Carrboro farmers market offers winter veggies

Sarah Blacklin of the Carrboro farmers market says the market will be open on Saturday, 9 a.m. to noon.Blacklin says the winter Market is a great time to load up on your hearty winter foods like cooking greens, sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, turnips, salad greens, etc.  Many of you know how to cook with these items, but how many of you know how to properly store these vegetables once you get them home?  Luckily, since our products at the Market are so fresh, even improper storage will keep your veggies lasting longer than what you can get at the supermarket. However, here are a few quick tips to making the most out of your winter Market veggies:

For most root vegetables like beets, carrots, radishes, turnips: Remove the greens if they are already attached and leave about a 1 inch stem.  Store the root veggies with their short stems unwashed in a closed plastic bag in your fridge crisper drawer.  If you are using the greens, store them unwashed in a separate closed plastic bag.

Salad greens: Store unwashed lettuce/salad greens in a plastic bag in the fridge.  For washed salad, make sure they are spun dry and store them in a kitchen towel or paper towel inside a plastic bag and place in a crisper drawer.  Wet salad spoils quickly so you want to absorb extra moisture.

Cooking greens: kale, collards, chard, spinach: Keep dry, unwashed greens in sealed plastic bag. Heartier greens will last a few weeks, but tender greens like spinach should be eaten within a week.

Onions: storage onions should be kept in a cool, dark, dry place much like you would do with potatoes.  Green onions and uncured onions should be stored unwashed and loosely wrapped in a plastic bag in the fridge.  For longer green onion storage, cut off the majority of the green onion tips since that will wilt before the bulb.

Carrboro Farmers’ Market plans Valentine’s Day Tasting

Sarah Blacklin at the Carrboro Farmers Markets says mark your calendars now for Valentine’s Day celebrations on Saturday, February 13th, between 9:00 a.m. and 12 noon. Join the bakers, candy makers and farmers on Saturday for a delicious tasting of chocolates, breads, jams, wine, cheeses and other items. The market will have beautiful handmade crafts, flowers and other gifts that have been “made with love.”  Children can make valentines at a valentine-making station and participate in a scavenger hunt with their parents to see how many red vegetables and flowers at the farmers’ booths they can find. The first 100 children will receive red balloons.

Carrboro Farmers Market Provides Over 7 Tons of Local Food to Hunger Relief Organizations

In her latest newsletter, Sarah Blacklin of the Carrboro Farmers Market reminds everyone that the market is open for the first Saturday of 2010 and looks back over 2009.

Blacklin notes that the market’s farmers and customers who donated produce and cash to the Farmer FoodShare’s December food drive raised over 900 pounds of food to feed the hungry in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. This food drive brings the year-end totals to over seven tons (14,364 pounds) of top quality locally-grown food collected and distributed to hunger relief organizations in Orange, Durham, Wake and Chatham Counties.

Blacklin says the farmers market community has demonstrated that with the right level of commitment and innovation, “We can not only feed our community, but we can also support our farmers and grow a healthier local food system.”

Blacklin promises that Farmer FoodShare, in partnership with local groups like the Inter-Faith Council for Social Services’ FoodFirst initiative, the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and many others will continue to look for ways to address the challenge of local hunger systematically in 2010. You can find out more by visiting the farmers market or contacting Margaret Gifford at mgw@well.com or 967-6464 to volunteer or make donations.

Fresh Food for the Holidays Food Drive

At the Carrboro farmers market, Sarah Blacklin says the market is open every Saturday in December from 9am-Noon.

The Carrboro Farmers’ Market Farmer FoodShare is holding a “Fresh Food for the Holidays” food drive every Saturday that the market is open in December. We are trying to raise enough food for 600 meals, or 1000 pounds to feed the hungry during the holidays.

Shoppers can make tax-deductible donations of food or cash to purchase fresh or prepared food and our volunteers will deliver it to the hungry in Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Durham and surrounding counties. The primary recipient organizations are the Inter-Faith Council for Social Services’ (IFC) Food First Programs and the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle of Raleigh. The IFC serves Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County and Inter-Faith Food Shuttle reaches 7 counties in the Triangle.

To learn more about the Farmer FoodShare, visit the website at http://carrborofarmersmarket.com/community.shtml
For more information on how you can help, contact Margaret Gifford at mgw@well.com.

Thanksgiving meal history with Sarah Blacklin

Sarah Blacklin at the Carrboro farmers market has been brushing up on a little American history and discovered a bit about the harvest feast we refer to as Thanksgiving.

She found that the Pilgrims may not have actually served turkey during their harvest festival, nor did they eat many of the dishes we consider traditional for the holiday, such as corn on the cob, apples, pears, potatoes, and even cranberries. It is also highly unlikely that they ate sweet desserts like pies, cakes, breads, etc. since they didn’t have ovens and had extremely limited supply of sugar.

What did they eat?  Deer, duck, goose, swan, eel, cod, lobster, nuts, dried fruit and spices.

