Webb City Sentinel's market column - Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Fall is rushing past us. E & O Produce has almost sold out of their gloriously in-full-bloom mums, but

Braker Berry Farm has a good supply that have blooms still tightly tucked in so they will be unfolding for several weeks. And then, folks, we’ll be done with Tuesday market for the year. I’ll keep you posted, but it’s looking like two or three more Tuesdays right now.

Saturdays, of course, keep going all year, changing with the seasons but always offering the best of local produce and artisan goods. This Saturday we’re looking forward to Allphin Orchard returning. They have had their share of struggles this year, primarily in the critter department. Jim Allphin told me he put up a game camera and it looked like an invasion each night as the deer enjoyed the fruits that were supposed to be his harvest. Even the wind falls, the apples which fall to the ground and which his family normally gathers for their own cider, have been spirited away by ground hogs. He hasn’t come up with a solution for the ground hogs yet but he has installed an electric fence. The one around his garden has kept deer out so he’s hoping one around the orchard will do the same. 

I was once in San Francisco presenting at a conference and was able to go on some of the farm tours connected with the conference. One stop was a Buddhist monastery nestled between the ocean and the wooded foot hills. The monastery had large gardens which were harvested for sale at area farmers markets. One of my fellow bus travelers asked the farm manager if she had trouble with critters. She was an articulate and attractive young woman, garbed in what I would call hippie type clothes and wearing dread locks. She looked bewildered at the question as if she did not understand so the man repeated his question “Deer. Do you have trouble with deer.”  “Ah, no,” she responded, “we always plant the two rows nearest the woods for the animals. The deer rarely venture out further than that and all the other creatures are usually kept pretty close to the woods by the hawks.”   The Buddhist solution to critters was apparently to not see them as a problem.

I don’t think Jim has any hawks so I’m glad he isn’t going to let the critters have ALL the apples.

We’re using some of those apples in a breakfast dish this Saturday. Cooking for a Cause ended with September and breakfast is going to be a little different for the rest of the year.

The market staff, with the help of a few volunteers, is serving breakfast to raise funds for one of our favorite charities – the market! And the menu will change each week. This Saturday it will be pancakes and sausage, along with apple & butternut squash casserole. Breakfast will be packed to go, and you’ll probably want to eat it at home because the forecast is for cold weather this weekend. We’re keeping the side walls up, probably until Thanksgiving, so the market remains super safe. The CDC says the great outdoors is the safest place for shopping. We’ll see how much of the great outdoors we can stand in the winter. So dress for the weather. We sure will.

Something else new for this unusual year is the Free Kids Meal which we are starting up again this Saturday. The USDA has continued the waiver that allowed us to serve during the school

year last spring. We will serve a hot breakfast to go along with a packed lunch every Saturday. The kids meals are served from 9 to 11 and each child, age 1 through 18, receives both breakfast and lunch, regardless of income or residency. This Saturday the breakfast is pancakes, apple & butternut squash casserole, and milk. The lunch is a wrap featuring ham, cream cheese, and fresh market veggies, watermelon, and milk. Parents can pick up meals for their kids if they prefer not to bring them. Just show us a photo of them with you so we can get a head count.

This Saturday we expect 10 farms and two ranches, plus DnD Smoked, Good Golly Tamale, Juniper Coffee, MaMa JoJo’s Pasta, Redings Mill Bread, Songbird’s Kitchen, and Sunflower Bakery. I have mixed feelings about such a good turnout of vendors because that means I’ll be at market before 7 am helping put up canopies on our south tents before I start flipping about a hundred pancakes. Having that extra 80 feet of

vendor space has allowed us to spread out so the market isn’t crowded. And it feels great to not have to worry that I’ll find the tents in a tangle again. Twice was two times too many. Without the canopies on, the wind just blows through the metal frames and leaves them unharmed. I’m not an early riser, but I’ll rise early one day a week to make sure our busiest day of the week is safe and successful.

I hope to see you on Saturday, if I’m not nodding off. It’s going to be another great week at the market.

 

Webb City Sentinel market column - Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Fall is officially here. And though we still have quite a bit of summer produce, the market has looked like fall for several weeks and gets more fallish every week. For example, we’re expecting lots of big beautiful mums and fall plants this Saturday, and a fabulous selection of pumpkins. We even had yellow pumpkins last week. And Allphin Family Orchard will have apples at the market on Saturday!  They will have Jonagolds and Golden Delicious varieties. Apples are considered storage crops, but fresh apples are so much better than stored ones. Get them while you can because fall rushes past quickly.

