THIS WEEK'S HIGHLIGHT
A Teaching Moment
This delightful picture captures the essence of what often happens when children come to the farmers' market. Megan Ayers, of Parkland Homestead in Saylor Park, takes the opportunity to explain where eggs really come from, why eggs come in various colors, and many other interesting aspects about raising/growing real food. And she would know because the hens who laid these eggs reside right in Megan's backyard. Feel free to stop by Megan's booth for your farm lesson. She takes great care in her growing practices and she would love to share her knowledge with you. In addition to egg-laying chickens, Megan also uses her back, front, and side yards to grow fruits, veggies, and nuts. She informs us that she expects to bring a variety of cool weather crops to market in the near future, including lettuces, cabbages, kale, carrots, spinach, and snow peas. Oh, yummy! Thanks, Megan, for helping us Eat Well, even in cool weather. For further information, you may visit her website. http://www.parklandhomestead.com/
RECENTLY ADDED
Karen Blocher, Certified Herbalist, aka Green GRRRL Wisdom, is helping to herald in the Autumn season with several new products. Karen offered the following to inform customers about what she has been working on and will bring to market beginning this Friday, along with updates about a couple other items:
This week, I'm going to be featuring two seasonal soaps, a Pumpkin Soap and a Pawpaw Spice Soap. These both have vanilla, clove and cinnamon spice blends added to them for the fall season. Additionally, I have the Oatmeal and Honey soap back in stock.I no longer have any pawpaw trees to sell. I sold all the rest of what I had at the market last week.Oh, and I have some garlic I can bring for sale this week, too.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
"Our wallets are being looted and our bodies polluted by big-business agriculture, genetically modified foods, pesticides, and growth hormones. We need to take back our food supply."
from Locavore Adventures, by Jim Weaver
We can take back our food supply by making our purchases from our local producers found at the farmers' market.
from Locavore Adventures, by Jim Weaver
We can take back our food supply by making our purchases from our local producers found at the farmers' market.
REMINDERS
While some of you are long-time readers of the newsletter, people who are new to the market are reading the newsletter for the first time; therefore, the Reminders section is included each week so new folks can see what's happening around the market and around town.
We are excited to announce that Zosia Bread Company has added a new bread to their
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| Kale Pesto Bread |
You are invited to stop by the bread booth this week where we will be offering samples of the Kale Pesto bread, along with Zozia Bread Company's other fine breads: Rosemary Sweet potato, Multiseed crispbread, and Gluten Free crispbread. All Zosia breads are pre-order only, so after sampling you can order the items for pickup the following Friday.
While at the bread booth you may also purchase handcrafted breads made locally by Sixteen Bricks Artisan Bakehouse. Dipping the Zosia breads and the Sixteen Bricks breads in Mt. Kofinas quality olive oil, available at the market, also adds to the yumminess.
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10-Day Local Food Challenge
After over half century of obtaining our food primarily from grocery stores and fast food places, with little thought to the quality of the food, many more people are waking up to wondering what is really in their food. Hardly a day goes by without yet another news story that gives us cause to pause and be concerned about the food we are consuming. While the news can be a bit disconcerting, the good news is that more people are becoming aware that what we've thought of as food is often "food like substances," a favorite phrase from Michale Pollan.
Becoming more aware and waking up to what is really in our food is resulting in more people showing up at farmers' markets, looking for healthy food. We see this trend spreading from coast to coast, resulting in books, blogs, and documentaries about food and how it is grown/raised, along with how the growing methods are affecting people and the environment in which we live. A brief documentary, Relational Eating by Vicki Robin, tells of her experience following a 10-mile diet for a month.
Admitting that a 10-mile diet is extreme and something that most people could not and would not want to try, she has now modified this "experiment" to a 10-Day/100-Mile diet. Words from her website gives additional insight as to how this can be do-able for each of us: :
If you are interested in participating in the 10-Day/100 Mile Diet, or simply want to follow the stories of those who will be participating, you may find more information here.Local used to be the way everyone ate. Could it be again? Let’s run the 10-Day Local Food Challenge and see. How local can we go? For how long? The challenge isn’t just “can you do it?” It’s “can we do it? Can we all bring our eating closer to home? And if not, why not?