You can visit the market this Tuesday, November 24th from 3-6pm to buy for the holiday. You will be able to find an amazing variety meats, including specialty cured meats, vegetables, pies, breads, tortes, cakes, jams, relishes, and more.

Carrboro farmers market prepares for Thanksgiving

Saturday is shaping up to be a beautiful day with highs in the mid-60s.  Sarah Blacklin says she was starting to wonder if our little NC monsoon would ever come to an end.  It’s no surprise that farmers are reporting a whole lot of mud this week.  Cold, wet days like this on the farm chill you to the bone while you push to harvest, bunch, and bag for Saturday Market. 

The market will hosts its 7th annual Thanksgiving Market Tuesday, Nov. 24, 3-6 PM. Over 25 vendors participate in this Market to help customers create a local Thanksgiving meal. For the shopper who wants to use locally produced goods for their holiday celebration, the Thanksgiving Market offers an array of items from cheeses for appetizers, to vegetables for side dishes, to pre-ordered, pastured heritage breed turkeys, to cranberry relish and the pie for dessert. So many items that you are encouraged to visit the Market first and the grocery store second!

New Hours for Carrboro’s farmers market

This Saturday the hours for the Carrboro farmers market change to 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.! The market is entering its winter hours which will continue all the way through the second week of March.

There’s a plethora of produce at the market right now even as the winter season begins.  Due to a late frost this year, many vendors are still selling peppers and late season summer veggies while their cool season greens and root vegetables peak.

Piedmont Youth Orchestra Plays Carrboro Farmers Market

The Piedmont Youth Orchestra will perform at the Carrboro Farmers Market for Halloween.

Visit the Market Saturday, October 31st and listen to a performance at 9:30 a.m. from Piedmont Youth Orchestra.  This is a 3rd-7th grade string orchestra, a middle- and high-school chamber ensemble, and a middle- and high-school wind ensemble.  In honor of Halloween, expect a few scary tunes along with chamber music, fiddle tunes, and other assorted pieces.  Costumes are encouraged for shoppers, farmers, and musicians!

Carrboro Farmers Market moves into fall

The Carrboro Farmers Market is heading into fall season and will have its last Wednesday Market of the season Oct. 21st

The 2nd annual Fall Family Day is planned for that Wednesday. There will be an afternoon of fun activities for everyone in the family to enjoy. Take part in our pumpkin decorating, scavenger hunts, face painting and other kids’ games on the green; also taste delicious fall food prepared by Andrea Reusing from Lantern Restaurant.

The Saturday Market will continue all year long. Starting Saturday, November 7th the Market will run from 9 a.m. – Noon (remember, hours switch from 7 a.m. to opening at 9 a.m. after daylight savings!).

The farmers market will host the annual Pre-Thanksgiving Market Tuesday, November 24th, two days before Thanksgiving.  Now is a good time to start thinking about reserving your ham hocks, turkeys, pies, and specialty Thanksgiving items you can only find at the Market.

Carrboro Farmers Market tops in the nation

The Carrboro Farmers Market finished third in the nation in the “Love Your Farmers Market” contest, sponsored by LocalHarvest and Care2.

After weeks of impressive campaigning, there was shuffling among the top placeholders even on the last day of the contest. When I spoke with manager of the Fernandina Beach market, Jan Smith, on Wednesday, her market was in third place. She had been campaigning all summer, but was not letting up the pressure. Meanwhile, up in Carrboro, NC, market manager Sarah Blacklin had just been on the radio, reminding would-be voters that the contest was about to end.

Here’s the final vote:

• First Place: Flint Farmers’ Market, Flint, MI
• Second Place: Fernandina Farmers Market, Fernandina Beach, FL
• Third Place: Carrboro Farmers’ Market, Carrboro, NC
• Fourth Place: Midtown Farmers’ Market, Minneapolis, MN
• Fifth Place: Market Square Farmers’ Market, Knoxville, TN

Winner of the $5,000 first prize was the Flint Farmers’ Market in Flint, MI, with a strong showing of support at 6,083 votes.

With its third place finish of 4,677 votes, the Carrboro farmers market earned a $3,000 prize.

Sarah Blacklin, manager of the Carrboro Farmers Market, says that they promoted the contest since June, and were lucky to have the support of a “fantastic ag community”. She named a student group at UNC, FLO (Fair, Local, Organic) as one of the main contest boosters, along with local chefs, agricultural extension agents, farm nonprofits, the media, and local listservs. As Blacklin said, “We were really excited about this contest, and we rallied in every possible way.”

Sixty-five vendors come to the market on Saturdays, and all of them are local. Customers appreciate the market’s requirement that farmers must represent their own products; theirs is the only market in the state that requires this. “Many of our farmers have been selling here since 1978,” she said, “so a lot of people grew up knowing them.”

Blacklin had many ideas about what the market might like to do with its prize money. They are increasing their outreach to Carrboro’s growing Latino community, and would like to make the signs at the market bilingual. They would also like to get a EBT machine in order to process food stamps as payment.