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.

Webb City Sentinel market column - 5-8-19

Plants, plants everywhere! This Saturday is our biggest day of the year for plant sales. It’s the Mother’s Day Market. You will find stunning hanging baskets, bedding plants, both veggies and flowers, pots of herb plants, and handcrafted planters overflowing with flowers. The Mother’s Day Market is probably our most beautiful day.

 It also holds beautiful memories for me. At this market I especially think of my dear friend Cindy who not only had an amazing green thumb, but started out right with beautiful baskets of flowers from the market, gifted to her by her loving family. I expect her daughters, now exceptional mothers themselves, will be at the market Saturday buying their own baskets, following in her footsteps.

The market is celebrating Mother’s Day by having a drawing on Saturday for a pretty spectacular basket. It not only will have honey, soap, lotion, blueberry jam, apple butter, a handcrafted spoon holder, and a pie, but will also include flowers from E & O Produce AND from Braker Berry Farm. Here’s the catch. You don’t enter your name in the drawing. Instead you enter your mother’s or that of another mother dear to you. The winner will be drawn at 11:30 and the “basket” can be picked up at the market before 2 pm. Some mother is going to get an extra special market gift this year.

But if your mother does win don’t fret, because you can pick up lots of lovely gifts for her (or yourself). Jane’s Art Glass is back on Saturday with all kinds from pretty handcrafted art glass – some practical like spoon holders, some for fun and beauty like ornaments to hang in the window. Visit our soap crafters for delightful soaps, lotions, and bath bombs. 

My mother always expected something personal, i.e. not something for the kitchen!. But if your mom feels differently, you might consider sharpening her knives Saturday, or picking up some local raw honey, or smoked salts or seasonings, or freshly roasted coffee beans. Or bring dinner home in the form of an artisan pasta dish from MaMa JoJo’s or a fresh fruit or green salad from FitFoods.

Better yet, bring her to the market for breakfast and let her stroll through the market and pick out her own present(s). Cooking for a Cause benefits the Ronald McDonald House. This special place provides a home away from home for families with a seriously ill child or an ill expectant mother being treated at Mercy Hospital or Freeman Hospital. It’s a big day for us because we’re both celebrating 20 years!. There will be a custom-made coloring page for kids celebrating our partnership for family health. Breakfast will be scrambled eggs, sausages, biscuit and gravy, hash brown casserole, and coffee or juice for $6. 

Scott Eastman will be on the market stage Saturday. 

To back up a few days, tomorrow will be a great day to pick up some of that produce that goes so fast on Saturdays. Brakers and Harmony have the first of the tomatoes. Fue Yang has strawberries, they’ll go really fast. And of course the tables are loaded with greens, sweet potatoes, green garlic, asparagus, green onions, rhubarb, carrots, radishes, and much more.

Just Jake and Corky play on Thursday.  FitFoods will serve two choices for lunch, both with lemonade included – Oven fried chicken and pasta salad for $7 and chicken salad in a lettuce cup for $5.

The weekday markets are a great time to shop the market. There’s a good selection of produce, meat, eggs, honey, baked goods and more, but the parking is easy and the pavilion less crowded.

On Tuesday we expect freshly prepared Asian and Mexican food for supper. Yoga at the Market starts at 5:45. Richard H. Hughes performs. And, yes, we will probably have lots of plants.

The last average frost date is long past. Time to get your plants!