It almost felt like fall at the market yesterday. With school starting and the market going to its autumn schedule, that coolness felt right, and welcome. And the new schedule is welcome as well, for me. The Thursday market is tucked in for the year. The Free Kids Meals are wrapped up. Those two things free up almost 10 hours of my time each week. No more carving up melons for 100s of kids. I was happy to do it and, now, I’m happy not to!
We still have mountains of summer crops being harvested. There
is certainly no shortage of tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, etc. But the fall
crops are appearing, like boc choy, broccoli, and winter squash. Owen has been
bringing some fall flowering plants as well and I’m sure the mums and pumpkins
won’t be far behind.
We’ll be open on Tuesdays and Saturdays through mid-October
and then go to our winter schedule of Saturdays only. This Saturday we’re
expecting 12 produce farms, plus a mushroom grower and a flower grower. Sunny
Lane and Garret’s will be on hand with beef, pork, lamb, and chicken. Maypop
Flower Farm will have bouquets, as will Vang Garden. There will be baked goods
from Harmony Hill, Redings Mill, and Sunflower Bakery. Clear Water Shrimp Farm
will have fresh locally farmed shrimp, Hillside Farm is coming with elephant
garlic. MaMa JoJo’s will have artisan pasta, both uncooked to prepare at home
and ready-to-eat with market made sauces. Fair Haven will have jams and
je
llies, Helms will be there with honey and honey products. Juniper Coffee will
sell freshly roasted coffee and coffee drinks, Kings Kettle Corn will have a
selection of popcorn. 2Ts Soap will be on hand with their handcrafted soaps and
grooming products. Good Golly Tamale will be at the market Saturday. I was
hoping their tamales would match the tamale vendors we had several years ago. Well,
it matches perfectly because the new vendor worked for the former vendor who is
no longer in business and uses the original recipe. Yep, autumn may be on the
way and our hours may be shorter, but that doesn’t mean the market is
dwindling.
Ran
dy Corbin and Phil Greer will be on the market stage
Saturday. Market staff and volunteers will run Cooking for a Cause and all the
profits will go toward our parking lot project. With the city’s help, we hope
this fall to get the south parking lot expanded and organized and to have a south
exit to Hall Street put in. This is a critical project for the market. We firmly
believe the market is crippled by lack of parking and good traffic flow. This
project should go a long way toward relieving that problem and we have to give
Councilman Jim Dawson credit for pointing us toward that solution and city
manager Carl Francis for encouraging us and helping us put it on paper. It’s a
sizeable project financially but we’re well on our way to raising the necessary
funds. This Saturday, we hope to get a little closer especially if you come
enjoy a hot breakfast packed to go (but you can eat it at the market if you
want). Scram
bled eggs, biscuit and gravy, sausages, hashbrown casserole, and
juice or coffee for $6. Breakfast is served from 8:30 to 11.
I just want to give a short testimonial about the market’s
abundance right now. There are always product gaps we’re looking to fill. Now
that I’ve retired, that’s our manager’s job and she has done a great job this
summer. Let’s hear it for fresh local shrimp, tamales, and mushrooms. Rachael
is still on the lookout to fill in other gaps or make sure we have the
abundance we want. Sadly, the corn crop
failed throughout the area and we’ve pretty much gone without it this summer. But
that’s not on the farmers or the manager, that’s on 
Mother Nature. We’ll hope
for better corn-growing weather next year.
But back to mushrooms. After several years of being without any
mushrooms at all, we now have two mushroom growers and they grow different
mushrooms so we have abundance in choice as well as 
quantity. I have bought
from both growers and have found both to be excellent. My husband, Phil, is our
mushroom cook. He slices them and sautés them in butter, with herbs, and a
little white wine. Then he pairs them with grass-fed beef or shrimp. Delicious!
The Tuesday market will feature Ghetto Taco for supper. We’ll
have a good selection of vendors. In addition to our produce growers, our
mushroom farmers, tamale makers, elephant garlic grower, and other specialties
have been coming to the Tuesday market. It’s also pick up day for the market’s
online store. Orders should be placed by 11:59 Sunday evening for pickup, but
you can hop online anytime to order. I ad
ded another market product this week –
1 quart of freshly cut watermelon for $4. That makes three cut melon choices
online – watermelon, cantaloupe, and a medley of watermelon, cantaloupe, and
canary melon, each a 1 quart and each $4. Sometimes a whole melon is too much so
this makes a good option, and you don’t have to carry those heavy rinds out in
the trash. You can order at localline.ca/webb-city-farmers-market.
See you at the market!
