25 Jun Thu 2009
Westminster Farmer's Market Report for 06-26-09
Westminster Farmers’ Market Report from Maple Heights Farm
Last week was very busy at the farmers’ market.We had about 9 booths and they were all hopping throughout the entire afternoon.The amount of food items is increasing each week both prepared and whole!I saw some incredible looking prepared sandwiches at Ann Patsis booth – they were meal sized and you may consider stopping by her booth for supper!We had vendors with beef, pork, kale, swiss chard, salad greens, radish, rhubarb, asparagus, herbs, eggs, Capri goat cheese along with Smith’s country cheese.Also available: breads (olive, feta, garlic, cinnamon, Finnish, English muffin, hamburger rolls, gluten-free), rhubarb pie and crisp, jam, seedlings, annuals, cakes and cookies.Read about the nutritional value of Kale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kale and swiss chard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kale.It will definitely make you want to include it at your dinner table!
In addition to these food items, we expect perennials, soaps and lotions, hand creams, incense, hand painted tin pieces including Mailboxes and antique reproductions, ornaments, quilted items, tote bags, jewelry…
Rhubarb may be winding down at the market so I will include one final recipe here.It has a crumb topping and would be great for Sunday Brunch!This should take about 15 minutes to prepare and that is not bad considering that it is from scratch (and worth the extra effort).http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Rhubarb-Cake-I/Detail.aspx
Music this week by the talented Jeff Root!So don’t forget to lend an ear to our boom-box and listen to this local talent!
Meghan is getting her coffee shop off the ground this week.She will be offering hot coffee, iced coffee (if the weather is hot), iced ginger tea, root beer floats made with all natural homemade root beer (made by my 17 year old son, Max), homemade donuts and cinnamon rolls.All proceeds will fund Mass Ag in the Classroom projects at our local schools and also the Green Movement at Overlook Middle School.Coffee and Tea $1.75 (bottomless cup), Donuts and Rolls $1.25, Root beer float $2.50.
Orders are open for Massachusetts Local Food at www.MassFoodCoop.org, our online ordering system for locally produced foods and farm products.Orders close on July 6th so consider browsing through the 200 local products listed!Pickup will be on July 10th.
This week at the market we will have a new vendor, Robin from Honeybee Baking Company in Princeton.She participates in the Mass Local Food and is a gifted baker for sure.I for one will be stopping by for her lime-cornmeal cookies and I’m sure Sydney will be looking for Robin’s peanut butter fudge brownies (Sydney better start picking a lot of peonies to support her habit this week!).
Do you know we have our own Westminster Farmers’ Market shopping bags?They are dark green, reusable, and designed by our own Susan Nickerson.They sell for $5.00 per bag.Join the trend, go reusable and show off that you shop at our farmers’ market!
Our market is now listed on www.localharvest.org/farmers-markets/M24478.Don’t forget to log on, read our information, and vote for your favorite farmers’ market!
If you still uncertain that locally raised meats are better, I have a way that you can convince yourself.Try the sausage, either sweet Italian, hot Italian or breakfast.Now, I was not really a sausage person because it is too greasy for me.But farm sausage is truly different.Though the cost per pound may be more, you will find that you are not draining away half of the sausage as fat.You will have just enough left in your pan to sauté some onions for whatever recipe you choose to use (and the fat is less saturated than the butter that you may normally use for this!).
I have a recipe for you that is one of my favorites, and with all the rainy days we have had, this will make a perfect dinner.I sometimes substitute dumplings for tortellini due to a large surplus of semolina flour (due to a disastrous attempt at home cooking with my friend, Margaret, that included a whole day, homemade mozzarella, homemade pasta, homemade sauce and a power failure!)You can find the recipe at our website at http://www.mapleheightsfarm.com/recipe_sausagetortellinisoup.html.Also the sausage is excellent on pizza and you can find our recipe for that at our website also.
We, at Maple Heights Farm, are completely restocked on beef and pork.We have many top quality steaks and hamburg.We also have pork loin chops and three types of sausage.You can go to www.mapleHeightsFarm.com to check out our prices (click on pricing on the main page).
Thank you to all who are participating in our trash reuse program.The egg cartons and nursery pots have been a big help to several vendors.Here are more items that we need:garden center pots, seed six packs, egg cartons, small/medium glass jars, coffee grounds, empty 50 lb brown paper sacks such as flour sacks or grain bags, unwanted coolers in good condition.
Please consider becoming a vendor.What are you going to do with your extra zucchini anyway?Selling it helps the farmers market – and you can put your proceeds towards those cool tomato supports and pea supports that you have been wanting for so long!You can obtain an application online at www.westminster-ma.org/farmersMarket_APP.htm.The fee is $2.00 for a table each week.