Webb City Sentinel market column - 11-6-15 Kay is Back!

You might think that things would be winding down at the market, but not so. In fact, we’re gearing up for one of our busy seasons!  

Tomorrow is the first Saturday of Christkindlmarket, and that news means we’re in for lots of treats, but how about this?  Hazel’s Bakery is back!  Kay McLaughlin is coming out of retirement for the second time, lured by the promise of the market kitchen. She is using her small inspected kitchen for the next couple of weeks but looking forward to cutting her baking time in half once the market kitchen and its convection ovens are fully operational. So we’re already reaping benefits from the market kitchen and it’s not even open for business yet. 

Kay, and her pies, cakes, cookies and fruit breads, will be set up next to Fredrickson Farms, because her apprentices are none other than Tami and Missy of that very farm. They’ve been elbow deep in flour for the last couple of days. Tami is our board president and she figured this would be a great way to learn all about the market kitchen (plus, she’s also her own best customer. She put in an order for 20 pies for the Lord’s Acre supper at her church tomorrow night.).

Another vendor expected at the market this Saturday is one that we’ve seen far too little of this year - Amos Apiaries with their local honey. They plan to come about once a month, so tomorrow’s the day to stock up, both for yourself and for gifts for the holidays.

  

The pavilion should be packed tomorrow. We have seven farms bringing produce. Robertson Family Farm is bringing frozen blueberries from their harvest this year and blueberry syrups. Misty Morning Farm will have cracked pecans, and they’re super fresh, harvested and cracked the week of sale. M & M Bistro returns with their Mediterranean menu of gyros, chicken wraps, hummus and tabouleh plates, plus the best baklava you’ve ever eaten.

 

And good eating you can take home can be found at The Red Tamale who will be selling handmade frozen tamales in the Christkindlmarket on the south end. We always vet prepared foods prior to accepting vendors. I knew we had a winner when the taste tester (my husband, Phil) declared the tamales superb. 

In the Christkindlmarket, which will be open in conjunction with the farmers market every Saturday from 9 to noon until Christmas, you’ll find some old favorites like woodworkers Ed Grundy and the Chaffin Family, seamstress Edith Bayless, as well as Willow Island with felted and knitted items, Copper Leaf Pottery and Odd Duck Soaps. We also have some new crafters you won’t want to miss.

Christkindlmarkets are an old tradition of open air holiday markets in German-speaking areas of Europe. We spread ours over two months of Saturdays so we celebrate two holidays with harvest decorations until Thanksgiving and then Christmas decorations and music after Thanksgiving. (Yes, Jesse DeGonia, that is how it is done.) 

And we do all this celebrating with the sidewalls down on the pavilion and with the heaters warming us. So come to the farmers market/Christkindlmarket, pose for a photo with the scarecrows, grab some hot chocolate, fresh produce, lunch for later, some gifts and learn how to make a holiday recipe. You may want to do a little jig too if you can’t resist the music.

Marshall Mitchell, our cowboy singer, will perform from 9 to 11. The Market Dude, Frank Reiter, will demonstrate Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Cranberries with toasted pecans and goat cheese, drizzled with balsamic honey.

 

Watch the market come alive while we celebrate yet another season. See you at the market! 

Webb City Sentinel market column - 10-30-15

I’ve got a Halloween treat for you - something by a talented new writer!

One of our young vendors, Mabel Brubacker, recently sent me this remembrance of the 2015 growing season which I think you will enjoy.  (She wrote this while on a trip out west - that's her at the Grand Canyon.)

It might be hard to create a clear picture with a blurry mixture of planting, weeding, harvesting and selling in my memory, so maybe I'll just write about each activity, which repeated itself throughout the summer and is mostly all we did!

We had a wet year which made planting hard and gave the weeds the upper hand, but all in all we had a pretty good year for produce. Every few weeks we started another setting of 3-4,000 plants. David and Matthew did most of that, filling the trays with dirt and planting a seed in each pot, then Dad kept the plants watered till they were ready to be transplanted into the plastic mulch in the produce field. That was a long job for the whole crew! One person would punch holes in the plastic, some would plant the seedlings into the holes, others followed up with water, and then finally a large handful of dirt went around the plants.

