but we also have done several fundraisers right at the market, Central United Methodist Church makes a monthly donation and individuals chip in too.  We have one long-time customer who drops by a ten dollar bill for the program almost every week.  This is a very popular program and deeply appreciated.  We would love to offer it year round and welcome any additional support - we'll need it just to make it through the summer!  

 

We will be running  our own Empty Bowls fundraiser in June and July - the exact date will be determined by the blackberry harvest.  We think it will be July 18.  Phoenix Fire has given the market hundreds of handcrafted bowls for the fundraiser and Stewart's Bakery has volunteered to organize the contents of the bowls which will feature market blackberries in a delicious dessert.  We'll start displaying bowls in a couple of weeks and we would really like to find some additional locations to display and sell the bowls.  If you have a business or organization that would host a display, please let us know.  We love the idea of combining the visual art of the bowls with the culinary arts of the blackberry dessert with the living art of creating a healthier, most generous community.  Want to help?  Stop by the information table or give me a call at 417 483-8139.

Finally, of course, we'll be open on Tuesday. Stewart's Bakery will serve lasagna, green salad and garlic bread for $6.  Ghetto Taco will have street tacos.  The Free Kids Meal is served from 4:30 to 6:30.  Garrett's Family Farm will be at the market with beef, chicken, pork and farm fresh eggs.  We will welcome a new vendor on Tuesday - Song Lee who makes some of the best egg rolls we've ever tasted.  Tuesday is becoming the meal highlight of the week. (Except, of course, we also have delicious meals on Thursday and Saturday!)

Carol Parker was at the market doing a live remote yesterday and she remarked on the good selection available - from honey, to baked goods, to meals, to lots of growers.  I had to agree.  It's going to be a very good year on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays!  See you there.

Webb City Sentinel market column - 5/22/18

Master Gardeners work with the kids.

The potato patch is in place at the Kids Community Garden (with the help of over 200 children) and now we’re getting excited about the Free Summer Meals for Kids! The meals start on Saturday which is the first market day after school is out. We’re changing up the Saturday meal a bit this year. Last year we found that many kids had already eaten breakfast by the time they came to market so this year we’re doing breakfast from 9 to 10, then taking ten minutes to switch out to lunch which will be served until noon. The menu this Saturday is a breakfast served from 9 to 10 - pancake and sausage on a stick, orange juice and milk, followed by lunch served from 10:10 to noon – ham and cheese sandwich, market veggies and milk. Families who want to spend the morning in the park can feed the kids breakfast, do a little shopping or listen to music, head over to the splash pad, enjoy a walk, or feed the geese and then come back for lunch. 

Beginning Saturday, we’ll serve the meal at every market. This Tuesday’s meal, served from 4:30 to 6:30 pm, is soft tacos, market veggies and milk. Next Thursday’s meal, served from 11 to 1, is beef nachos, market veggies and milk.

Children, from ages 1 through 18, may eat for free. There are no income or residency requirements.

Tomorrow (remember, no kids meal yet!), Extension is demonstrating a recipe using kohlrabi. This veggie originates from Germany and to me tastes a bit like the stem of broccoli only crunchier. Many people, myself included, prefer the stem over the head because it is sweeter. Be sure to try kohlrabi which is good raw or cooked.

We have a new musical team – Randy Corbin and Phil Greer – playing on Thursday. Apple Road Farm will serve baked pasta with meat sauce and cheese, a side salad, bread and dessert for $6.

Hopefully you’ll notice some activity in the Kids tent, but not by kids. We are serving our annual Thank You meal there Thursday for city employees and the park board and city council. It’s our small way of acknowledging how much the city does for the market. The park workers and public works have helped us out many times. So has the fire department, which among other things, sent a crew over complete with fire truck to help get the sidings on the pavilion before the first winter storm last fall. The police are a regular presence at the market keeping an eye on things and during the summer they coming once a month to do KidPrints for children. The city council, the park board, the city hall staff and water department all provide support and encouragement that is essential to our success. 

Saturday, the police department will do their first KidPrint of the summer. Parents will receive their children’s cards with their fingerprints. Hopefully these cards will be lovely mementos and never used as crime solving tools. Of course, we’ll have free breakfast for kids from 9 to 10 and free lunch from 10:10 to noon.

Breakfast for the adults is served from 9 to 11. All profits from Cooking for a Cause will benefit the Webb City High School Choir Boosters.

The Pommerts perform on the market stage.

The Kids Garden Club will transplant impatiens and butterfly flowers and will color “Fierce Flowers”.

Next Tuesday Scott Eastman is playing and Ghetto Taco will serve street tacos for supper.