This time of year we always wonder, when will the first hard freeze come?  The average first frost date around here according to The Old Farmers Almanac is October 20. But there was a year about a decade ago when the first hard freeze was in September and plenty of times that we hadn’t had a freeze at Thanksgiving. Luckily we have so many farmers who farm under protection that that freeze will not affect us as much as it used to. Back then the market completely shut down until April once the freeze had hit. How things have changed.

We are, of course, thinking about the immediate future. Since the CDC tells us that an open air pavilion is safer than indoors we will be delaying dropping the walls as long as possible. Likely they won’t come down until the week of Thanksgiving when we’ll be preparing for the city’s Polar Bear Express events. We always take care of most of the Christmas decorations and I’m the official decorator of the streetcar. I really thought I wouldn’t be here this year for that, but construction of our “mother-in-law” quarters continues to be delayed by a slow moving gas company. A gas line has to be moved before the basement can be dug. In June the estimate was 2 to 6 weeks. Last week it had been whittled down to 2 to 5 weeks. I’m sure going to miss knowing folks who can make things happen when I move….

In reality, I’m going to really miss knowing folks period. We’ll be starting over on that but I have some good role models -  wonderful market volunteer Deb and her husband Gary. They moved here several years ago and have made friends and become regular volunteers in many community programs. Not only did Deb start our children’s reading program, but she also volunteers regularly at a nursing home. Sadly both have been suspended during the pandemic. Deb and Gary were the instructors for the parks’ pickle lessons and they play regularly at the park with the new friends they taught. Gary was recently appointed to the park board.

I might explain that I put quotes around “mother-in-law” because there will be a father-in-law too. In any case, it looks like it will be summer before we’ll be officially moved so I get to decorate for Christmas this year. The streetcar is particularly fun because it is small and easy to fill with glittering balls, bows, and garland. I need to train some others for next year, so if you’d like to be part of the fun, give me a call and we’ll decorate together.

An even more immediate project is Saturday morning meals.

The market will be taking care of breakfast for the public starting October 3. It’s going to be pancakes that day. We’re thinking about having a rotating menu, for example, pancakes the first Saturday of the month, followed perhaps by a breakfast casserole the next Saturday, and a breakfast burrito after that and so forth. We’ll see how it goes. It will be packed hot to-go so folks can eat it at the market if the weather is nice or take it home to enjoy if it is cold. We are also planning to start the Free Kids Meal back up on October 3 with a hot to-go breakfast that mirrors the public meal with a brown bag lunch. We could use a couple of volunteers each week so, again, let me know if you’d like to help. Call or text me at 417 483-8139.

This Saturday will be our last Cooking for a Cause of the year. The Webb City High School Band Boosters will be serving scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuit and gravy, hashbrown casserole, and a choice of juice or coffee for $6 from 8:30 to 11. David Loving will be on the market stage.

Tuesday will be our last pick up day for the online store. We’re suspending it for now but should demand ramp up again or COVID issues get dire, we can leap back online with a very short notice. Right now it seems like 99.9 % of our customers are comfortable shopping in the pavilion which is wonderful. Farmers markets are all about community and even with many of us wearing masks and social distancing that feeling of community is strong at our market. So if it’s chilly, bring a jacket. It may be cool at the market, but the welcome is warm.

See you at the market!

Webb City Sentinel market column - Wednesday, September 16, 2020

My stint of melon cutting has come to an end.

The melon crop will start petering out soon and I don’t want to take orders online that I might not be able to fill so I have removed them from the online store. But it has been a fun run. Since the middle of July I’ve cut and packed 110 quarts of melon and cut melon for about 600 free kids meals. That’s a lot of melon and it sure was good!

Now is the time to savor the season of fall. MU Extension was at the market yesterday with samples of pumpkin bread. It was lovely, not too sweet but full of fall flavors. Our Extension nutrition educator comes to most Tuesday markets so stop by and sample a tasty healthy recipe featuring market produce.

