The Market had its' season opener on August 3rd. This is my first year participating at this market and I must say that I am pleasantly surprised at the number of vendors and the quality and diversity of product!! I think it's a great market that is only going to get better throughout the season.
Let me introduce the vendors that were there last week. I'll start on my right, closest to me and work towards the end of the line.
Nick Gompert
This is Nick's 2nd year at the Morrill Farmers' Market. Nick farms Northeast of Morrill. He has potatoes, beets, beans, carrots, sweetcorn, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and more along with pumpkins and squash later in the season. Nick also offers non-GMO feed corn. GMO stands for "Genetically Modified Organism." Since this post is not about GMOs, we might have to have a little lesson on this practice later this Fall on the Country Chicken Girl blog. It's a subject that you should be aware of. Anyone who eats food needs to be aware of this! If you can't wait that long to find out about GMO's and why I am against them... here's a link to get you started. Say No To GMOs! Back to Nick... he also sells at the Torrington Farmers' Market on Saturday and sometimes you can find him set-up at the car wash in Mitchell on a "by chance" basis.
Jane Sedman
Jane Sedman in the "bread lady" (not to be confused with the "bread man" at the Scottsbluff Farmers' Market.) Jane is from Huntley and bakes the most delectable loaves of artisan breads, sweet loaves and cinnamon rolls. I had the pleasure of meeting her for the first time at the Wind Harvest Strawberry Festival. Seems like several people already are familiar with Jane's baking, because she almost always sells out! I bought some of her cinnamon rolls at the Strawberry Festival and they were scrumptious! You can also find Jane at the Farmers' Market in Torrington on Thursdays and Saturdays.
This here is Pat Norby. She was selling for her son, Mike Norby. The Norby's offer forage fed beef, ranch raised Red Angus. Their livestock is fed grass and alfalfa and does not receive any implants, hormones, etc. Nor is it kept in a feed lot and is not given any corn. Their beef is also GeneSTAR tested for marbling and tenderness. Once again, this is only a post on the Farmers' Market so I'm not going to get into what GeneSTAR testing is, you can google it if you want. I probably won't try their beef since we already have our own (sorry Pat & Mike, just being honest!), but I would recommend it just because they use a lot of the same practices that we do and I know for a fact that it is far superior to any beef you would purchase at the super market. Their beef is processed at a USDA Inspected Facility, which if you are going to sell at a Farmers' Market, it has to be by law. In other words, their beef is being sold legally.
Any beef that is sold at a Farmers' Market and is NOT processed at a USDA Inspected Facility is being sold illegally. Just so you know. We pay a higher processing fee to have our beef processed at USDA Inspected Facilities and I just don't think it is fair when we "go-by-the-rules" and someone undercuts our price, because they are not having their beef processed accordingly. Just a small lesson which I might expand upon later...
moving on...
and now to my left...
This is Nick's 2nd year at the Morrill Farmers' Market. Nick farms Northeast of Morrill. He has potatoes, beets, beans, carrots, sweetcorn, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and more along with pumpkins and squash later in the season. Nick also offers non-GMO feed corn. GMO stands for "Genetically Modified Organism." Since this post is not about GMOs, we might have to have a little lesson on this practice later this Fall on the Country Chicken Girl blog. It's a subject that you should be aware of. Anyone who eats food needs to be aware of this! If you can't wait that long to find out about GMO's and why I am against them... here's a link to get you started. Say No To GMOs! Back to Nick... he also sells at the Torrington Farmers' Market on Saturday and sometimes you can find him set-up at the car wash in Mitchell on a "by chance" basis.
Jane Sedman in the "bread lady" (not to be confused with the "bread man" at the Scottsbluff Farmers' Market.) Jane is from Huntley and bakes the most delectable loaves of artisan breads, sweet loaves and cinnamon rolls. I had the pleasure of meeting her for the first time at the Wind Harvest Strawberry Festival. Seems like several people already are familiar with Jane's baking, because she almost always sells out! I bought some of her cinnamon rolls at the Strawberry Festival and they were scrumptious! You can also find Jane at the Farmers' Market in Torrington on Thursdays and Saturdays.
Kiowa Red Angus
This here is Pat Norby. She was selling for her son, Mike Norby. The Norby's offer forage fed beef, ranch raised Red Angus. Their livestock is fed grass and alfalfa and does not receive any implants, hormones, etc. Nor is it kept in a feed lot and is not given any corn. Their beef is also GeneSTAR tested for marbling and tenderness. Once again, this is only a post on the Farmers' Market so I'm not going to get into what GeneSTAR testing is, you can google it if you want. I probably won't try their beef since we already have our own (sorry Pat & Mike, just being honest!), but I would recommend it just because they use a lot of the same practices that we do and I know for a fact that it is far superior to any beef you would purchase at the super market. Their beef is processed at a USDA Inspected Facility, which if you are going to sell at a Farmers' Market, it has to be by law. In other words, their beef is being sold legally.
Any beef that is sold at a Farmers' Market and is NOT processed at a USDA Inspected Facility is being sold illegally. Just so you know. We pay a higher processing fee to have our beef processed at USDA Inspected Facilities and I just don't think it is fair when we "go-by-the-rules" and someone undercuts our price, because they are not having their beef processed accordingly. Just a small lesson which I might expand upon later...
moving on...
and now to my left...