Now for what you really want to know – what’s in season?  Well, the yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers came into their own at yesterday’s market. We’ve gone from just a few to piles of them. And, yes, it is early for that kind of abundance but our farmers really know how to grow. Sadly, they can’t control the weather and so the strawberry crop has suffered from the downpours we’ve had lately. 

Even so, we had several hundred quarts yesterday, but that was not nearly enough to satisfy demand. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and we’ll see a bigger harvest. We still have asparagus but that will soon be a memory so enjoy it while you can. Pate’s Orchard will be at the market Saturday with tomatoes and cucumbers. John tells me that the peach crop came through the freezes well but will be a little late this year. Look for peaches toward the end of June.

Something else to look for - our Turquoise Tables. The Turquoise Tables movement is a quiet national movement encouraging folks to build community by painting a table turquoise and moving it to the front or side yard rather than the back yard. And sitting at it two or three times a week, inviting others to sit there as well, with or without you. A team of volunteers came last Saturday from Joplin with paint donated by Sherwin Williams and painted the two tables we had sanded and ready.

It seemed like a natural fit for the market where all are welcome and invited to sit and visit with old and new friends. Probably all of our tables should be turquoise but having only two will make them stand out and be our way of saying “Welcome, stay and visit for a while.”  Let’s build community. We look forward to seeing you this week.

Webb City Sentinel market column - 5-16-18

Yes, we still have beautiful hanging baskets!

We’re in for another busy week at the market. Today we work with the kindergarten and middle school to plant the Kids Community Garden. 

This year it’s going to be a potato patch. Since it’s hard to gather a gardening crew when school is out and someone has decided to steal most of our tomato cages and stakes, we’re putting in a crop that grows underground and will need virtually no maintenance. The kids still get the pleasure of planting and the joy of discovery during harvest without all the hard work in between. Plus it seems unlikely that anyone will bother to steal the potatoes!

Thursday we welcome a “new” food vendor – Apple Road Farm. If that name sounds familiar it’s because they sometimes sell honey at the market and Mende does pie making classes at the market kitchen every year. She has signed on to do the Thursday lunch and to sell baked goods at the market. Her menu tomorrow is rosemary garlic pork loin, roast potato medley, skillet-fried green beans and dessert for $6. Doesn’t that sound tasty?

Baked goods she’s planning to bring include cookies, cupcakes, an assortment of yeast breads, muffins and possibly a few pies. 

The Hairy Vetch String Band plays tomorrow. University of Missouri Extension nutrition educators are demonstrating a veggie stir fry using lemongrass. Lemongrass is used in Thai cooking to add flavor and aroma. The Lee Family Farm is selling lemongrass plants so you can harvest your own. 

With Braker, E & O and Fairhaven all coming tomorrow we should have a “Saturday” selection of hanging baskets and plants. The produce has been rolling in lately and we’re really starting to look like a farmers market in all its glory.

Saturday will be busy with breakfast benefiting the Ronald McDonald House. Their volunteer landscaping team serves the breakfast and uses the profits to landscape the House each year.

The Granny Chicks will perform.

“Clickety Clack – We’re Reading Down the Track” is running from 9 to noon. The featured book is The Lost Crown of Sodor, a Thomas the Tank Engine book. The free streetcar ride pulls out every 20 minutes. Reservations can be made on the market’s Facebook page or you can just show up and wait for a seat. There will be a Thomas model train set running in the pavilion, as well as a children’s craft table.

Fresh Ground Seed Library, a master gardener project, will be at the market for the last time this year giving away free flower and vegetable seeds.

We’ll have all our usual growers and other vendors Saturday as well as Tami Fredrickson’s grandpa Jim Oxley with his delightful hand sewn dresses for little girls. His timing is great. I have an order for sun dresses from my soon-to-be 7-year-old granddaughter. She’s growing like a weed and needs a new supply.

I don’t have the details on the Tuesday market yet, but you can be sure it will include a meal and music and loads of fresh produce, beautiful flowers, baked goods and other lovely choices.

We’re making plans for summer. School will be out next week which means we start our Free Kids Meal a week from Saturday. Fun, fun, fun!!!

See you at the market.

Webb City Sentinel market column 5/8/18

This Saturday is our Mother’s Day Market, one of the biggest markets of the year in every respect. The pavilion will be full of growers and other vendors, we expect lots of customers and usually sales skyrocket (although that term might be more appropriate for our BIGGEST day of the year – our Independence Day Market – which will be Tuesday, July 3, this year.)

Why the excitement about the Mother’s Day Market?  Flowers! That’s the day our growers aim for when they plant because flowers make such lovely gifts for moms, grandmothers and other special folks. We will be loaded with hanging baskets and planters, as well as bedding plants. It may be our prettiest market of the year.

And there will be other delightful gifts as well – Jane’s Glass Art, Twitters ‘n’ Tweets bird seed wreaths, Rada utensils from Joplin Business Women, baked treats and more. 

