Webb City Sentinel market column - 1/9/19

It’s a wrap – part two.  Last week’s column featured some of 2018 at the market and though I have no hope of covering everything, I’ll share some other highlights of 2018 in this column.

Perhaps the most important event was the decision of the city council to help secure the market’s future.  

Dad with his first great-granchild

About three years ago, it became clear that the market should not rely solely on a volunteer manager. If you know me and my family, you know that date coincides with the death of my father, Bob

Nichols.  Dad was a force for good and a leader in many areas.  Losing him left a big gap, not only for me, but also for the community and it made me realize how unwise it was for the market to rely so heavily on me, a volunteer.  I won’t live forever, and I plan to spend much of my future time with my grandchildren, being a good influence I hope!

Remember the market before paved parking?  The city has been good to us!

I wrote a grant that allowed us to hire a manager and by the end of that grant the market had increased its revenue sufficiently to pay 50% of the payroll.  Thankfully, the city has stepped in to pay the other half.  That should secure the future of the market, regardless of my efforts.  With a paid position, the market can be sure of a manager.  Of course, the market continues to work towards more self sufficiency.  Getting the market kitchen fully in use is a big piece of that, so send food businesses our way.  We have a great kitchen, inspected by the health department, with reasonable rates.  It’s just the place for a start up or small business.

We continue to depend on volunteers.  At every market you will see one, or two or more volunteers helping at the market.  During the summer you’ll often see even more.  We have a software consultant that keeps our data in order, a CPA that handles our bookkeeping, folks who drive the market cart, who help with the kids’ meals and kids’ activities and many others.  Plus our vendors pitch in, whether it’s setting up umbrellas or cleaning the bathrooms.  We are, as a consultant once said, labor-intensive, but that’s how we like it because that means we’re keeping all the “T”s crossed and the “I”s dotted.  I’m a big fan of clean bathrooms and safe comfortable facilities, happy, well fed kids, and a welcoming community.

 

The fire & police department brought in lots to show the kids

So hats off to the city that helps us be that welcoming safe community.  And to the parks workers who are such wonderful market partners, and to the police and fire departments who interact with the kids at the market. And while we’re talking about local government, let’s not forget the Jasper County Health Department who helps us make sure the market kitchen puts out safe food, whether for the market customers or the customers of our renters, and that the market vendors are handling food safely.

At the state level, we can’t forget the Missouri Arts Council which has helped with our music program for 16 years.

The nutrition educators at MU Extension shared recipes and tips with our customers almost every week last summer.  And of course our terrific MU Extension and Lincoln Co-operative Extension horticulture educators are a constant source of information and guidance for farmers that sell at the market and at other markets throughout the region. 

Here I am, out of room again, but we’ll leave 2018 here because this year, 2019, deserves all our attention.  The market is 20 years old this year!

The forecast is snowy this Saturday, but as long as the roads are not icy we should be open.  You can call the market manager (and that would not be me!) for an update at 417 499-4831 or the market’s facebook page.  Right now the forecast is calling for temperatures above freezing, so we should be good.

I hope so because we expect a lovely market.  The Kids Garden Club starts up Saturday with the ever popular Face-on-a-Pot.  Kids get to make a face on a flower pot and plant wheat grass which then sprouts into green “hair”.  Its free, courtesy of our wonderful master gardener volunteer Eric.

Mama JoJo’s will serve their hearty breakfast and their artisan pasta with sauce and a bread stick for eat-in or take-away.  Little People’s Garden will sell their fresh egg rolls.  Richard Roberts is on the market stage.

In addition to fresh, local produce, we expect freshly roasted coffee beans, baked goods, lots of eggs – chicken, quail and duck! – honey, meats, smoked salts and spices, soaps and more.  After our brief spring this week, bundle up and come back to the winter market.  Hurray for 2019!

Webb City Sentinel market column - 1/2/19

It’s a wrap! 2018 is in the record books, (and what fun to see we made the Sentinel's annual review - above) though we haven’t run the numbers yet to see if we made any records. Given the hit the peach crop took this year, probably not. Peaches are a major crop for us so when they are damaged by a late freeze we always see sales goes down even if sales went up in other areas – like artisan pasta. We welcomed Chef Amos and his crew to the market this year and have enjoyed his fresh pasta and sauces and wonderful breakfasts. 

MaMa JoJo’s Pasta is truly a moveable feast. They pull up with their long trailer and set up almost 20 feet of professional equipment in the pavilion. And they have also placed equipment in the kitchen allowing all of us access to professional meat slicing and hopefully later this year, to commercial steaming. 

Another wrap this year was the market’s Year-Round Education Center located on the Yang Farm. (Above - One of 2 high tunnels at the Center as a group takes a tour.)  This three-year project trained many area farmers and want-to-be farmers in managing high tunnels and seed houses. It also gave our Extension team deep hands on experience with year-round growing. Even I learned a few things! Like how important air circulation is for plants and the symptoms and treatment for the dreaded Southern Blight, which a decade ago was unheard of in Missouri but has lately been appearing at several south Missouri farms.

One of our most important accomplishments at the Education Center was a person – Fue Yang. Fue agreed to serve as manager for the center which was located on his parents’ farm. He was the unanimous choice of our board and of the Hmong community. He was young, committed to a career in farming, spoke Hmong and English fluently, centrally located for the Hmong farming community and had embarked on an Ag Business degree from Crowder College. Three years later, our hopes were exceeded. He has his degree and just completed his second year as an advisor to Lincoln University’s Cooperative Extension, visiting Hmong farms with their team.  He is well skilled in protected growing and in record-keeping.  (Below, mentor Karen Scott works with Center manager Fue Yang)

From the beginning, though, our goal was to assist all area farmers interested in expanding their growing seasons and more than 75% of the farmers who participated in workshops and training at the farm were native born farmers. It was a success on all areas. 

Even when we hit road blocks like the appearance of Southern Blight in the heated tunnel, we learned from loss by focusing on hygiene issues (providing booties to visitors so soil born disease would not spread) and on alternatives. After consulting with the nationally-recognized experts that we work with in our Tomato School, Fue implemented a bag method in the heated tunnel to isolate the blight under heavy weed barrier. Our Extension team will analyze the data to see if production was affected by this change in growing technology.

We can do this because Fue has weighed and tracked all the harvests and sales by date and crop from the two high tunnels at the center, providing the first solid data on high tunnel growing in our region.

With that data farmers can better determine the cost benefit ratio of high tunnel production by crop in Southwest Missouri.

Goodness, I’m out of room and haven’t nearly covered the year.  More historical review will wait for next week because I need the rest of this column for actual news.

First of all, come buy eggs! We should have lots. And egg rolls! The Little People’s Garden draws raves for their made-at-the market egg rolls. And greens! ‘Tis the season of greens and you’ll find plenty of all kinds – lettuce, lettuce mixes, kale, spinach, wheat grass, microgreens. 

And come to eat! Mama JoJo’s Pasta will have their bountiful hot breakfast, as well as pasta with sauces for lunch to eat at the market or take out. Start the year out right with Ghetto Taco’s award-winning street tacos. They’re doing a market special of three tacos, rice and beans for $7.

Scott Eastman will be on the market stage setting all this activity to music. 

Now that Christkindlmarket is over, we’ll cozy up in the center and north sections of the pavilion. We’ll be full of food, local produce, baked goods, honey, eggs, smoked seasonings, freshly roasted coffee beans, meats, pastas, plus our knife sharpener and both our soap makers. 2019 is off to a great start!  See you there.