Weeding seemed never ending and a losing battle this year with all the rain, and the weeds did get the upper hand, despite the hours upon hours we spent trying to subdue them. Often it was so wet they just transplanted themselves after we hoed them out and continued growing. Then produce picking days...morning to night days, busy with picking the veggies, washing them and packing them into crates. We had the whole nine yards at one time or the other. 

Market days are work and kept us hopping too: three days a week each to Springfield and Webb City... but selling is the rewarding part of raising produce - piling the fruit of your labors on the tables and watching happy customers choose what's most appealing to them and walk away with a bagful!  The market in Webb City is my favorite! 

And we girls also do some baking...I enjoy baking and started off doing it myself and selling in Springfield. We prefer to use whole wheat flour and started off with mostly that kind of baked goods, but when the main baker in the Webb City market retired we started baking for that market. My sisters began helping since I couldn't do it all anymore. We also decided to make things with white flour since the many of the customers seem to prefer that. I still make whole wheat bread and that sells more by far than the white bread. I also use whole wheat flour in the cinnamon rolls and cheese breads I make. Ruth has mastered the cookies, Sarah makes pies and quick breads, and Mary does the cakes, bars and pumpkin rolls. Those sell like hot cakes! 

So that's what we've been busy with, in addition to daily housework, canning and freezing fruits and vegetables.

In October produce season was slowing, but we stayed busy getting ready for our long trip to the west coast for the wedding. (Mabel’s brother Lloyd was married last week.) It feels good to have most of the things wrapped up we'd been hoping to. 

The winter squash are all harvested and most of the produce patches plowed down. We worked up some Concord grapes the other week, mostly into juice, then last week we got our yearly apple order from Waverly, and put up 75 gallons of cider, some applesauce, and pie filling.

Mabel is part of Harmony Hill Farm near Wentworth. Like our other farmers, the Brubackers work very hard but love what they do. Many of us will be happy to see them tomorrow after their two week absence for the wedding.

 

Another vendor we’ll welcome back tomorrow is Cottage Small Coffee Roasters. We’ve been missing Josh and Genevieve Moore and their excellent coffee beans most of the summer while they secured a new roaster. Finally, they’re back!

Tomorrow is our last Cooking for a Cause of the Season. It benefits the Joplin Humane Society. Pancakes, grilled ham and eggs to order.

The Mayfields from Ozark are playing. AND it’s Halloween so everyone who shows up in a costume gets a free mini-bag of kettle corn!  (Alright, even kids in regular clothes are going to get a bag too.)

 

Don’t forget that Tuesday markets are done for the season. Next Saturday we start our Christkindlmarket so expect to see lots of  gift ideas, as well as many of our regular vendors loaded with produce, baked goods, eggs, meats and other goodies. We’ll also have a new vendor with cracked pecans that she’s harvesting just for you this week. Watch for details in next week’s column.

Webb City Sentinel market column - 10/23/15

I’m back and it’s a little disorienting. I wasn’t gone that long, just 5 weeks. It was summer when I left and it’s full blown fall now and this coming week ends the regular season at the market and we begin the winter market. Things are moving way too fast. (It doesn’t help that I spent those five weeks enjoying a tropical Australian spring so basically I’m experiencing a full year in 6 weeks. Ah, life in the fast lane.)

(All photos are from this week.)

Next week is our last Tuesday market of the year so if you love the evening market, it will be your last chance to enjoy it until April.

Tuesday has been the market step-child for years with much lower sales than we saw on either of the other two market days. We tried all sorts of ideas to improve sales - special activities, sampling (remember Tasty Tuesdays?), changing hours, extra publicity. Finally this year, we found the magic combination. The vendors decided to change the hours from 4 to 6 to 4 to 7. (That being said, we’ll only be open from 4 to 6 this Tuesday because it’s getting so dark so early. It’s not fun packing up the market in the pitch black.)

The longer hours made a lot more sense for serving meals and the vendors thought three hours would be more convenient for customers than two.

This year, since we received some funding for food stamp matching, we decided to do that program on Tuesdays. That allowed us to learn the system on a quieter day and draw a few more customers as well. We were not sure how long the funding would last so doing it one day a week rather than three gave us some feel for numbers. By August we were confident we’d have funding for the full year, especially since we had joined a research project that dramatically expanded our funding, so we expanded to all three market days.

Our wonderful nutrition educators from Extension asked if they could do their cooking demonstrations on Tuesdays. It meant they had to put in after work hours but since their mission is in part to educate low income people on how to incorporate more fresh local produce into their diets, it made a very good fit with the food stamp match.