The market will look even more seasonal than usual this Saturday because in additional to the huge mum plants and all the pumpkins and gourds in every shape and color, we  will have large decorative corn stalks. Jann
Amos, and corn stalks from his garden, will be set up by E & O Produce. You may remember Jann as our honey vendor for well over a decade. This Saturday he’s happy to be your corn stalk vendor.

Saturday we’ll have ten farms, plus two mushroom growers. The farms will be loaded with produce, several will have pumpkins and mums, Maypop and Vang Garden will have lovely cut flowers. The flowers always seem to be at their most spectacular in the fall. Garrett and Sunny Lane will have all-natural meats, Helm’s will have honey and honey products, DnD Smoked will have a wide selection of their seasonings and mixes. Clear Water Shrimp Farm will be at the market, as will three bakeries. MaMa JoJo’s will have artisan pasta along with made-at-the-market sauces. Good Golly Tamales will have their frozen tamales, which by the way are gluten-free. They also have vegetarian and vegan options, as well as mild through super hot fillings. Ghost pepper anyone?

Juniper Coffee is back. They took a short vacation and they were missed!

Cooking for a Cause benefits Crosslines, our regional food pantry. The cooks and servers are recruited by Central United Methodist Church which is one of the more than 40 churches that supports Crosslines. Crosslines started in 1982 and serves Joplin, Carl Junction, and Webb City. It continues to meet its original mission:  to eliminate duplication of services while providing a centralized location to operate a food pantry and clothing bank. Since its inception, folks in need can go to one location for a wide range of services rather than search from church to church.

 

Justin Cauble will be on the NEW market stage which has moved to the center of the pavilion. We had to move music out to the tent for most of the summer to avoid crowding but now space has eased up inside the pavilion and we are so glad to have our music back with us.

 

The Tuesday market continues to be our easy day. Easy to park, easy to shop, easy to social distance, easy to get a tasty meal or snack. We have lots of picnic tables out on the grass and under the tent so folks can enjoy a Saturday breakfast or pasta dish on Saturdays or street tacos and grilled corn or Asian food on Tuesdays outside in the lovely fall weather. Plenty of room, plenty of fresh air. There's probably not a safer, more welcoming place to get your good food. Welcome to the market.

Webb City Sentinel market column - September 9, 2020

Note - one of these pictures is not like the others - it wasn't taken at the market and it's 65 years old.  Neither fresh nor local!

I’ve been walking down Memory Lane the last few weeks. I am sorting through boxes that have been stored for decades, some for over 10 decades. I am finding many treasures that must stay in the family. But, luckily there are things that I can let go. Thank goodness for my friend Debbie who sells them on Ebay for me.

For example, my father was a huge fan of all things connected with Route 66. He had books, maps, post cards, tie tacks, you name it. If it was about Route 66, he wanted it. Unfortunately, none of his children or grandchildren shares his enthusiasm for Route 66. I would have hated to simply throw away these things of which my father was so fond, or dump them in boxes for a rummage sale, so Debbie has listed them on Ebay and they are now owned by people all over the country who share my father’s love of Route 66, people who are delighted to have them, just as Dad was. That feels really good.   

Now multiply that by all the things that Phil and I have accumulated during 40 years in Webb City, all the things my parents accumulated and brought here when they moved to Webb City, many, many things Mother and Dad brought that had belonged to their parents, and even to Dad’s grandmother! And, of course, I still have a few of my children's things stored so that makes five generations of memories, treasures, and odds and ends.

My daughter, Cora, is particularly happy that I have taken on this project so she won’t have to do it later. She spent much of this summer helping her partner, Emmanuelle, and Emmanuelle’s sisters clear out their family home which has been sold. It had been in the family for 300 years! And it was big – three stories tall surrounding a central open courtyard. Cora is pretty sure all 300 years worth of stuff was still there. At least she didn’t have to go through all the written material because it was in French since the house is in France.

It’s that written material that really slows the process down, but also provides the most interest. I found a large box full of my parent’s love letters while they were courting in college. I have only read a few. I will take the box to Denver when I move and have more time to enjoy them. This is a part of my parents that I had not known and what I’ve read so far is endearing and lovely.

