Kansas City Food Circle Blog: May 6, 2010

Farmers' Community Market at Brookside - SATURDAYS 8am-1pm

Thank you for coming out last week and braving the Brookside Art Fair traffic. Both the art fair and the market were a great success due to you!! This week is our annual Garden Festival. Look for all thriving, bounding seedlings just waiting for your arrival to be planted in your gardens. And, great local seeds from Border Star!!!

We welcome Steve Mann and his FOOD NOT LAWNS friends to our community tent! They will be there to help you learn fun ways to make your yard beautiful and productive in ways that promote sustainability for the environment.

Also... are you ready...ECO ELVIS IS IN THE HOUSE!!!! Get to the market from 10 am to 11 am and be prepared for a special rompin' treat!

We have Ted and his three man rockin' band treating us to some new/old tunes.

And now, what you've been waiting for...HERE'S WHAT'S FRESH AT THE MARKET FOR GARDEN FESTIVAL!!!

Hello Brookside Market Friends,

We are busy this week preparing for Luke and Mandi's wedding.

For those of you that do not know, Luke is getting married this Saturday at 4:00pm to a wonderful girl, Mandi. Luke still plans on being at Brookside until 12:00 so come by and wish him well.

Chris will be back with Luke this week also and he is now a married man and ready to help Luke with market and to make sure he gets to his wedding on time.

Our booth will have our honey pecan rolls, cinnamon rolls, vegan cranberry chocolate chip scones, vegan pecan scones, cookies, breads and granola's. Puddin Head coffee will also be available to have with a breakfast treat.

Come by, have a cup of coffee and enjoy the market. The day should be nice and the boys need some good advice on how to be good husbands.

Kathy, Luke and Chris

Red Ridge Farms

New this week (just in time for Mother's Day) we are bringing back our famous flower and herb containers- lots of color in some and lots of potential in others!! Check out our toad abode and other crafts. We will continue having a variety of greens including microgreens, lettuce mix, spinach, arugula, cress, and very-young & tender pea shoots. Fresh cut herbs, radishes, spring onions, ramps (wild garlic), and a few portions of baby pac choi will also be for sale. Transplants galore! Ask about our Brookside CSA option- we have 3 spots left.

From the KC Community Farm

It has been a great way to start the market this year. Among the growers

and customers, there seems to be a fresh sense of connection and enthusiasm for our unique farmers' market, for local agriculture and for healthy food.

Maybe it's partly the weather? So far it has made growing your food a lot

of fun around here. Thanks to Alicia, KCCF farm manager, and her crew and volunteers, the fields look tidy, mulched, weeded and productive (and that's not easy this time of year!).

Perhaps the other reason we're feeling so good at the market has to do with our new market manager, Pam Bramlett. She's doing such terrific work for us, and her skills and enthusiasm are amazing. Many thanks, Pam, for spreading a great vibe!

On our tables this week you'll find a nice selection of certified organic

spring vegetables, so bring along your recipes and an extra bag. We'll have great root vegetables including RADISHES, TURNIPS, BEETS and CARROTS. From the allium family we'll bring more taste-it-to-believe-it SPRING GARLIC as well as SPRING ONIONS, LEEKS and SCALLIONS. Lots of great-tasting greens including HEAD LETTUCE, CHINESE CABBAGE and SPINACH and we'll have our delicious bagged SALAD & LETTUCE MIXES. You'll also find BRAISING MIX (a changing mix of kale, turnip greens, pac choi, mustard greens and more) as well as ARUGULA, WATERCRESS, PEASHOOTS and MICROGREENS (for a most beautiful and delicious fresh salad!). We'll round off the table with bunches of KALE, SWISS CHARD and COLLARDS as well as BROCCOLI RAAB (a spring treat that won't last long :). And did I mention KOLLRABI and CUCUMBERS?

And for you vegetable gardeners we'll have more TRANSPLANTS, including lots of tomatoes, peppers and eggplant as well as a variety of herb transplants. This is the best time for planting these warm-season vegetables and it looks like the weather will be great for gardening most of the weekend. Thanks to you all for your support. We appreciate it!

Border Star Montessori will be doing “scratchboard art” this week and reusable snack bags. I’m not sure what scratchboard art is, but it sounds really fun!!! Also, look for Alex’s Organic Cupcakes either this week or next week. They are a favorite at Border Star! Pam

Bear Creek Farms

Can you beat this weather??!! Hope all of you are finding time to get out and play!

Busy week here - still planting - and still have squash, okra, melons and cukes to go. The kids - Lonnie and Jeanna - are loving market. Thanks to everyone for helping them along. Jeanna swears that next year she'll know every tomato - and I just don't have the heart to tell her I change the offering every year!

Saturday sounds like the perfect day - cool and sunny. Hope everyone gets to the market! We'll have lots more plants, beautiful head lettuce and whatever else we can find.

Robbins and Jim
Lonnie and Jeanna

This week I'm bringing out some of the warmer weather crops such as peppers and eggplants. We'll also have our list of cherry and big heirloom tomatoes. I will bring a couple of those wonderful American cranberry bushes and Elderberries as well as some other fun things for us Foods Not Lawns folks. The thing I'm most excited about this week is our recycled kitty litter earth boxes. You can use these to grow your tomato, pepper or eggplants right on a deck or patio as long as it gets sun. The best part about these is they are made almost entirely out of recycled materials and are organic to top it off. Look forward to seeing you all on Saturday.

Dave Wilson

CityLights Nursery & Raytown's Green Acres

Blue Door will be at market with great transplants to get your garden going strong. In addition to veggie transplants, I'll have more nasturtiums, some beautiful petunia baskets, and some new flowers that are just coming into bloom: osteospernum, variety "Sky and Ice" - it's a daisy type flower with a purple center and very, very pale lavender petals. Gorgeous (and it will bloom, bloom, bloom).

On the veggie front, look for more chard, leaf lettuce and other tasty spring treats. The spring garlic is looking great, so jump on this seasonal specialty while you can.

See you Saturday!

- Laura

Thanks to you all for supporting local organic farmers and for your dedication to the Farmers' Community Market at Brookside!!

Buy Organic, Buy Local, By Brookside

Farmers' Community Market
at Brookside

Saturdays, 8am to 1pm
under the white tents at theBorder Star Montessori School
63rd & Wornall, Kansas City, MO 64113

The Farmers' Community Market at Brookside is Dedicated to Creating a Unique Partnership between the Community and Farmers who provide High Quality, Local and Organic Products in an atmosphere that is mutually beneficial, wholesome and fun.The Market also helps to support the Border Star PTA.

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