The Market is Open!!

Dear Folk and Kindred Spirits,
There is a cardinal outside my window, pecking away at the mossy scabs that play for grass on my lawn. What’s it eating? Better question, what are you eating?

Last night, my housemates and I hosted a BLT party, in celebration of Summer tomatoes. The BLT, a quintessentially Summer sandwich, is only fully realized with locally grown, just picked, thick sliced heirloom tomatoes. No matter how good the bread or crazy the bacon, subpar tomatoes will sink a BLT. So, every Summer, we celebrate with a BLT party.

Unfortunately, the recent rain slowed tomato production down a wee bit. I didn’t see many heirlooms at the Hillcrest Farmers’ Market. Tara Stainton of Rattle’s Garden told me she’d had to pull most of her Green Zebra tomatoes ( a shame!!) and a few other heirlooms, due to excess moisture, rot, etc. Life of a farmer?

To go with our delicious display of tomatoes (including Black Cherries and roasted Gypsy heirlooms), we had cured bacon from Hillcrest Artisan Meats, Multigrain bread from Arkansas Fresh, Arugula from Arkansas Natural Produce, Basil from Armstead Mountain Farm, and Mayo made fresh from Bluebird Hill’s Egg Yolks. Fresh mayo: that makes a difference. The sandwiches were delicious, the weather perfect for porch eating, and the company supreme. What am I saying? Host your own BLT party ASAP people!
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• Melons! Josh Hardin told me yesterday that this is the last week for Hardin’s melons. Gosh, I hope he’s wrong, but what if he’s not? I cracked open a Hardin Juan Canary melon yesterday. Wow. Please make sure you eat one of these.
• Blueberry Season is also not long for this world. Bluebird Hill has a deal, 1 Gallon of fresh blueberries. I’ve had no problem eating my way through one of these in a week, and they kept just fine in the fridge.
• African Blue and Cinnamon Basils from Victory Garden. How I love the varieties of basil, each so distinct. Victory also has Chamomile and Coriander seed.
• Under Cut Flowers, Victory Garden has fresh cut Garden and Sunflower Bouquets.
• Buffalo Tenderloin from Ratchford Farms. A Food Club customer just raved about Ratchford’s buffalo tenderloin yesterday. She says she just lightly sautés it in a pan, and it comes out tender and delicious.
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Are you one of the unfortunate customers plagued by ghost orders? You come to pickup, whistling a tune, swinging your arms, only to find that your order just isn’t there. A mystery! A TRAGEDY! It breaks my heart every time, seeing that crestfallen face.
The tip: the only sure-fire way of knowing that your order has been processed is the Order Notification E-mail. It comes immediately after you place your order. If you don’t see it, it’s possible that your order didn’t go through. If you check your Spam box, and still don’t see it, place your order again!
The usual reasons for orders that are not processed are not choosing a Pickup Location or Payment Method or some bizarre lapse in the software. Or Evil. Locallygrown.net is a great service, particularly in how easy it makes things for our growers and managers. That being said, the poor girl is human, too.
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Food Happenings in the Community…

• Loblolly Creamery’s A La Mode Little Rock went off like a bang yesterday. They served over 200 scoops of ice cream with Little Rock Pie Cycle’s homemade pies. Hmmmmm….

• Willow Springs Market Garden done piled themselves a Salsa Mountain!

• Farm Girl Natural Foods has all hands on deck, no matter how tiny the hand.