Hiatus

Well, community, it's been a great farmers market year here in Athens, Ohio. I have thoroughly enjoyed vending there, making y'all happy with brownies and salsa, getting to know vendors and customers a little better and doing my best to document the many seasons that we have experienced throughout the year. I mean, we are so lucky-- we don't just have spring, summer, fall and winter! We have asparagus, strawberry, tomato, pepper, greens, pawpaw and winter squash seasons. Seasons of chevre and fresh meats, seasons of green beans and brussel sprouts. We had a prolific and blessed year.

Though no final statements have been issued from the AFM's board of directors, I have been informed that our market manager has been let go. Her contract was not renewed for unspecified reasons, and so this blog will be going on a hiatus. Let it be known here that I do not agree with the decision of the board and am disappointed that they haven't attempted to inform the membership of this. At any rate, I thank you all for reading and hope that this blog will continue on sometime in the future, though I will not be authoring it.

I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize and thank Sarah Conley for her tireless work and efforts with our farmer's market. Because of her, the food stamps and senior coupon programs have come to fruition and been sustained, making it possible for everyone to buy fresh, local food.

Because of Sarah, area children were able to learn how to purchase fresh, local food and how to prepare it by participating in the awesome Jr. Chef school programs, thereby ensuring that our local farmers will have a customer base in the next generation of our community.

Thanks to Sarah for bring the Toyota Farm to Table Tour to our market this year; it raised $5000 for our market! The tour financed the food bought from market vendors by our local restauranteurs so they could show off their talents to our community (and y'all then helped strenghthen our local economy by purchasing ingredients from our vendors!).

Without Sarah, there would be no Verified Local Grower's Initiative. When I know that the food I buy from a vendor was indeed grown by that vendor, I am more comfortable buying from them.

I am impressed with Sarah's off-site management of our market, and her sunny prescence on-site was unmatched. Thank you for everything you've done Sarah! I and Casa Nueva have really appreciated your creativity, organization and help throughout the last couple years. We couldn't have asked for a better manager!

I couldn't forget a thank you to Kip Parker and Joe Beres, our assistant on-site market managers for all of their help, entertainment and pork sandwiches this year! Also, a big end of the year thanks to all the vendors for their hard work in growing the good food and making it fresh and available for all of us. And the biggest thanks to you, the customers of the Athens Farmers Market, for fighting the good fight in keeping local, fresh food an option for us all. Casa will see you at the market in the spring!

A Cornucopia of Thanksgiving Feast Ideas!

The question is... can you find everything you need for a delicious Thanksgiving meal at the Athens Farmer's Market? The answer is YES YOU CAN! Well, most things. Maybe not marshmallows...

This coming Wednesday, November 25th from 10am-1pm will be the last official Wednesday farmer's market of the 2009 season! Just in time for Thanksgiving. I've got a few ideas for ya if you're looking to buy local this year, and chances are, you'll find every suggestion on my list at the AFM. And yes, they all have ingredients from Casa 'cause that's how I roll!

Thanksgiving Holiday Ideas:

Casa Nueva's Creamy Garlic Salad Dressing + Potatoes from Mitch's Produce and Green House = Creamy, garlicky mashed potato goodness!

Casa Nueva's Shiitake-Ginger Vinaigrette + Uncooked Turkey from King Family Farm = Creative marinade for the turkey!

Casa Nueva's Orchard-Habanero Salsa + Casa Wheat Bread + Onions and Carrots from Rich Gardens Organic Farm= Really excellent stuffing!

Casa Nueva's Black Bean Salsa or Salsa Verde + Casa Wheat Bread + Bell Peppers from Andy Arnold = Really excellent stuffing 2!

Casa Nueva's Salsa Verde + Bok Choy and Tat Soi from Yankee Street Farm = Spicy Greens!

Casa Nueva's Granola + Pears and Apples from Cherry Orchard and Gillogly Farm= Sweet Fruit Crumble!

Casa Nueva's Shiitake-Ginger Vinaigrette + Parsnips, Beets and Parsley from Shade River Farm = Tasty Mixed Root Veggies!

