The Market is Open!

Good Morning Marketgoers,

Thunderstorms and tomatoes, humidity and okra, burning heat and spicy peppers; if you weren’t already aware, Summer is officially here. That’s exciting news for us local-food lovers, as each week the market expands with new flavors and varieties, and we get to truly taste nature’s bounty. The market is open and getting yummier by the day. New offerings include…

• Can you say Hardin Farms’ CANTALOUPE?!?!? Excuse my obvious excitement, but these are quite literally my favorite melons on the planet. Snag a melon and some of their peaches & cream sweet corn and taste why the Hardins are some of our favorite farmers around.

• Canadian bacon from the woodland raised hogs at Falling Sky Farm. Leaner and slightly sweeter than our U.S. bacon, Falling Sky recommends putting it on a sandwich, a pizza, or adding some awesome flavor to just about any breakfast, but they’d love to hear your recipe ideas on their facebook page.

• Grab a whole pastured gmo-free broiler chicken from MeatWorks Butchery & Market. Follow these four tricks to roasting the perfect pastured bird and the results will speak for themselves.

• Fresh okra is back from Barnhill Orchards. I was raised a Yankee and never heard of okra until I moved down here. I was first taught that it was only for frying, which, while absolutely delicious, doesn’t quite compare to stewing it with tomatoes, in my humble opinion.

• Lucky for us, the tomatoes are also really rolling in! We’ve got green, heirloom, cherry sungold, and hybrid defiant from Willow Springs, green and early girl from Green Acres Atkins, organic slicers, sungold, juliets, and green from Crimmins Family Farm, and green from Barnhill Orchards.

• Add in all these peppers and it’s definitely salsa-making season. Arkansas Natural Produce has got serranos, sweet bananas, jalapenos, and romanian sweet while Willow Springs brings the heat with el tiburon, lemon drop, and maule’s red hot.

• Kohlrabi kraut from Garden Works. This delicious, nutritious, and all-local fermented condiment goes great on grilled meats and morning omelettes.

• Cajun spiced mixed nuts from Maison Terre. Created by Maison Terre staff and Food Club Coordinator Karl Heinbockel as a birthday gift for his sister, I’ve tasted these nuts and they are nothing short of addictive!

A few years ago it was discovered that one of our growers, Petit Jean Meats, was mislabeling out-of-state products as their own. When caught, they were banned from the market and got in a bit of legal trouble. There’s currently a pending court case against Petit Jean Meats and they’re looking for folks that bought their products because they thought they were local in 2010 and 2011. If you bought Petit Jean Meats in that timeframe and are interested in giving a statement, e-mail it to prosecutor contact Jeff Wieners at jeff.wieners@fsis.usda.gov.

Thanks for supporting local!

- Alex Handfinger
Director of Operations

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