CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE

We are so pleased to participate in the Annual Christmas Open House hosted by Dothan Nurseries every year. Hopefully you are on their mailing list or Facebook page and have your calendar marked for December 7, 2017 for this year’s Old Fashioned Christmas. The Festivities run from 3pm – 7pm.

From JD: Please join us for an old fashioned Christmas Open House. We’ll be serving up warm gingerbread and “adult” eggnog while you shop and enjoy our Christmas Carolers.

We’ll also have our full Farmers Market. All the vendors with fresh produce, honey, jams, jellies, meats, cheeses, and lots more. Don’t worry, we’ll have kid friendly snacks as well. So bring the whole family and don’t forget to invite your friends. Everyone is welcome.

As usual, we’ll be giving away prizes including some $100 gift cards.

VIP for Market Customers

• Pickup takes place 2pm-3pm in our regular location.
• No Daleville delivery this week (apologies!)
• We will be set up in the open area next to the Butterfly House
• LOTS of old and new Market Friends will be on hand – 15 so far!

MARKET CHITCHAT

What a delightful treat we had on our last pickup date when Carshenina Bain (Bain Home Gardens) joined Kathy (Kathy’s Cluckers) and Viki (Richter Farms) and Ros. If you’ve not met this dear lady yet we hope you get the opportunity. I’m sure it sometimes looks like chaos as we scurry together orders from coolers and refrigerators, but we actually have a lot of fun and love serving you!

As announced earlier this month, plans are in the works to have classes once a month starting in 2018. While there is a tentative list of topics we’re looking int,o what we really need to know is WHAT DO YOU WANT? So if there’s some aspect of healthy food preparation, preservation, medicinal, or even growing that interests you, please speak up as the whole purpose is to be a blessing to all involved.

MOLTING MADNESS

Thank you HAWKINS HOMESTEAD FARM!

So I know you guys having been reading all about chickens molting and hens on hiatus and you may be wondering what does all of that mean. More importantly, where are all the eggs?!?! Well we would like to help you out.

We have 24 hens. You would think that this means that we’re should be getting at least 2 dozen eggs per day right? Wrong! We actually never get that many in one day. The birds all lay at different times, days, and cycles. So needless to say, we are getting more layers for the Spring because we need more eggs. We had to buy eggs! My children are complaining because there are barely any eggs and my offline customers, like many of you are like what do you mean you have no eggs?!?!

So why? Let’s take Dottie for example. She is a Golden Laced Wyandotte. She used to be a beautiful chicken, but currently she is having a moment because she is going through a molt. Molting is when chickens shed their old feathers to grow new ones. This is a natural process that occurs in adult birds every year. It usually happens during late Summer or early Fall. During this time there are very little to no eggs. I can’t remember the last time Dottie was in the nesting box. Sadly, this process can last for months. Feathers are made of mostly protein, so we try to help the birds out by boosting up their protein in hopes that they can grow their beautiful feathers back quicker. They are already spoiled, but then I find myself buying specialty worms and treats high in protein. I liken it to having someone take care of you when you’re not feeling good. We all appreciate and need that! Speaking of protein, did you guys know that pumpkins are a wonderful source of proteins for chickens?!?! So if anyone wants to donate their used pumpkins instead of throwing them away…..we will take them!

Next time I will talk with you guys about how the sun and shorter days affect their laying cycle. So stay tuned.

THIS WEEK’S GROWER NOTES

We have the best Growers in the Wiregrass! Please learn more about them on our Grower Page.

AVALON FARMS: We are back from vacation. It is always great to get away, but it’s even better coming back home! The farm seems to have survived without us. LOL

New this week:

• Satsuma oranges.  These are grown by my Dad. No sprays. I have to walk all the way across the pasture to get these. Hope you appreciate it. ?


• Sugar snap peas are back! These bright green jewels brightened up our Thanksgiving plates.


• Broccoli….cheese sauce with Working Cows cheese goes great.


• Baby Goat….ok, she’s not for sale. She was kind enough to arrive a few days before we left. Awesome timing.

BAIN HOME GARDENS: Hello Market Friends,
We missed you guys last week! We did take advantage of the off time to cultivate the ground for new planting as well as beginning the process of filling our raised beds. I read somewhere that in order to have continual harvests, one should be planting SOMETHING in the ground every 2 – 3 weeks.  Well it is a worthwhile goal and although we aren’t there yet, it is a work in progress.

We want to give a nice shout out of appreciation to Vicki of Richter Farms, Kathy of Kathy’s Churpers and of course Ros of Horton’s Farms. Thanks for teaching us the ropes of handling the pick-up on Friday mornings. It was a lot of fun getting to know other growers and the market customers! Thanks also to Dothan Nurseries for giving our junior gardeners,b Jarod & Thai some needed work experience while we were there. We had a special visitor that week that stole my heart, Mr. Francis of the Basford family. Please bring him back to visit us again!

If you haven’t had the pleasure of trying the smoked bacon and ground sausage of Richter Farms you are missing out! Mr. Bain Home Gardener has cooked them both of on Saturday mornings paired with eggs from Hawkins Homestead Farms & the reviews were great! We feel even better knowing the great care that these growers put into caring for their animals.  We will be permanent customers!  

Till next week, from our family to yours!

HORTONS FARM: We hope all of you had a blessed Thanksgiving. We had a different kind of Holiday here. With all the work (translated: MESS) going on we hauled food, fixins and guests down into the woods where we picnicked in the woods. It was so wonderful we’ll probably do it every year the weather cooperates.

MarketWise, we still have a good supply of yummy 2017 HONEY and are in the process of dressing up smaller sizes for affordable gifts and stocking stuffers. Don’t forget that lip balms and Fire Ant First Aid make welcome and appreciated “stuffers” as well.

FOOTNOTES

We would love to hear from you! If you have a favorite recipe, want to write a product review, have an idea or request for an article or information, let us know! You can reply to this newsletter or write marketatdothan@gmail.com.

We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible!