. . .OR NOT

Food is always in the news. Good, Bad and Ugly, it’s all there. Here’s a smattering of recent news starting with the ridiculous:

• Bob Ross Cereal Is Here To Help You Understand The True Joy Of Breakfast
• Walmart is selling Nikelodeon Green Slime Ice Cream
• Firebox Will 3-D Print Your Face On A Chocolate Egg
  
  Seriously – would you want to eat the image of a loved one?
  

And then there’s bad news:

• AriZona Iced Tea Is Being Sued For Falsely Labeling Their Green Tea With Non-Existent Ingredients. (Apparently, "the right amount of ginseng” is none.)
• A woman died after falling into an industrial meat grinder at work.
• 113,000 of ground beef recalled after yet another e-coli threat. (this and similar stories seem to frequently repeat themselves.)

Thank God there’s useful news!

Like Soda, Kombucha is very harsh on your teeth’s protective barrier. It must have a pH level of below 3.5 in order to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria. And you can do something about it:

• Neutralize the acid levels in your mouth. “Drink it with some foods lower in acidity or give your mouth a swish with some water after you finish drinking it.”
• Find kombucha with lower sugar content. "Kombucha isn’t meant to be savored and sipped. It’s purpose is for health benefits, not for flavor.
• Drink it quickly. “Drinking it quickly will reduce the amount of time it takes for you to be able to restore the pH levels in your mouth to a more neutral state.”

Lastly, a warning: Do not, DO NOT watch the KFC Mother’s Day video unless you want to lose valuable cognitive function and spend the rest of the day wishing you could pressure wash your brain to get rid of bad mental images. (that is not a confession)

These and more mostly useless stories may be found at at Delish Food News

MARKET CHITCHAT

If you didn’t pick up on it, this year’s Open House theme is an old timey Ice Cream Social. And we have a lot of great vendors lined up to participate in the Farmer’s Market:

Order Pickup will take place starting 2 pm on Thursday, May 9 instead of Friday this week only.

There will be no Daleville or Enterprise delivery that week. We hope our friends from Dale & Coffee County will visit us during Open House and meet your growers! These guys are signed up so far:

New & Relisted Products

• Avalon Watermelon Radishes are back!
• New: English Breakfast Radishes
• Sugar Snap Peas (in case you didn’t see them last week)

THIS WEEK’S GROWER NOTES

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

AVALON FARMS: I’m writing this as I wait to be wheeled back for foot surgery. As you can imagine this will have quite an impact on the next few weeks of farm work. With the help of my stupendous husband and my favorite  daughter, I’m hoping to keep the minimum things going.

The sugar snap peas are in full production mode. The English peas finally have baby peas. I’m secretly hoping they will come in this week while there’s extra help!

Watermelon radishes are finally sizing up so I will be listing a few.

English Breakfast Radishes, new to the market this week, are cylindrical and known for their coloring which changes from a vivid fuchsia-red to bright white at the tip. They are a very crispy radish with a mild spicy flavor. Roasting or grilling brings out a slight nutty and sweet flavor. Have fun experimenting!

Potatoes are blooming. Onion and garlic are sizing up.

Cukes will be appearing in the next few weeks, as they are just setting fruit.

Everything seems behind. Normally I would be picking squash by now. Those late cold snaps held things up. But we’ll get there soon.