The experiment is simple: For 10 days or more eat food grown within 100 miles or less of your home. Give yourself 10 or fewer exotics, foods from afar (like coffee or oil) to make it do-able.
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NEW AT THIS SUMMER'S MARKET
PRE-ORDER AND SAVE $$$
Would you like to save $$$ on your food purchases while not compromising on quality? We thought your answer would be yes, so we devised a way for you to accomplish this. During the summer market season, a number of our vendors will be participating in Pre-order and Save $$$. Following are examples of the promotions that two vendors will be offering: Angelia’s Homemade Pies (& more) will be offering a 10% discount on all pre-ordered baked goods. Learning to Live Sustainably (L2LS): After customers have pre-ordered a total of 12 loaves of bread they will receive their 13th loaf free.
As if Saving $$$ isn't enough, Pre-ordering has additional bonuses for both customers and vendors. When you pre-order your items you are ensured that your favorite foods will not be sold out before you arrive at market. Additionally, pre-ordering cuts down on waste of perishable foods. When you let your favorite vendors know in advance what items you want to purchase, the vendors can then produce/harvest the quantities needed to supply their customers. Furthermore, our already-overly-busy vendors can use their time to make what their customers most want. Stop by your favorite vendors' booths to inquire about how to Pre-order and Save $$$.
For a full listing of our vendors, their products, and services including:
- Kids & Krafts (available starting at about 4:15), where the kids can have loads of fun so you can leisurely shop the market
- Many food and non-food items
- and a list of vendors who accept credit cards
You can also see up-to-the-minute news on the market's Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/lewfm.org
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Produce Perks
For
those who noticed the new logo at the bottom of the newsletter recently
and wondered what it means, here is the good news about a new program
that began this summer. Produce Perks is an incentive program that is
meant to encourage and help those who receive EBT (formerly known as
food stamps) purchase more produce. Produce Perks is a dollar for
dollar match (up to $10), with the matching dollars used on produce.
The Produce Perks website offers the following additional information:
Please
help us spread the word about this very worthwhile program. One way to
help get the word out is to stop by the market management booth to pick
up brochures to share with those you know who receive EBT benefits. You
could also leave brochures at your church, doctor or dentist's office,
or any locations that would permit you to do so. For
those who noticed the new logo at the bottom of the newsletter recently
and wondered what it means, here is the good news about a new program
that began this summer. Produce Perks is an incentive program that is
meant to encourage and help those who receive EBT (formerly known as
food stamps) purchase more produce. Produce Perks is a dollar for
dollar match (up to $10), with the matching dollars used on produce.
The Produce Perks website offers the following additional information:“Produce Perks” is an initiative modeled after a similar program in Cuyahoga County. It is administered by OSU Extension, Hamilton County as a partnership of OSU Extension, Hamilton County; the City of Cincinnati Health Department; and the City of Cincinnati Creating Healthy Communities initiative. Focus is on access and affordability of healthy fruits and vegetables for under-served consumers.
Produce Perks are incentive tokens given to customers at participating farmers’ markets who use an Ohio Direction Card (“electronic benefits transfer” or EBT card) to purchase food. A customer wishing to use their food assistance benefits can swipe their card at one central terminal, located at participating market’s information booths, and ask to withdraw a desired amount. The market provides tokens for the transaction and additional Produce Perks that can be spent on fruits and vegetables. As the name suggests, Produce Perks are only good for purchasing fruits and vegetables. All other tokens purchased with the Ohio Direction Card are good to use on eligible items at the market.
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WANTED: VOLUNTEERS. We're always looking for volunteers! If you're available to lend a hand at the Market any time between 1:30pm and 7:30pm on Fridays, or during the week for more behind the scenes activities, check out the link below to contact us! Our greatest need is help with set up from 1:30 until 3:00 and take down from 7:00 until 7:30.
VENDORS: We currently have openings for a meat vendor, produce vendors, and vendors offering value added items. If you are interested or know someone who might be, you may email us through the link below.
Vendors/Volunteers Click Here!
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Please share this newsletter with friends and family to help spread the word about LEWFM!
We hope to see you real soon at Lettuce Eat Well Farmers' Market!
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