And then we started the free kids lunch and, wow! Tuesdays had arrived.

Next year we’ll need to think about Fridays, which seriously slumped this year. I wonder how our customers would feel about us going to just Tuesday and Saturday or to Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday? The vendors and the board have not discussed a change, but we always welcome customer input. Let us know what you think. And if you have ideas to perk up Fridays, let us know that too.

Tomorrow we have two favorites:

The Mayfields are playing. We expect them as a duet, but sometimes there are more and they magically turn into Red Bridge Trio. Whatever configuration appears you can expect lots of high energy bluegrass and gospel.

Cooking for a Cause benefits our regional food pantry, Crosslines. Breakfast will be cooked to order pancakes, grilled ham and farm fresh eggs. Both music and meal run from 9 to 11. The market is open till noon on Saturdays.

Speaking of eggs, we are finally getting a good supply. Those hens apparently love fall and we’re seeing over 100 dozen at each market. Enjoy them while the hens are happy.

The Radiology Club from MSSU will have a bake sale on Saturday (and yes, they will be baking in the traditional manner, not zapping the baked goods).

Jim Oxley will be at the market Saturday with his lovely hand-made dresses for little girls.

On Tuesday, the Pommerts will play and Carmine’s will bake artisan pizzas to order. Jordan Nichols, who is a dietician with Mercy Clinic Endocrinology, will demonstrate and share samples of Carrot Apple Harvest Salad. Jordan specializes in recipes for diabetics but I think we’ll all enjoy this regardless of our dietary restrictions.

We’ll have lots of fresh local produce, so come celebrate our last Tuesday and feast on local fresh produce this wee

Webb City Sentinel market column - 9/13/15

Another lovely weekend is planned at the market. Today a special attraction is Red Lab Farm. They usually sell their French-inspired pastries on Saturdays but this week they are switching to Friday. On their menu today:

 

– ham/cheese croissant
- turkey/havarti/mustard croissant - chocolate croissant
- buckwheat chocolate chip cookies
- whole wheat milk jam brownies

The Sours will liven up the market stage with their traditional music. M & M Bistro and Lumpy’s Express serve lunch. We’re open from 11 to 2 on Fridays. 

We have some new products coming to the market tomorrow. Center Creek Farm has partridges for sale. The birds are raised on their farm just north of Sarcoxie and sold frozen.

Hayden Turkey Farms of Lamar will be at the market for the first time tomorrow with their pelletized compost. The five pounds bags, on special for $9.99, will fertilize up to 125 square feet. Certified organic, it can be used on food crops, landscaping and potted plants. The compost is made from turkey litter, carefully monitored ensure that all pathogens are destroyed by the heat generated by the composting process. Then it is milled and run through a pellet machine where it is again heated. The compost will slowly release micronutrients and trace elements into the soil, along with organic matter. 

Tomorrow The Loose Notes will play and breakfast is being served by the teachers of Eastmorland Elementary in Joplin. They will use their profits to buy supplies for their students.

Camp Quality will have free crafts for children tomorrow. The first Camp Quality was in Australia. Our local camp began in 1988. The goal of the camp is to allow children with cancer to be children again, creating a stress free environment that offers exciting activities, fosters new friendships and helps give children courage, motivation and emotional strength. We are pleased to have them at the market. We’re open from 9 to noon on Saturdays.

We have an exciting Saturday scheduled for next week too. It’s the annual Arts in the Park which the

market has been organizing since 2009. This year we’re focusing on children. WildHeart returns for the third year. This Emmy-award winning duo puts on a high-energy, funny and engaging show featuring their original music about animals and the environment. They’ll perform at 9, 10 and 11. They’ll also be performing on Friday at Madge T. James Kindergarten. The market is able to share this special experience with the kindergarteners because the Missouri Arts Council gave us a small grant to help with the cost of bringing WildHeart to Webb City. If you know a child attending Madge T. I expect you’ll be hearing about monkeys and elephants next Friday.

On the half hour the Pommerts bring their gentle music of the 60’s and 70’s to the stage, with a sprinkling of jazz and classical guitar.

Free arts activities will abound with Girl Scouts teaching children about leaf rubbing, members of Joplin Little Theater helping them create “Veggie Art” and folks from the George Washington Carver sharing the Mr. Carver’s love of art.