Casa Nueva's Granola + Butternut Squash from Shade River Farm or Vest Berries or Sweet Potatoes from Sassafrass Farm = Sweet Mashed Squash with a Crumbly Topping!

Casa Nueva's Maple Pawpaw Vinaigrette + Mixed Cabbages from Starline Organics = Incredible Slaw!

Casa Nueva's BBQ Sauce + Chevre from Integration Acres + Turkey from King Family Farms= A sweet and savory spread for turkey slices! Mmm, next day roll-ups!

Casa Nueva's Granola + Pumpkin from Andy Arnold or Squash from Vest Berries = Incredible Pumpkin Pie!

Any of Casa Nueva's Salad Dressings + Fresh Salad and Micro Greens from Green Edge Organic Gardens = A Refreshing Salad!

You can find teas and cider, biscuits and breads, a plethora of fresh veggies, winter squashes and pumpkins, maple syrup, molasses, jams and honey, cheeses, nuts, popcorn, bacon and sausage. I mean, really, what more do you need? Except maybe marshmallows...

So there's a few recipes and suggestions to get you started. If you have some of your own you'd like to share, please feel free to leave them in the comments! And if you'd like more recipes, tips or suggestions for your feast, feel free to email me at food@casanueva.com. Thanks again, community, for your wonderful support! And a very happy, warm and well-fed Thanksgiving to you from the AFM!

Tomorrow's Market Forecast

***SPECIAL NEWSCAST***

Tomorrow's weather forcast for the Athens Farmer's Market is... SUNNY!

That's right! It's gonna be a beautiful day at the market, and you are all welcome to come down and get all kinds of late fall produce! Apples, cider, potatoes, nuts, winter squash, greens... not to mention pork and dairy products and baked goods! You might even find a tomato or a pepper in there.

It may be one of the last beautiful Wednesdays of the year, you never know. So come on down to the AFM and get yer delicious local products. See you tomorrow between 10am-1pm!

A Farm Preparing For a Winter's Sleep

Finally, I made it out to Cowdery Farm this past weekend. There are a lot of folks growing peppers in Southeastern Ohio that sell at the Athens Farmer's Market, but I am a bit biased towards Larry and Kim Cowdery, I must admit.
They have a very colorful, attractive stall at the market located on the west end, facing the mall. During harvest season, their tables are laden with many varieties, colors, shapes and sizes of peppers from large bells to slender sweet italias to perfect, small pimentos and shiny, forest green anchos. I have always bought from them for my own use, and was excited when I began at Casa to learn that they are our supplier of hungarian wax, jalapeno, poblano (ancho), cayenne and habanero peppers. It was high time I made it out to their farm to see what it's all about!

My partner Andy and I headed out to the farm late Sunday afternoon, when it was chilly, but bright and beautiful out. Larry and Kim had hosted some of our production crew in the late summer, during their high harvest, when everything was beautiful, lush and fresh looking. For reasons I can't recall, Andy and I couldn't make it that time. So, of course, Larry chided and teased us for picking a horrible time of the year to see their place. And since fall is my favoritest season of all, I disagreed with him. The beauty that I saw there struck me deeply. Not only did we see the acres of neat rows of wax and ancho chilies, or the rows of yellow mushroom peppers, chocolate habaneros and fatale peppers that they permitted Bungtown Foods to grow, but we saw the greenhouses, both heated and non-heated (and moveable) that they use in the spring for plant starts, strawberries and for summer tomatoes. That tomato greenhouse had a ghastly, late fall feel to it that thrilled me!

The black, gray and white circles of rot on the peppers left on the vine reminded me that this death of the harvest season, this sleep that the fields will indulge in this winter, are necessary actions towards another beautiful and fruitful growing and harvest season next year. The late fall is bittersweet in this way, and on a personal note, bittersweet is a state that I'm working hard to understand in my life. There's nothing like a farm, where things are born, grow up, die back and are born again, to put things into perspective.