It will be a fun day for the kids too. The Kids Garden Club will plant sweet potato slips and learn about sweet potatoes. Adults are welcome to learn about sweet potatoes too. I plan to stop because I have heard about slips for years and we have planted them in the Kids Community Garden but I have no idea why the plants are called slips. I think it’s the propagation method but after Saturday I’ll know for sure.

Cooking for a Cause benefits “Inch at a Time”. According to Debra Royce, the driving force behind the project, “Inch at a Time was started to raise $500,000.00 to build a new track and football field with artificial turf. If the community raised $500,000,the school board agreed to build the $2.5 million facility. As of this date, we have raised $475,000.00.  We have had some donations but the majority of the money came from selling hot dogs, hamburgers, and tacos at every school event.  Cooking for a Cause has been a big help.”   

I love that our community comes out to support this smaller school system. It shows heart and generosity. And, let’s face it, our market includes many vendors, customers, musicians and even volunteers who are not Webb City residents. Our community extends far beyond city limits and we are the better for it. So come support Sarcoxie and enjoy a good breakfast.

Richard Hugh Roberts will be playing on the market stage. He is such a versatile musician that I can’t guarantee his repertoire but I bet it will include some pieces from the Great American Songbook.

To back up a bit, tomorrow Rob Pommert will be on the market stage and Granny Shaffers is making a special appearance at the market. We are between regular lunch providers and Mike Wiggins agreed to step in with his delicious chicken salad sandwiches. Only $4. Lunch starts at 11 until they run out.

Tuesday Ghetto Taco is back with their popular street tacos and Scott Eastman plays.

Now just for those of you who made it to the end of the column – the first of the strawberries are ripe! We only had about 40 quarts yesterday but we have a larger supply next week.

But don’t wait till next week to come! See you soon at the market.

Webb City Sentinel market column - 5/2/18

I know you’ve heard it before, but the markets are just getting better – especially if you like asparagus!  We’re hitting high season for the tender green veggie. Get it while you can, asparagus season is too short.

Tomorrow, we host a special Cooking for a Cause. Enjoy a bbq pork sandwich, baked beans, chips, drink and dessert for $5 while helping us buy books for the new streetcar event, Clickety Clack – We’re Reading Down the Track. Held every third Saturday from 9 to noon at the depot west of the market, the next Clickety will feature a Thomas the Tank Engine book. The meal will be served from 11 to 1. Buffalo Creek Incident will play.

We’ll have lots of fresh local produce and dozens of hanging baskets. Tim Green will have his tomato and herb plants, Fairhaven their lovely rustic planters and Sunny Lane Farm, their all-natural beef, chicken, lamb and pork. And, of course, lots of other good things.

On Saturday, we will be packed with fun. It’s our annual Let’s Plant a Tomato Day when every child (through college!) gets a tomato plant expertly grown by Tim and Vi Green. (That's Tim below.)

The General Mills Relay for Life team will serve breakfast. General Mills donates all the biscuits we use for Cooking for a Cause which allows us to raise even more money for the many nonprofits who serve. Be sure and say thanks as you get your delicious scrambled farm fresh eggs, sausage, biscuit and gravy, hashbrown casserole and OJ or coffee for $6. 

The Fresh Ground Seed Library will give out free seeds on Saturday.

The streetcar will give free rides around the park. The Granny Chicks will be on the market stage.

 Dinner's Ready will be at the market Saturday with locally made frozen crockpot meals:  White Chicken Chili, Taco Soup; Vegetable and Ground Beef Stew,Pork Tenderloin with Potatoes and Carrots.  Cost-$15 Serves 4

Next Tuesday William Adkins will play and Ghetto Taco is back with their street tacos.

The no animals in the pavilion rule went into effect this week and so far we seem to have gotten the word out. We sure didn’t want to turn folks away if they arrive with a pet so we’ve been working for weeks, letting people know about the change. Hopefully the transition will continue to go smoothly.

How can it already be May?  Before long, school will be out and we’ll be serving the Free Kids Summer Meals. One change this year is that on Saturdays we will serve the kids breakfast from 9 to 10 and then from 10:10 to noon we’ll serve them lunch. (We’ll need 10 minutes to reset the serving tables.)  Last year we noticed that a lot of kids had already eaten breakfast before they arrived, especially if it was later during the market. So we hope to serve more children by serving lunch. Our first Free Kids Summer Meal will be Saturday, May 26.

Speaking of free, we still have some free seedlings to give away tomorrow and Saturday – serviceberry, deciduous holly and spicebush.   Be sure to grab some!

If all goes well, the sides are being rolled up on the pavilion after tomorrow’s market. That’s our way of saying it’s time for this weather to settle down!!

We’ll see you at the market, rain or shine.