WindHarvest Farms
All you Country Chicken Girl blog readers should know who this is, even if you haven't been to the WindHarvest Farms. Diane Edwards was there with sweetcorn and Strawberry Lemon Marmalade! You can check them out at their website, WindHarvest Farms. Their website has all the information you need regarding their operation. You can click on it and save me time so I don't have to write all about them. It's not that I don't want to write about you Diane, but I think you've done a fine job of writing about yourself in your website. Don't be lazy people, click on the link and find out for yourself! Please and thank you!
Nancy Butcher
Nancy Butcher was there with her wonderful jams & jellies. Nancy has a great description of her things on PrairieBloom.com. Click on the link, scroll down until you see her name (save me some time) and read all about her. Don't take offense Nancy, but I'm running out of time and this is taking a while. I bought some of Nancy's Peach Habenero Jam and plan on using it on some of my chicken. I'll let you know how it turns out! Nancy also sells at the Gering Farmers' Market on Thursdays.
Speaking of PrairieBloom.com... Have you checked out this website/blog? You REALLY need to. It has all kinds of information about Wyo-Braska homemade and hand grown products. It also lists ALL the area Farmers' Markets and has great articles. Do yourself a favor and check it out today and visit it often, new information is posted quite often.
moving on...
A&C Farm
Meet Cheryl Averill and Debbie Courtney of A&C Farm. Please check out their website, ancfarm.com. Cheryl and Debbie raise most of their produce in a 30 X 72 foot commercial high tunnel. You go girls!! You really need to find out what this is and learn about the study they are a part of. They offer peppers, tomatoes, sweetcorn, cabbage, kohlrabi and okra among other things. They also sell at the Torrington Farmers' Market on Saturdays.
Nancy & Monte Flock
This is Nancy Flock. Nancy and Monte (who wasn't at the market) offer fresh produce, jelly and have Mill Iron Mills which produces fresh ground corn meal, whole wheat flour and Monte's Cornbread Mix. I've heard good things about Monte's Cornbread mix, but have never tried it. I'd better get me some next week! Nancy makes wild berry and Jalapeno jellies, salsa and country dill pickles. They also grow peppers, tomatoes, sweetcorn, eggplant, potatoes, green beans, red beets and sweet basil.Myrna & Bruce Mitchell
Now these two ladies are quite the characters! Neither one wanted their picture taken, but after a little begging, much pleading and telling them that it really was a painless process I finally convinced them that it would be okay. Why is it as we get older we tend to not want our picture taken? Especially by some complete stranger who wants to post it on their blog! Good heavens, they hadn't even seen my blog, who knows what it was all about! Anyway, I didn't have much time to chat with these two so I asked them to write a little about what they had to offer on a piece of paper so I could make reference to it later when I finally got to writing the blog. My paper says "Myrna & Bruce Mitchell, 2nd year, corn, cucumbers, squash, green beans, lettuce, tomatoes and garlic." So there you go! I gather this is their 2nd year at the Market, but I am still trying to figure out who is Myrna and who is Bruce! Just kidding, I'm sure one of these ladies is Myrna and the other is a friend. Bruce was there, but he didn't want in the picture. Sorry for the sketchy details, I need to acquaint myself with these guys better next week!
So there you go... the Morrill Farmers' Market, at least the season opener. I don't know if there will be more vendors next week or not, but even if there isn't, I think the Market is great and quite sufficient! The number of vendors might be a little small, but they are mighty in produce and product!
Ta Ta for now!
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Nice pictures, Kathy!
ReplyDeleteToo bad there's no way I'd be able to make it to Morrill in time to capture some of the Flock's basil. That's one thing I really, really miss from the Urbana, IL, market I attended last summer: lots and lots of fresh basil.
Guess I don't quite share the same view of "GMOs." People have been M-ing Os for centuries, albeit by a different method. Genetic transfer is actually a fairly common occurrence in nature.
Bacteria quite happily trade genetic material back and forth (which is why I am TOTALLY against the abuse of antibiotics in low-dose applications to improve animal health in substandard conditions! Less-hazardous bugs will happily trade the recipes for antibiotic resistance with their more virulent cousins.)
In fact, we ourselves are hybrids of genetic material.
http://www.livescience.com/health/071114-virus-genes.html
I need to get a t-shirt that says "I am a GMO" and lists some of the endogenous viral DNA common in humans. Yes, I am a nerd. :-)
Great review! I am planning on putting several recipes for people who have visited farmers markets and need to find new ways to use the great produce you get at them! I tried 2 recipes yesterday and have a few from last year to post in the coming weeks! i hope you come visit my blog at meemointhemountains.blogspot.com.
ReplyDeleteKatie, you will have to educate me in your ways. I like to think I have an open mind. At least I can almost always agree to disagree!
ReplyDeleteI think someone had basil at the SB market on Saturday, the girl with the flowers...??
Was the girl with the flowers late? I didn't see any flowers. I had to leave pretty quick because I had to work.
ReplyDelete