The letters to my father’s mother when she was 12 and 13 from her own mother were an entrancing look into the past. My grandmother, Ethel, who we called Granny, lived away, I think perhaps for schooling, and her mother was diligent in keeping in touch. The letters are lent poignancy by my knowledge that her mother died unexpectedly shortly after what turned out to be the last letter. It was a bit heartrending to find all these letters written over a hundred years ago
lovingly tied together with a pink satin ribbon.

I found several letters from Granny’s grandmother to her father. She would have been my great-great grandmother. Clearly she was in poor health and didn’t feel well and was not a happy person. I should preface the letter by saying that Granny I knew was a club woman, very proper, never leaving the house without a hat and gloves. As far as Granny was concerned, children were to be seen, not heard. She had many fine attributes, she was an able farm manager and business manager, and she was a community leader, but she was definitely not a babysitter. I have a photo of her and us kids posing for the Fort Worth Star Telegram to promote the Telegram’s society page. Granny is dressed oh so properly, and two of my brothers (the youngest wasn't born yet) and I were  dressed far more carefully than usual.  We are all on the floor "playing". 

I expect that was the only time she ever played with us, and certainly the only time I saw her on the floor.  I guess it was a sign of the times that the paper wanted to pose her with children rather than showing her raising funds for the restoration of Fort Worth's first residence.  My grandfather was featured in another photo, at his desk. 

So envision my very proper grandmother as I share the letter from her own grandmother to her father. Granny would have been about 16 when it was written:

Greenville (Texas) Feb 4^th 1913.

Dear James,

I will write you a few lines…. I am in hope that Ethel has quit her fast ways; the way that she carried on last summer was scandalous. I am in hopes that she will never visit Terrell any more….

Terrell was where Granny lived as a child and apparently had returned for a visit. This was a peek into the past that I had never expected.

You may wonder, what has this to do with the market?  Well, honestly not a lot, except that it acknowledges that my efforts have been elsewhere for some time and in many ways that has proven to be a good thing. It has allowed our market manager, Rachael Lych, to fully take the reins, albeit during challenging times, and she has risen to the challenge. My role is now primarily mentor, writer, grant administrator, and tent erector. We lost more than half our tents in the storms last week. Thanks to volunteer Terry and his good wife Sharon, we got them repaired and back up. I’m trying a new approach. The tent tops are only in place during the Saturday market. It means a little extra effort putting the tarps on Saturday morning and taking them off Saturday afternoon but hopefully with only the frames up during the week we won’t find them in a tangle again.

This Saturday we are expecting 11 farms loaded with fresh produce. We’ll have loads of pumpkins of every size, shape, and color. The mums are big and ready to pop out in bloom. We’re also expecting Maypop Flower Farm and Vang  Garden with cut flowers, Salt and Light Farmhouse with mushrooms, and Grison Dairy & Creamery with cheese. We should have fresh shrimp, frozen tamales, raw honey and honey products, artisan pasta and made-at-the-market red sauces, kettle corn, popcorn, pork rinds, baked goods from Harmony Hill, Redings Mills, and Sunflower Bakery. We’ll also have all-natural beef, chicken, pork, and lamb and farm fresh eggs. Alchemist Haven is back with organic skin elixirs, beeswax balms, all natural lip stains, moisturizers, perfume oils, sanitizers, body mists, body butters, and more.

Cooking for a Cause benefits Camp Quality on Saturday. Drew Pommert will perform in the big tent.

Our Tuesday market will have all our core farmers, plus honey, baked goods, kettle corn, meat ranchers, and more. The mum and pumpkin selection will be as good as what you’ll find at the bigger Saturday market. Open from 4 to 7, the Tuesday market is laid back, uncrowded, and easy. You can also order online at localline.ca-webb-city-farmers-market and pick up at the Tuesday market between 5 and 7. This Tuesday will be the last chance to pick up Melon Medley, but we’ll still have over 100 other items available online.

Come see us and enjoy the lovely fall weather.

Shopping at the market often means eating seasonally. 

This is something that was the common and expected experience before grocery stores began selling imported foods. When my mother was young, she would never have expected to eat summer fruit like blueberries or strawberries in the winter. Apples were stored for fresh winter eating but it would have been a special treat. Canned peaches were a possibility and my grandmother was renowned for her peach cobbler. She also was famous for her chocolate meringue pies. It a testament to her kindness that she never scolded her oldest granddaughter, who didn’t like meringue, for scraping off that beautiful layer before digging into the chocolate filling. But I digress.

