Fall is rushing past us. E & O Produce has almost sold out of their gloriously in-full-bloom mums, but
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.
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
I hope to see you on Saturday, if I’m not nodding off. It’s going to be another great week at the market.
