FOR OUR DALEVILLE & ENTERPRISE CUSTOMERS

“Good service requires adapting to find newer and better ways to serve.” That being said, our delivery schedule for Daleville and Enterprise pickup is being modified.

Daleville Order Pick Up – FRIDAYS, 11:00am – 11:30am behind Daleville Chamber of Commerce, 750 Daleville Ave., Daleville AL 36322.
Enterprise Order Pick Up – FRIDAYS, 12:00pm -12:30pm at Grocery Advantage, 1032 Boll Weevil Circle, Enterprise, AL 36330.

MARKET CHITCHAT

A hearty THANK YOU to you folks who have made donations to the Market. Your support helps make it possible for us to be available during the ups and downs of the Market year. Our goal is to always provide the best FRESH, LOCAL, SUSTAINABLE and YEAR ROUND foods in the Wiregrass.

THIS WEEK’S GROWER NOTES

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

SMART DOC RESOURCES:editor’s note – this message comes to us from Africa! You can find photos of this adventure on Virgina’s facebook page. Greetings from Smartdocs.  We’re still a go these next couple of weeks even though I will be visiting Africa and look forward to studying with  my friend the rootman(the original herbalogists) and hopefully will be back with some new ideas and products. In the meantime, Clifford will be hydro and gardening so he will be the contact for questions.  Also I want to thank our fellow farmer friends from the Market (Greg and Carol) from Mayim farms for a great presentation at the Backyard Garden and Farmers’ Workshop. I look forward to more information and workshops and will pass info about these great free sessions on to you all.  Greg is a wealth of information and we look forward to meeting with him. Happy gardening (& eating)

Blessings, Virginia And Clifford

PS  Don’t forget our Hydroponics 101 workshop at the Dothan Nurseries on Feb 16th from 10-12!

BAIN HOME GARDENS: Good day! This week’s farm tidbits included finalizing our succession planting schedule through Spring. Last year, we did not do well with succession planting which lead to gaps in availability of produce. This year we are eliminating that problem with planning and STICKING TO SAID PLAN! Easier said than done!
Included in this planning is our “grow to order” produce. We have received some requests to grow specifics from some of you marketeers. If you have a request & haven’t had the opportunity to reach out yet, now is the time! You can message us via our Facebook page or over on our Webpage . Till next week – from our family to yours!

AVALON FARMS: The history of Avalon Farms,  part 2. (See last week’s newsletter for part 1)

The story of those ladies homesteading here has always meant a lot to me. Being a woman who chose a male dominated profession back in the 80s, I’ve faced a few you-can’t-do-that scenarios, but I did. (It took me 4 years, 1 semester and 1.5 babies to complete my Bachelors Degree in Computer Science.) Sort of like some of the looks I get when I say I have a sustainable market garden that produces clean, nutrient dense food. “You do what?”

A year after we moved here in 2007, we found ourselves unemployed with 3 kids at home. I’d always helped my Dad with the garden when I was a kid so I was inspired to plant a BIG garden to help support the family. For 3 years, as Wendy’s Produce,  we farmed and participated in 4 farmer’s markets, including the first 2 years of the Market at Dothan. From those years came our family motto: “it’s better than picking peas in July!”

When hubs was blessed with an engineering job at Ft Rucker we had to reevaluate the farm. With 2 kids away at college that only left me and the youngest. He and I did one more summer, then I was offered an engineering job.  That was 6 years ago, and one very stressful office job later for me. I wish I had never hung up my farming hat. Sad how much time I lost.

Been doing farming now full time (by myself) for 3 years. Each year I learn a little more and do a little better. I’ve had a lot of “well that didn’t work” and “have to figure out a better way” moments. I won’t say that I “love” farming. It’s hard physical work.  The endless to do list and summer temperatures are daunting, but I will say I love providing healthy, tasty food to our community. Hearing one of you say how good something tasted makes all the hard work worth while.

HORTONS FARM: Last week we shared a little about the sowthistle growing on our property. So far we’ve only found the one plant by the chicken coop, in which case we’ll need to let it bloom to reseed.

What we are seeing a lot more of is chickweed.

Many of you know that I had to fetch my mother from an upstate hospital last month following a pneumonia scare. While there with her I mentioned (after listening to her coughs) that I’d be making her some chickweed tea once we got home. So what does my sassy mom do but share that with a nurse! Thankfully this nurse had gone through an alternative medicine course and was delighted! I’m glad to report Mom took our advice and recovered much faster than she would have otherwise.