Root crops like potatoes, onions, carrots or the winter squashes would be typical vegetables in the winter, along with canned green beans, tomatoes, and pickles to name just a few. We have been spoiled by access to food grown in other climes and many of us are unaccustomed to eating in season as was done for centuries.

Tis the season to can green beans!

I think it’s great that we have access to so much more food than before, but I also think those who ignore seasonal eating are missing some of the very best food. One reason is freshness. Imported food must spend time traveling so even if kept under ideal conditions, its shelf life is diminished by that travel and handling time. And travel requires a certain toughness to arrive in a saleable state. My family has a small claim to fame thanks to my first cousin twice removed (he was the son of my great-grandmother’s sister), Walter Baxter who owned a seed company in south Texas. According to family lore, Walter bred the first tomato suitable (i.e. tough enough) to withstand shipping. It was called the Baxter Beauty.

Much of the produce varieties at the market are too fragile for shipping. The variety may be an heirloom variety from the days before shipping or perhaps it was developed for other qualities like flavor and texture. But our farmers don’t take quality for granted just because they travel only a short distance to the market. They have received training on post-production handling, not only for the sake of safety but also for keeping the produce in the best condition possible. That’s one reason the market’s last purchase for our Jesup Wagon 2.0 was a cool-bot. Many of our farmers have an insulated room that is kept cool by a cool-bot. It’s a device that tricks a window air conditioner into cooling below the usual temperature. In fact, it can cool the room as low as 35 degrees without the unit freezing up. This is a technology that can significantly improve a small farmer’s bottom line by reducing waste and maintaining a high quality product.

Shon Bishop with Lincoln shows hand tools at a conference

As you may remember, the Jesup Wagon 2.0 is a market-led collaboration with Lincoln University Cooperative Extension and University of Missouri Extension and supported by the Missouri Department of Agriculture. The original Jesup Wagon was a George Washington Carver concept that used a wagon and later a motorized vehicle to take the latest in agriculture technology to rural areas. It might include seeds, tools, fertilizer, and literature. Professor Carver called it a Moveable School and it reached about 2,000 people a month during its first summer in 1906.

Time to say goodbye to Canary melons

Our Jesup Wagon 2.0 includes hand tools for small spaces like high tunnels, irrigation equipment and supplies, fertilizing tools, attachments for small tractors, tools to make caterpillar tunnels, tools to reduce injuries on the farm, adaptive tools for farmers with disabilities, and many other tools. We even have a drone and two of our extension specialists have become licensed commercial remote pilots as part of the project. During normal times, the Jesup Wagon goes to meetings all over Missouri, to workshops in Southwest Missouri, and to national conferences. With all those cancelled, our team is working on online videos demonstrating the various tools so the learning can continue.

But we'll soon say hello to an abundance of greens.

So we finally come to the point. The seasons, they are a-changing. Owen with E & O brought mums to the market yesterday. Several growers have winter squash - acorn, butternut, and spaghetti. Boc choy is back. Pumpkins are appearing. Sadly that means a few things are leaving. Owen tells me he’ll have a few Canary melons on Saturday and then they are done for the year. We have sure enjoyed them and we can look forward to an even bigger crop next summer. Owen said he grew just a few to try them out several  years ago, and each year since he had doubled and tripled his planting and the demand is still growing. Weather permitting he’ll bring even more in 2021.

This Saturday we’re expecting 11 farms with local produce, plus two mushroom farms, a flower farm, a shrimp farm, and three ranches with beef, chicken, lamb, and pork. There will be tamales, honey, smoked salts, seasonings, and mixes, kettle corn, artisan pasta and sauces, and baked goods.

The Community Clovers 4-H Club is serving Cooking for a Cause.

Tim Snyder is on the market stage.

Monday is Labor Day, so please don’t forget the Tuesday market. People tend to get their days mixed up when there is a Monday holiday.  Tuesday, Ghetto Taco cooks up street tacos and Chochinita Mexican Street Food offers spicy grilled Mexican corn.  Tuesday continues to be our easiest market day for social distancing, although Saturday is easy too after the first hour. Tuesday is pickup day from 5 to 7 pm for our on-line store. Go to webbcityfarmersmarket.com and click on the link to “walk” through the store and do your shopping. Or come see us in person! See you at the market.