Larry is a fifth generation farmer of their family land in Long Bottom of Meigs County. The farm is 300 acres, split evenly with his parents and cousins, of what had been pasture and is now used to raise crops of field and sweet corn, barley, and many types of oriental vegetables like bitter melon, thai hot chiles and thai eggplants.

Larry spoke quickly about the farm as the sunshine waned, and I tried my best to pay attention, but my breath was taken away by the four-wheeler ride up to a top portion of his land. I now understand the PizzaGoon's fear of the four-wheeler ride! Larry, as well as Kim, was meant for NASCAR. Oh, the intense, pastoral beauty of the layers of first scrubby, nearly de-leaved trees directly below us, then neat, blond blocks of field corn and green blocks of barley, the sparkling Ohio river, and the bright, gray streaks of trees with their rusty and golden tops in the surrounding hills! It was gorgeous, and I was amazed, the whole time, trying to wrap my brain around how Larry and Kim single-handedly (with very little help) have managed all the acres and greenhouses of produce and fields of corn and winter cover crops for the last 15 years together. They are truly inspirational, awesome folks and I felt blessed to have finally seen their land and farm.

As the sun set and the full moon rose, the chilly air set in, and Larry quickly took us down to his "warehouse", where the produce is packed. He posed in front of his tubs of glorious peppers while I took a picture and then gawked in front of the awesome produce-shining machine that Larry claimed all farms have! I had no idea. This baby brushes and polishes peppers to a gorgeous shine. Which is very cool to me! Larry showed us stacks and stacks of unbuilt, wax-covered cardboard boxes for packing, delivering and shipping produce, and then explained how he hasn't had a need for them with all of the reusing of boxes that goes on (Casa and OU were mentioned)! When we're done with the boxes, we give them back and they're reused. I love this tree and money saver.

By the time we got back up to the house, night was facing us. Larry came inside with us to quickly warm his bones before going out to cover and thereby protect the peppers from frost. Kim cooked us an awesome dinner of... stuffed PEPPERS! Jalapenos stuffed with pineapple cream cheese, sweet peppers stuffed with Harmony Hallow's sausage and mozzarella and anchos stuffed with crab and mozzarella. Salsas filled with tomatoes, tomatillos, wax, jalapeno and serrano peppers, all grown on the farm. Chad joined us for the tour and dinner (and made a fabulous, chocolate-peanut butter cookie-ice cream-whipped cream dessert thing that was TOO good), and we had a lovely time. Thanks, Larry and Kim, for having Andy and I out to your farm, we had a great time!

The Sky Cried on Halloween

This past Saturday, while the sky cried big, chilly drops of rain during our farmer's market, Art Gish of Dutch Creek Community Farm remarked that he'd be happy if it rained an inch every Saturday night and was sunny and beautiful the rest of the week. Ideal, right? Of course, it would have angered all the kids that come to Athens to go to uptown Halloween, but everyone's crops would flourish and we'd have had a sunny farmer's market on Saturday for trick-or-treat!

Alas, it decided to rain, blow and be cold instead. Our basket of organic lollipops sat barely touched as customers walked by, bundled in warm jackets, carrying umbrellas. There were a couple of brave littles, shivering in their parents' arms, dressed up as princesses, spiders, dinosaurs, etc. Seeing them did make me laugh, and they were rewarded with smiles and lollipops for their costuming efforts!

I can't deny that although the weather was complete crap, I was surprised and pleased at how many folks showed up to shop! I wanted to take this opportunity to shout out a big "THANK YOU!" to our wonderful community.

As you may know, when we (Casa Nueva) don't make enough money at the market, we can't come and vend. Cold, rainy days aren't usually conducive to making money for us, and Bruno and I have a low tolerance for cold and rain, so we don't usually vend on crappy weather days! But this past Saturday, I insisted, because maybe there would be some trick-or-treaters that we could make happy (who wouldn't be assuaged by organic candy?). Instead of trick-or-treaters, we had tons of regular and some new customers come visit and buy from us! So thank you a million times for making our trip to the market worth it. We love to come and your patronage makes it possible!