Hello Friends and Supporters,
Well... the Freshies Farmers' Market seems to have a bull's eye on it for summer rain storms. But, we Freshies Vendors are a tenacious bunch and have been starting late and staying late after the storms have passed. So, if you see something below that you are interested in taking a look at, and the weather looks sketchy, come by the market later if the air clears. I bet you will find us there, at the Moretown School on Wednesday from 4:30-7:30.
This week we'll have two new vendors at the market. The folks from Tidhar Farm will be at the market selling their farm raised meats and cheese from the von Trapp Farm in Waitsfield. And our neighbor Mimi will be there with her home grown veggies. She'll have beets, peas, romaine lettuce, and greens.
For market regulars, we'll have Jenna with her beautiful arrangements of flowers, Thai basil, scallions and kale. Just tonight we enjoyed cauliflower that I grew from Jenna's plants, and I hope you'll get a chance to savor the products of her fabulous green thumb.
Last week, Kevin from Lalu Farm joined us at the market with their delicious goat cheese, honey and new to the market was their homemade goat milk Dulce de Leche (caramel topping). If you have a chance to sample some of the wonderful Lalu products, you'll be glad you did.
We are lucky to have Karen's constant friendly presence with her Mountain Woman and Mountain Man bars, fine maple syrup, eggs and herbs. Karen always provides delicious samples of her bars, so be sure to try them when you come to the market.
Juliana will join us with her homemade salves and creams. Last week, she shared samples of her comfrey salve with all of us. Stop by her table and smell and feel her wonderful creations if you can.
Among the fermentation adventures in the village, we processed eight of the meat chickens we raised on Saturday. We've got twenty-one left in that particular flock which has been an experiment around different meat chicken breeds, using fermented grain, and pasturing poultry. The birds grew at very different rates, and so eight of them were ready to move on to the big chicken coop in the sky while the heritage type breeds are taking their time. The good news is, the twenty-one left are beautiful, and we've learned a lot from the process. Humanely and healthfully raising your own chickens for meat or eggs is fun and no more difficult than raising a dog or a cat. Feel free to talk to me or Karen about keeping chickens if you are interested in giving it a try.
For the market this week, I'll have Saida's Kimchi, Curried Kraut, Celtic Kraut and Sofya's Sauerkraut. I'll also have unsweetened blueberry kombucha and mulberry ginger kombucha by the glass, and be offering plain kombucha on “tap” with homemade/homegrown black currant syrup. Black currants are high in anthocyanins, or powerful plant anti-oxidants, and they are delicious! For folks who don't love kombucha, I'll have some cold seltzer available, too, for yummy black currant soda. If we've got any extra, I'll bring our delicious, mostly organic eggs. Our chickens have been making very large, very flavorful eggs lately with all the wonderful greens and bugs they are eating. Unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), we've been eating these tasty morsels up ourselves and sharing them with our pigs, shells and all, so I'm not totally sure I'll have any to sell at the market.
Keep an eye on the sky, and trust that your steadfast Freshies Vendors will set up at the Moretown School on Wednesday as close to 4:30 as the weather allows. We look forward to seeing you at the market.
Be well,
Beki Auclair
Vermont Fermentation Adventures
www.RebeccaAuclair.com
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