I must confess to feeling like the lone ranger encouraging the use of chickweed tea for respiratory ailments for many years. It was very satisfying to be supported by a medical professional. It was even more satisfying to see an article about chickweed in the current Mother Earth News! If you can get your hands on the Feb.March 2019 issue it’s got some great information.

MARKET CHITCHAT

Thank you to everyone who braved the chilly weather to pick up their market orders yesterday. It was good to see you all after the winter break and we’re so THANKFUL to to all our growers who work hard to provide hearty produce to you all year round. The selection of greens we saw going through yesterday was a reminder of the great variety available to our M@D customers that you can’t get from a traditional grocer.

A hearty welcome too to our new customers! We don’t call names but do want you to know you are appreciated!

THIS WEEK’S GROWER NOTES

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

HAWKINS HOMESTEAD: Hello Market Friends,

Most of you guys know that both Brandon and I work full time in addition to farming, so that coupled with having two kids in college who also work and one who is homeschooled, plus our spiritual activities makes for a BUSY life! As you can imagine our time has become limited so we have had to limit our Market offerings for now. Our mornings are no longer free and with everyone going a million different ways throughout the week, dropping off on Friday mornings has become difficult for us. We definitely appreciate all of you.

Thank you to everyone who has voted and continues to vote for us and Bain Home Gardens. Remember you can vote once every 24 hours so set those reminders please.

AVALON FARMS:

I always enjoy reading the story behind things,  so here’s a little history of Avalon Farms. This land is part of my families history since the 1890s, when it was homesteaded by two of my great-great aunts, a couple of  "old maid" sisters with no “menfolk” to help or support them. Back then, homesteading required you to live on the property and make physical improvements. They moved to the property and lived here long enough to claim the land.

The family story goes that a traveler stopped once and planted a pecan nut beside the corral they had built. They had never heard of pecans. Can you imagine a time when people round here didn’t know about pecans?

My father, who moved away to Orlando when he was young,  retired back to this property in 2006. The old shotgun style house, made from rough cut heart pine,  was falling down, so it was carefully disassembled saving all the good wood and a new house built. I have many childhood memories of that old house – watching the sun come up through the cracks between the wall boards,  using the outhouse and taking baths on the back porch in a galvanized tub.

Watch next week’s newsletter for the exciting conclusion of how Avalon Farms came to be!  

BAIN HOME GARDENS: Marketeers! First off thanks so much for the abundant support you have given us over the last 12 days with the Cultivating Change Grant! Every vote counts. We now have direct links. For Bain Home Gardens click here & for Hawkins Homestead Farm click here .

We are sad to say our Collard crop was damaged to some degree and we have temporarily removed them from the our listings. However, we have added our Classic Salad Blend in limited quantities.

More Lettuce, Collards, Peas & Radishes have been planted. We have just begun harvest of peas. They are maturing at various rates & since this is the first time experimenting with this variety, we are hesitant to list them just yet but stay tuned. More to come- from our family to yours!

HORTONS FARM: It seems like every time I turn around I’m discovering a new “weed” around here, especially the hearty ones that grow in winter. Lately the stinging nettle has started coming up as well as little stands of chickweed here and there.

Last year we positively identified one strange obnoxious weed as sow thistle coming up. I let it seed before removing it and have been recently rewarded with young plants coming up here and there on the property. It turns out that sow thistle leaves “are said to be a good source of vitamins A and C, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, calcium, phosphorus, and iron.“ Eat The Invaders has more inutritional nformation about this very interesting plant while Natural Medicinal Herbs details its medicinal properties.

Right now we are watching the young plants develop. As they mature we plan to make them available to you. We’d love to get your thoughts on how you think they would best serve your needs.

FROM SHEENA BAIN . . .

Well it is 2019! We cannot believe it! We are looking to 2019 as a year of growth! I like the way Mr. James Cash Penny, founder of J.C. Penny stores, said it: “Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.” You marketeers are a force to be reckoned with! Much of our growth has been a beautiful side effect of the Market at Dothan. Thank you for your support. 

We hope you will stand beside us, Bain Home Gardens, & Hawkins Homestead Farm as we undertake a new venture. Both of our Farms have applied for the Cultivating Change grant. Funded by the Greener Fields Together network, this program is truly about helping small farms grow and further help their communities. To learn more about it click here . 

Since we are not are not a Greener Fields Together farm, our winnings are based on a what is called a popular vote contest. This is where you come in Marketeers – we need your votes! You are allowed to vote for multiple farms daily after you register here . So if you can find the time between now and the end of the month, please vote as often as you can remember for both our farms! Voting closes January 31st. Your efforts are so appreciated. A big thank you from Bain Home Gardens & Hawkins Homestead Farm to you all & Roslyn for helping us find our voice!

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.

