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Sept 12, 2020 M@D Newsletter - Open for Orders!
September Recipes
Market Chitchat
Grower Notes: Danny’s Greens, Avalon Farms, Hortons Farm
A Month for All Seasons
No doubt you’ve heard me say it before, this area has GREAT GARDENING WEATHER pretty much all year long. Even with hot August slowing down the growth of Danny’s gourmet greens, you can still plant warm weather crops and reasonably expect a 2nd harvest of many vegetables before the weather is too cold. Things like cabbage, collards, broccoli, and many leafy greens prefer our mild winters so we’re good no matter what season.
But we did wonder what September meant to other areas and found that it’s traditionally the end of summer foods and the beginning of fall and winter foods. Some places are just now harvesting blackberries if that tells you anything!
So what follows are a couple of fun links to “September” recipes. Enjoy and let us know if you find a really great dish that you’ll want to make again!
MARKET CHITCHAT
Many thanks to everyone who brought unwanted Ball Mason jars to the Market on Friday. Please know we make sure the jars you recycle through us go to further use. It’s a small thing but it’s one way to keep perfectly usable goods out of landfills.
And many thanks to everyone still getting purple ribbons tied to their newly cleaned Market Bags. This is an ongoing project and if the rotation bag currently at home with you needs a good cleaning, go for it! We’ve got plenty of ribbons!
GROWER NOTES
DANNY’S GREENS: This is the second week Danny has listed his max of 10 bags per week after the hot spell in August. Right now the farm is transitioning from shade cloth to plastic coverings for the beds so the heavy rains we’re expecting won’t beat the tender greens into the soil. Things like this are one of the reasons Danny is able to consistently provide the Market with high quality lettuce greens.
AVALON FARMS:
We processed chickens last weekend. You’ll find them available in the market this week.
To give a little perspective to the joys and frustrations of chicken wrangling, we’d like to share the history of this batch of chickens. We purchased 75 chicks that were
to be delivered June 1st. This batch of chickens apparently were not as robust as they normally are. After 2 weeks, they just didn’t seem to be growing and then they started dieing. There didn’t really seem to be a reason but we did what we knew to do to keep them healthy but they just kept on dying. It became normal to find 1 dead when we went to feed them. Not only did half of them die, it took 11 weeks before they were big enough to process instead of the normal 8 weeks we shoot for. So as you can see there were lots of losses in chicken lives and finances. Not to mention frustration on the part of the farmers.
HORTONS FARM: Happy to report major progress in restoring our kitchen garden. The kitchen garden is the one practically in our backyard that was in place when we moved here in 1995. The kids and I overhauled it installing raised beds that served us for many years. Time has taken it’s toll though and this week we removed all the perennial vegetables (asparagus and horseradish) from the dilapidated beds in preparation for new construction. Turns our there was a lot more asparagus in there than we realized and instead of filling a five gallon bucket we filled a 35 gallon trash can! It was nice to find a bit of tender asparagus in the process.
That was phase 1. Phase 2 was removing the old structures and hauling it to the burn pile. I’m happy to report that’s about 90% done. With any luck I’ll get that finished this week so the Mr. can commence with phase 3, using the tractor to level everything out. Construction on new beds can begin after that.
On an unrelated note we had our 6th wooden egg for the summer come up missing this week. We usually catch one or two snakes every year helping themselves to our eggs but they seem particularly cunning this year and we’ve not caught any in the act. This is one of the reasons our egg listings fluctuate from week to week.
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.
Order Saturday 5pm to Tuesday 5pm weekly for Pickup the following Friday
Dothan Pickup: 10am – 12pm, Dothan Nurseries, 1300 Montgomery Highway, Dothan, AL 36303
Daleville Pickup: 11am – 11:30am, Parking area behind Daleville Chamber of Commerce
Enterprise Pickup: 12pm – 12:30pm, Grocery Advantage, 1032 Boll Weevil Circle, Enterprise
Our Email: marketatdothan@gmail.com
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Our COVID protocol is still in place for everyone who wants curbside service.
I. Order Payment:
1. Voluntarily prepay by 6 pm Thursday if possible using this PAYPAL link. This eliminates passing paper currency back and forth or handling debit/credit cards on site. Your invoice will be marked PAID and pickup is fast and easy. In the event of undelivered items you will be issued a Market credit that will apply to your next order.
2. Debit/Credit – One of us will briefly step within 6 feet for you to put your card in the chip reader. We do our best to avoid touching your card or you touching the equipment which means we sign an “x” for your signature.
3. Cash and Checks – You may hand them to us. Exact change is preferred if using cash to prevent a lot of passing back and forth. If you choose curbside pickup you are welcome to put payment in your trunk/tailgate as that would eliminate the need to come near your window.
II. Order Delivery:
1. Curb Service: Please pull up next to the Market Shed. We will direct traffic a little bit if needed. Have your trunk/ hatchback open and we’ll load you up!
2. Walk Up Pickup: Please do not come inside. When we see you coming we’ll put your order near the entrance and step back for you to claim it. This system works really well for those of you wishing to get extra veggies that may be available.
3. Regardless of how you choose to accept your Market order please know that we make every effort to practice safe distancing and ask that you do the same.
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!