Webb City Sentinel market column - Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Food is front and center again this Saturday at the market. Our farmers are bringing in lots of fall crops like lettuce, spinach, sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, fresh ginger, winter squash, carrots, radishes and more. There will be all natural meats, honey, jams and jellies, frozen tamales, kettle corn and other flavored popcorn and pork rinds, mushrooms, freshly roasted coffee beans and coffee drinks. Redings Mill, Harmony Hill, and Sunflower will have a wide assortment of baked goods. DnD Smoked will have dozens of kinds of smoked spices and salts, plus mixes for dips and chili. Our honey vendor is selling honey truffles and other chocolate and honey treats. Fair Haven brings handmade peanut and pecan brittle. Central United Methodist has fudge, as well as chili with or without beans. The church's sales benefit the community Christmas basket program.

 MaMa JoJo's will have fresh pasta and made-at-the-market sauces. You can buy the pasta baked and dressed with sauce or buy the pasta to cook at home. Fresh pasta takes about 4 minutes to cook in boiling water and if you've only had dried pasta, you are in for a treat. Fresh makes all the difference, and not just in veggies!

Songbird Kitchen is expected with made-at-the-market egg rolls and other Asian specialties.

From 9 to 11 adults can buy a breakfast of biscuit and gravy, scrambled cheesy eggs or scrambled cheesy eggs loaded with market veggies, and a drink for $5. All profits from the breakfast benefit the market.

The Free Kids Meals are also served from 9 to 11. Breakfast is biscuit and gravy with fruit and milk. Lunch is a ham, cheese, & lettuce wrap, plus apple slaw, and milk. The lettuce is from Braker Berry Farm (though we could have gotten it from any number of other farms – lettuce is in season!) Brakers is our largest lettuce grower and we can pick up several tubs of lettuce from them without running them short at the market. We want the kids to have our wonderful fresh local produce, but we don't want to leave our customers high and dry. The apple slaw includes local apples, carrots from Harmony Hill and honey from Helm's Family Farm.

We've been really pleased with the response to the kids meals. We're serving about 250 meals each Saturday and would be happy, and ready, to serve even more. Because of COVID-19, children do not have to be present to receive a meal. Their adults can pick up for them as long as we see a photo of the adult and kids so we can get a head count. All children receive both breakfast and lunch for free if they are between 1 and 18.

I took on the Free Kids Meals in October which is why you have read so much about it. Now that I'm in Colorado our manager has taken it over and is doing a wonderful job. It takes considerable devotion, planning, and organization to have so many meals ready and to make those meals as locally based as possible. One tricky part of the kids meals is that we serve every child but don't require reservations. So we prepare for the usual number but have back up ingredients to prepare more if needed. For example, on Halloween we prepared 2 meals for 130 children, so a total of 260 meals. We ended up with about 170 children which means that on very short notice (as in 30 minutes) we prepared an extra 80 meals! And we did it with no one having to wait. It's definitely a learned skill, but we have learned it well.

All meals at the market are served to-go due to COVID-19, but we have picnic tables spread out across the north lawns where people can eat if they wish to do so.

Every farmers market is different Some allow lots of arts and crafts, or businesses selling things they didn't actually make, but Webb City's has from the beginning focused on connecting the community with small and mid-sized businesses growing, raising or making local foods.

We also celebrate and support good works which is why we host the current fundraiser for the community Christmas basket program and why we also currently have handmade bowls and cookbooks for sale to raise funds for the market's WIC program.

We do allow a very limited number of crafts and art, especially if they are connected to food, kitchen, garden or health. That's why you will find 2T's Soap and Stuff and Debbie Fedie with sewn goods for the kitchen at the market this Saturday.

Normally we also have a large Christkindlmarket in November and December when we have fewer farmers and extra room. Sadly we will forego our usual Christkindlmarket this year. We feel it is important to keep the vendors spread out to create a safe shopping space so we will not be filling a large section of the pavilion with crafts. But when we have some space, we will feature one or two of our best Christkindlmarket crafts people. This week we are delighted to have Nancy's Doll Closet back again. Nancy makes the most wonderful, and very reasonably priced, clothes for 18” dolls. Honestly I am so taken with her selection – and it's huge – that I'm buying a wardrobe for each of my daughters' families.

Be sure to place your Thanksgiving baked goods order with Sunflower Bakery on Saturday for pick up at the special Holiday Market on November 25^th, between 11 and 1 at the pavilion. Sunflower will be our only bakery that day but they are expanding their selection to include breads, rolls, and more in addition to their usual pies and fried pies. If you can't make it Saturday but want to place an order, give them a call at 417 888-2000.

If you're looking for fresh produce for your Thanksgiving table, check with your farmer on Saturday about picking up an order at the Holiday Market. All the vendors generally bring extra, but to be sure of getting what you want, ordering ahead is wise.

It's going to be an unusual holiday for many. My mother often
placed a small gift at each plate as a special part of our Thanksgiving meal. It might be a jar of honey or jam, a container of smoked salts, a $5 token to spend at the market, a small bag of candy, soap, chili mix, or some other local treat. For those gathering together this year, I invite you to start that new tradition. And if your Thanksgiving will be smaller than usual, maybe it's the
perfect time to drop off or mail some small gift like that to brighten the day for those you will not be with. Instead of mourning what we don't have this holiday, let's celebrate what we do have – Friends and family that, even from a distance, fill our lives with kindness, thoughtfulness, and love and appreciation for each other.