Westminster Farmers' Market

Westminster</font /></span /> Farmers’ Market Report from Maple Heights</place /></city /> Farm </span />

 

Pay NO Attention to the Weather.  It is Still Summertime! </font /></span />

 

  Our Students are back at school, Labor Day is upon us, and summer is NOT over!  Summer eating has just kicked into gear this month.  Only now are we tasting perfection in our tomatoes and peppers and melons.  Don’t miss this opportunity to taste real food at its peak of flavor.  Summer may be over in a few weeks, but summer eating continues until the first frost which may be six to eight weeks away (may be wishful thinking but I can hope)!  Expect all the bounty of July and August and add to that some of the cool weather crops, onions, lettuce, Brussels</place /></city /> sprout, cabbage, broccoli, winter squash and more.  If you consider summer over now you are selling yourself short and you can look forward to a long off season – we had enough of that last winter.  So continue eating from our local gardens by visiting us at the farmers’ market.  </font /></span />

 Tomatoes are incredible right now.  There are so many varieties available at the market and you should try them all!  Find your favorites and give up those pink grocery store things.  My favorite use of tomato is simple tomato salad:  tomato, onion, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, goat cheese or mozzarella and black olives.  I am experimenting with different tomatoes and combinations of tomatoes, juliet, brandywine pink, black krim, and a colorful mix of cherry tomatoes have all been delicious.  I am still waiting for evergreen and golden girl to ripen (though maybe evergreen already has??? Hmmm…).  If tomato salad is not your thing, how about thick slices of tomato topped with basil and mozzarella, drizzled with olive oil and roasted in the oven for a few minutes?  That along with a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine makes up the ultimate summer evening meal. 

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  Here is an article from The New York Times on how farmers are getting tourists to pay for on farm vacations and do chores for them too! 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/dining/26farms.html?_r=1

  Check out this youtube video of an ad for the LA County fair. So funny, but not beyond the realm of possibility.

 This is why we should all support local Ag in The Classroom programs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s0qtPkxD0g

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 If not for the weather, every thing went off without a hitch for our first anniversary celebration Friday. We did get in three good hours, though. Temps were in the high eighties with high humidity, moderated by a nice breeze. Our market manager, Al Magane kept an eye on the skies. There was a tornado watch twenty miles to our west, moving our way. The first two storms missed us, moving to our north and then to our south. Al had the vendors pack it in when lighting was seen to our west. Just as the last of twenty-four canopies and tables with product were packed into vehicles, the skies opened up. I mean it poured buckets! The timing couldn't have been better if it were staged. I checked the time as we were leaving; 6:15, we only missed forty-five minutes of a great afternoon.

Westminster Farmers’ Market Report from Maple Heights Farm

This Friday we are celebrating the 1 year anniversary of the opening of the Farmers’ Market with a Birthday Celebration!  We are lucky enough to have some Irish Step Dancers performing at 5:00 and Sue Nickerson and her husband Steve will be on fiddle and guitar!  Stop by for a piece of Birthday Cake and enjoy the festivities!

We now have 71 votes for Favorite Farmers’ Market on Local Harvest.  I think that is pretty impressive so far.  We are about 50 votes away from getting onto the top 100 list.  Now, if you have been to our farmers’ market, I think you will agree it is top notch and deserves your vote.  Just the top 100 is all I’m asking.  So please vote at www.localHarvest.org.  It takes me between 2 and 4 hours to write this report each week (admittedly not my specialty).  It will take you about 2 minutes to vote.  Please vote!

 Did you see the Sentinel and Enterprise on Sunday!  We had a wonderful article written about our market – taking up almost the entire front page

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   I thought Indiana was a farm state. Check this news story out from IndyStar.com. Urban chicken movement? Chicken underground?

Westminster Farmers’ Market Celebrates One Year in Operation!

 The Westminster Farmers’ Market will be holding a Birthday Celebration to celebrate opening one year ago.  There will be birthday cake made with fresh local ingredients and entertainers including a troupe of Irish Step Dancers at 5:00 p.m.!  Come enjoy the festivities and atmosphere!

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 M.L. Altobelli took these photos at our farmers market on Friday 08-07-09. It was taken just as the vendors finished setting up, hence, not many customers.

 I need to learn how to down load more than one jpg file to a blog page. Sorry they are spread over a couple of entries.

                                                                        D.J.

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Another view of the north side of the market.[Read More]

Another photo from M.L.

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 M.L. Altobelli took these photos at our farmers market on Friday 08-07-09. It was taken just as the vendors finished setting up, hence, not many customers.[Read More]

 Thank you to Emily Devlin of The Sentinel for writing a very nice piece on The Westminster Farmer's Market. This should really help in the promotion of our market. It's grown so much already this year!

 Here is a quote from Emily and the link to the article:

"In its second year of operation, the Farmers Market has tripled in size, growing from just five or six vendors during its first season in 2008, to at least 24 each week this year."

http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_13134769

 Keith Harding of the local cable access TV station, channel 8, was in attendance at the market on Friday. He was there with a camera person doing interviews with venders and consumers for most of the afternoon. He even got footage of an impromptu step dance done by a little girl. This girl danced as Sue Nickerson played fiddle and her husband Steve, accompanied on guitar. Next week the girl's mother will be bringing the whole group of step dancers to perform at 5PM.

 Westminster Farmer's Market; "Be there or be square."