Market News - July 6, 2010
From the Market Manager
I was thinking about the smells of summer the other day. There are two that I absolutely love—the smell of raindrops on hot pavement, and the smell of phlox. The latter smell makes me think of my childhood as my mother always had phlox in her garden.I hope you brought some cookbooks to give away today. If you didn’t and you have some you don’t use anymore, bring them next week, and anyone who wants to can take one or more. You don’t have to bring any to give away to take any.
It’s interesting to read cookbooks from 50+ years ago. We have so many more foods available to us today. I think a large part of that has to do with the immigrants who have come into the U.S.
In 1976 when I moved from New Hampshire to California, I saw produce in their grocery stores that I had never seen in NH. When I moved back to New England in 1981, I saw some of that interesting produce in our grocery stores and it has increased greatly since then.
Many of those specialty items are at our farmers’ market. Look around and you will find them.
Welcome!
See Yang from Flats Mentor Farm in Lancaster joins us today. Flats Mentor Farm is an immigrant farming project that assists and supports small farmers of diverse ethnic backgrounds. Most are Hmong who are an ethnic group from Asia, particularly from the uplands of Laos who have their own language and culture. They assisted the U.S. during the once secret wars in Laos and were persecuted by Laotian and Vietnamese governments after the U.S. left Southeast Asia. Because of their assistance to the U.S. and their persecution, Hmong were allowed to immigrate to the U.S.
If you are unfamiliar with Asian vegetables, go to the library and take out a cookbook. Most of their produce is either used in soups, or is stir-fried.
Mark Your Calendar
This Wednesday, July 7th, the Sector H Citizen/Police meeting will take place at 7 PM at the JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, 1160 Dickinson St., in the Goldstein Auditorium. They will meet there next month also.
If you’ve never been to the JCC, go early and look around. It’s a terrific facility.
Thursdays in July—Trinity Church’s A Little Night Music. A free concert in the sanctuary at 6, then supper on the lawn, weather permitting, for a $5 contribution, along with carillon music.
Trinity is also having a neighborhood block party on July 17th from 4-7:30PM and it’s FREE. Rain date the 18th. It’s on the lawn at the church. Everyone is welcome.
Benson’s Bagels
Not only do they have the best bagels in the area, they’ve also expanded their menu and hours. They have burgers and panninis, AND soft serve ice cream. They are open until 8 every day now. They’re on vacation this week, but will be open Saturday. They’re located at the X.
Use Your EBT/Debit/or Credit Card Here
You don’t have to run out of money at our market. Go to the market table and purchase wooden tokens. We will swipe your card and give you tokens that you use just like cash. Each token is worth $2.50.
Parking at the Market
Please don’t park on both sides of any driveway; it’s difficult for cars to pass both ways. If there is no parking when you come to the market, just wait a few minutes and something will open up. Or, come a little later, and it won’t be so crazy.
Missing Vendors
Every so often one or more of our vendors might not be here. Maybe they’re on vacation, or perhaps they don’t have enough to sell. Whatever it is, you can ask at the market table and we’ll tell you what we know.
Fund Raiser for the Market
Do you have books lying around that you aren't going to read anymore? Ron Haislip-Hansberry, the person who takes care of our website, has an online book business and he has a proposal for us. For every hardcover book that he can use he will pay us $1, for every paperback, 50 cents. Any books that he doesn’t use he will donate to a charity. No encyclopedias, no textbooks over 2 years old, no Readers’ Digest Condensed books, and no books that are damaged by water or smoke. You can bring them to the market, or if you have cartons of books, let me know and he can pick them up.
Recipe
Berkshire Mountain chocolate bread, eggs, a little milk, butter. Soak the bread in a mixture of eggs and a little milk. Melt butter and sauté the bread and you will have Chocolate bread French toast. Yum.
It’s Blueberry Picking Time!
Val’s on Parker Street in East Longmeadow and Brown’s in Feeding Hills are two local places to pick blueberries. Pick up a copy of CISA’s Locally Grown 2010 issue at the market table and find other places where you can pick your own berries. Pick extra and freeze some.
