The Market is Open with Gifts for Mom!

Good Morning Food Clubbers,

The market is open and lucky for you, we’ve got fresh, local food options aplenty! With delicious local strawberries back in full force, yesterday’s Food Club was by far the most colorful I’ve seen in quite some time. With each passing week, an array of amazing new products come back to the market, including plenty of options for the local-loving mothers out there. Give the gift of local food with an ALFN Food Club Gift Certificate or any of the fabulous products from our incredible Arkansas producers, including…

• Beautiful gift baskets from Tammy Sue’s Critters. Choose from all sorts of combinations of goat’s milk soaps, lotions, body butters, hair bars, and naturally-made lip balms. Just head over to the gift baskets and sets category, select a combination, and leave a comment for Tammy with your desired colors and scents.

• MeatWorks Butchery & Market looks to make Mother’s Day easy with this week’s Butcher’s Buy, Mom’s Day Meatloaf. Just order it, pop it in the oven, and impress mom (and a few others) with a delicious meatloaf full of grassfed beef and pastured pork. It’ll make you wish every day was Mother’s Day!

• Arkansas Natural Produce wants to help you celebrate Mother’s Day by giving an extra special price on their edible flowers, which add such a beautiful touch to any meal in honor of the beautiful woman that gave birth to you.

• Nutritious new vegetables such as goosefoot and crimson clover blossoms, and roots for homemade remedies such as soloman’s seal or yellow dock from Food For Thought Farm, who’s expanding our food vocabulary with each passing week.

• A plethora of essential oils from Maison Terre Natural Products. Essential oils carry the properties of the plant in a concentrated form, which can be used in aromatherapy, perfumes, cooking, soap making, remedies, and other products. Varieties include cajeput, cedarwood, lemongrass, pink grapefruit, and ylang ylang III, just to name a few.

We’re really excited that the Arkansas History Commission is going to be hosting the Arkansas Foodways Seminar on May 17th. Titled Everything Old is New Again: The Arkansas Foodways Movement, this half-day seminar will have a variety or great speakers teaching about the history of Arkansas food traditions and an awesome Arkansas lunch prepared by up-and-coming area chefs. Registration is only $10 but space is limited so call (501)682-6891 or e-mail state.archives@arkansas.gov to sign up.

Happy Eating!

- Alex Handfinger