The Market is Open

Good Morning,
The Market is open. We’ve come back round to yet another seasonal transition, from Summer to Fall. You can read it in the market, every time the local offerings seem to hover or stall. There is plenty of Summer abundance, but you can almost feel the tired out plants sending energy into the last of their tomatoes and squash. Our farmers are gearing up for Fall; their minds have already moved on to Fall’s offerings. I look forward to the return of greens, broccoli, sweet potatoes, Winter squash (those are already here, aren’t they?), and root vegetables.
Until then, one more yellow squash and cherry tomato.
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The second edition of FRESH…

We’ve started working on the second edition of our FRESH Local Food Directory for this Fall. I’m excited about the additions and improvements we’re making, including as comprehensive a list of local farms as possible. Due to the success of our first edition, we’ll be printing 2,500 more copies, with more pages for more entries.
The core purpose of this directory is to provide a free service to the public, a resource so that everyone can easily find local foods. If you’d like to support the 2nd edition, consider becoming a Sponsor. For a contribution of $25 or more to the design and printing of this directory, we will forever engrave your name and goodness into its pages, listing you as a Sponsor. If you’d like to sponsor, flag me down!
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This here market…

• Farm Basket from Barnhill Orchards. An interesting new addition to our market: you can purchase a basket of select farm produce from Barnhill Orchards. The contents change week to week, but your support for the farm would be unwavering.
• The Farm Harvest Package from MeatWorks is on Special and includes 1 medium Pork Roast, 2 packages of Cube Steak, 2 packages of Pork Chops, 1 Link Sausage, and 2lbs of Beef Ribs.
• Organic Okra from North Pulaski. I love North Pulaski’s okra. In fact, North Pulaski taught me to love okra. I’ll probably roast some for lunch, tossed with smoked paprika, lemon juice, sea salt, and olive oil.
• Organic Marconi Peppers from North Pulaski: beautiful in appearance and taste. These peppers are huge, vibrant in color, and perfect roasted or “pasta’d”, i.e., put in pasta.
• Fresh, just-frozen Purple Hull Peas from Kellogg, certified naturally grown.
• Half-pint Pumpkins from Drewry Farm & Orchards. Man, these pumpkins are cute. It would hurt me to eat them, but I must…
• The last of Summer’s tomatoes: snag a few more. Crimmins has Juliet and Sungolds, Armstead has their Paste and Standards. But! Barnhill has their Fall tomatoes coming in. The tomato show isn’t over yet, my friends.
• Drewry has plenty of apples: Gala, Pinova, Jonathan, and Red Delicious. More like, all delicious.
• Ratchford just put on their frozen berries, including their Raspberries, Grown using natural methods at Ratchford Farms, grown using only organic fertilizer and cedar shavings for bug repellent.
• Chicken. There is a lot of chicken available right now. I used to be afraid of cooking chicken, but it’s proven really rather simple. My favorite is to just pan roast drumsticks with a rich mustard-garlic marinade. Have you ever watched a chicken in motion? They remind me so much of little T-rex’s, although, I’ve never seen a T-rex. Chicken or egg situation.
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And a little bit of Foodie news: Mylo’s Coffee Co. is officially moving into a brick and mortar space. If you’ve not yet tried Mylo’s wondrous pastries, it’ll become much easier to do by 2014. These guys have been a huge boost to their respective farmers’ markets, and we are excited to see them realize a long-endured dream. I hope you like chocolate croissants.

Sincerely,
Sam Hedges
arlocalfoodnetwork@gmail.com
501-291-2769