HOLIDAY FOOD TRENDS

Every once in a while it’s fun to look outside our own kitchen to see what others are doing. This section is to take a peek at what some popular publications consider “in” AND the hot items our own Market customers are stocking up on.

1. VEEM reports that “The holiday flavor trends this year are salted caramel and clementine, with gingerbread spice making an unexpected appearance in various savory dishes.” Our take and experience on that is that satsuma juice is just as delectable if not better. You may read the entire article here.

2. We had to chuckle at this article that included these comments: “As one of the newest trends, hyper-local sourcing is taking the food service industry by storm. Local food restaurants are taking the idea of buying nearby, sustainably-sourced foods to the next level by growing produce right in their own backyards or restaurant gardens.” It’s nice to see we’re not the only ones that get it!

3. Edible Christmas Wreaths have been around since . . . well as long as anyone can remember! Everything from fruit to bread to candies. Our favorite – fresh salad greens arranged on a platter all decked out with cherry tomatoes , carrot curls & fresh asparagus.

4. Cooking with kiddos always makes for great memories. If you’d rather not break out the rolling pin and cookie cutters the following, while not necessarily healthy, is a fun and memorable food craft that’s easy on everyone.

And now, for our trending M@D items

• Ranch Dressing Mix from Richter Farms
• Candied Pecan Halves from Smart Doc Farms
• Kale from Avalon
• Lamb from Smith Farms
• Casablanca and Smith Farms beef
• Satsumas & Kumquats
• Pumpkin Spice Buckwheat Pancake Mix
• Arugula from Mayim
• Medicinal Tinctures

MARKET CHITCHAT

New & Relisted Products

• Radishes from Bain Home Gardens relisted
• New: Senposai greens from Avalon
• Mustard Greens from Bain Home Gardens relisted
• Kratcky hydroponics kit from Smart Doc Resources

THIS WEEK’S GROWER NOTES

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

MARY’S PEEPS: Just wanted everyone to know I’m back trying new sweets for the Holidays. Please look thru all the baked goods, candies, and cinnamon rolls offered this week. This will be your last chance before Christmas and the New Year. I would appreciate everyone’s support. Thank you and hope you and yours will have a safe and Happy Holiday with your families.

DANNY’S GREENS: Danny’s Lettuce is not listed this week as the cooler temps have slowed down plant growth substantially. He shared that he will be using the upoming winter break to work on his garden beds. One of the reasons he is able to offer such superior produce is his year round commitment to improving the quality of his soil because healthy soil produces healthy food!

AVALON FARMS:

We’ve been trying out 2 new cold weather Asian brassicas(greens); Tatsoi and Senposai. Both are considered Asian greens but that’s where the similarity ends. Tatsoi is a small plant that forms a flat rosette of shiny, dark green spoon-shaped leaves and white stems. It has a mild flavor great for salads or cooking. The Senposai is a cross with regular cabbage. It grows big leaves, bigger than collards, that have a delicious  sweet cabbage flavor.

The Tatsoi has been available in the market for a few weeks. I’ll be offering the Senposai as a new listing this week.

Thank you for the warm reception on our pastured poultry beginnings. We have sold half of our first 50 meat birds!! The next 50 are chirping away in my guest bathroom. LOL I’ll keep them there for a couple days then move them out to a bigger brooder in the barn. These are so hardy that in just a couple weeks they’ll be out in their very own chicken tractor, enjoying the good life. Fresh pasture every day, sunshine, fresh air, massages and mocha lattes. (Ok, just kidding about the last two. ; ) Around mid March they’ll be in the market.

This article closes out this year. I would like to thank you all for your purchases, but also for your kind words. You enjoying my products is such a great encouragement to me! Farming is a lot of hard work, but I love providing our community with natural, tasty food.

BAIN HOME GARDENS: Good Evening!
It was so refreshing to see the sun in all its glory this morning! Clear skies!

It didn’t stay as long as we had hoped but these days, we are thankful for whatever we may receive in the way of sun rays. We talked about it in detail over on our Webpage earlier this week.

This week we reached out to Patricia Basford and talked with her about her feelings on our year round Market. Notice what she had to say in her online interview:

Shena:” How long have you been a part of the Market?”

Patricia: “I’ve been a customer of Market at Dothan for almost a year and a half now.”

Shena: “How do you benefit from our year round market schedule?”

Patricia: “I love the year-round aspect because I get to purchase winter (and flu season!) items like cold-weather produce, bone broth kits and ingredients, elderberry syrup kits, chapsticks, etc right when I need them. Also get to keep my year-round products like whipped body butter, meat products, and eggs going. I love knowing I’m doing even a small part to help my local farmers/makers and my local economy even in what is often considered an off-season for farmers.”

