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.