Keeping to the kids focus, Cooking for a Cause next week benefits the Archery Team of Carl Junction Junior High.

On every Saturday through November we continue to offer our food stamp customers the chance to take an on-line survey and win some bonus produce tokens. At every market food stamp customers can swipe their card and receive up to $15 in extra tokens good for fruits and vegetables.

Sad to say, this Tuesday you’ll have to bring a sack lunch to eat at the market. Trish is finished for the season and Carmine’s is taking the day off. Carmine’s will be back next week. And if you need motivation to come to our mealess Tuesday this week, remember that Tuesday is when we have Lance’s Dog Biscuits. Now that Lance is in school his little brother Logan is selling the biscuits (and nibbling too. The biscuits are apparently quite tasty and since the family makes them right in their kitchen they know the ingredients are good for puppies and little boys alike – however Logan is the only little boy eating them at the market!).

I’m heading off for sunny Brisbane, Australia, for five weeks right after market tomorrow. Luckily for the market we have wonderful volunteers who will probably do a better job that I do, and we’re training two new volunteers this month. There’s always room for more, so if you’d like to help just stop by the information table and fill out a volunteer application.

Fall is in the air and it’s a favorite time to visit the market and soak up the season.

Webb City Sentinel market column - 9-4-15 How can it be September already?!!

Another holiday weekend is coming up and that means everyone will think Tuesday is Monday because they had Monday off. Repeat after me – Tuesday is two days after Sunday regardless of what happens on Monday. The market will be open from 4 to 7 on Tuesday!

And don’t forget today and tomorrow. Today we have Marshall Mitchell playing – he’s the delightful cowboy who loves to play for kids and adults alike. M & M Bistro serves Mediterranean delights for lunch. They’ll be serving every Friday through September, as will Lumpy’s Express who serves barbecued and smoked meats with sides. Extension specialists will be at the market today to give advice on landscaping and gardening.

Today we’re expanding our food stamp matching program from Tuesdays only to every market day (until we run out of funding which we don’t expect to happen this year). The market, thanks to a grant through Wholesome Wave, will match the purchase of food stamp tokens with up to $15 in tokens good for the purchase of fruits and vegetables. That means that food stamp customers can receive as much as $45 of extra produce per week.

The goal is to increase the amount of fruits and vegetables in the diets of low income people. To help determine if that goal is being met, the market is partnering with Wholesome Wave (https://www.wholesomewave.org) and the University of Delaware to conduct a survey of our food stamp customers. Participants will be entered in a drawing for bonus matching tokens. One-third of the participants will not be winners, one-third will receive double matching tokens for the rest of September and one-third will receive triple matching tokens for the rest of the month. Perhaps the biggest benefit of winning is that there will be no limit on the match. So rather than being limited to a match of up to $15 per market day, the winners of the drawing can match all their food stamp purchase.

Doing the survey creates more work for us volunteers, but we hope the information will be useful and it gives such benefits to our food stamp customers that we couldn’t turn it down (although we actually did until our partners sweetened the pot considerably. Originally they were going to give shopping bags as some of the prizes.)

The survey starts tomorrow and will continue on Saturdays only through November– and the earlier the food stamp customer completes the survey each month the better because the prize runs through the end of the month whether it’s won the first week or the last.

 

Of course, tomorrow will be well worth a visit regardless of your income. Breakfast benefits Webb City’s own Tri-County Cerebral Palsy Center. Carthage’s excellent bluegrass band, No Apparent Reason, plays. Music and meal runs from 9 to 11. The market is open on Saturdays from 9 to noon.

Next Tuesday we’re open from 4 to 7 pm (remember Tuesday is two days after Sunday). Supper with Trish is done for the season, but Carmine’s Wood Fire Pizza will bake to order starting at 4. Rob Pommert will play.

We wrapped up the Kids Community Garden with a bang this week. More than 30 middle schoolers showed up after school ready to put the garden to bed. We had planned to take two days to do it, but they had the garden cleared in 45 minutes. My co-volunteer, Dale Mermoud said he should have brought a saw to take down the sunflowers before the kids arrived, they could never get those giant plants out of the ground. I said, “watch them.”  Such enthusiasm. 

Soon our master gardeners will till the garden and sow it with cover crop for the winter. I suspect next spring when it’s time to plant, we’ll have a mob middle schoolers to help.

Hope to see you at the market this weekend – and on Tuesday!