We totally agree with Mrs. Basford! There is so much being offered on the Market at Dothan! The unique nature of some items begs us to try them! This upcoming year we will he doing just that! With each new item we purchase, we will make a corresponding video showing how we utilized it – recipes included. This is going to be FUUUNNN! Keep a look out over on our Facebook page.

Since the market will be closed for a few weeks make sure you stock up this week so all of your needs are met. If however you do need something last minute, feel free to contact us via our Webpage , our Facebook , or our Instagram . Till next year – good times ahead from our family to yours!

HAWKINS HOMESTEAD: As the Market closes out for the year, we at Hawkins Homestead Farm want to tell all of you THANK YOU for the continued support you’ve given not only us, but the Market as a whole.

Looking back over this past year, we have grown extensively with adding more to our farm and the Market than ever. We have received such wonderful feedback on all our offerings and in 2019 we hope that you will continue to grow with us even more. We are grateful, humbled, and happy that our small family farm has received such love and attention. This is a truly a labor of love for us and we appreciate everyone who has supported us through reading our blogs and/or purchasing our products.

While the Market will be closed until next year, some of your growers are still open and here for you. Us included! We would love for you to grab anything you may need over the next few weeks before it closes, but in case you forget something that we can offer you we’re always here! Hop over to our Facebook Page and send us a message. Now I am completely brand new to coding, but Shena over at Bain Home Gardens seems to have it all together and helped me out LOL! BUT, if for some reason the link doesn’t work, just search for Hawkins Homestead Farm on Facebook and you can find us. Of course you can always visit our website or Instagram Page (Hawkins Homestead Farms). The point is that you have many options to reach us and we would love to hear from anyone who wants to.

If you’re shopping with us on the Market this week, our jams, gift baskets, and pumpkin butters are all available. We will be picking up honey from Horton Farms! For a funny story, ask Roslyn or myself about the time that someone showed up at her house without a voice looking for honey! Yep, that was yours truly when I first moved to the area. My body was trying to adjust to this environment and I was in bad shape. Who knew that a little ways down the road the we would all be joined in the Market Family?!?!?! See you next year or maybe before!

MARKET CHITCHAT

THIS WEEK’S GROWER NOTES

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

SMART DOC RESOURCES: What a treat to meet many market farmers at the awesome Christmas gathering at Dothan Nurseries.  I know it was successful and can’t wait until next year and I will be better prepared. We had our seminar Hydroponics 101 at the SEC church Wednesday and we had made several salads with our  microgreens and lettuce so we were pretty bare! However, we are constantly expanding and learning new things (thank you friends!) And I am grateful to be where we are considering I have just been in Dothan for less than 6 months!  The Hydroponics Seminar was a success and we realize the timing was not right for many so perhaps we can plan several more workshops in the coming months. We do have some new products online which include candied pecans and dried chilis ( carolinareaper, the hottest pepper out there!)  I hope you all had a chance to meet the farmer, Clifford. He is a young man who is passionate about hydroponics, learning new things and is a hard worker. This is a season to be grateful for friends, family and hard workers! (That includes Roslyn and the team!)

AVALON FARMS: As always, it was great to see all your smiling faces at the Christmas Open House. Over the years we’ve made acquaintance with lots of people that don’t (yet) participate  in the Market at Dothan. They are always excited to take advantage of our year round growing. We are truly blessed to have this market available to us all.

We all enjoyed the fresh locally grown garlic last Spring so much that I’m  increasing the planting by 5 times. One row of 1200 is in the ground and the second row is started.

100 ft rows get pretty long when you are planting garlic 6 inches apart in beds 6 rows across.

The garlic planting was interrupted by harvesting the last of this year’s meat birds. All 28 are cooling their heels waiting for final inspection, bagging, weighing and freezing. This took much longer than we anticipated due to unscheduled events like a coordinated escape (a live version of Chicken Run! I kid you not!!), equipment problems etc etc. You know, the normal adventures you don’t need while trying to complete a job.

With the closing of this year,  I want to thank you all for helping me grow Avalon Farms. Sometimes it seems my plans fail too often but with your encouragement I have succeeded in increasing production. I hope to expand and provide you with even more tasty things to eat!

HAWKINS HOMESTEAD: Hello Market Friends,

Today we’re going to continue our educational series. So let’s talk about “cage free.”

When you hear those words the thought that may come to mind is one of birds living their best life-outside, cage free, and happy.

FACT: “Cage free” doesn’t mean outside access. A label can read “cage free” and simply mean that a bird is housed with tons of other birds.

You know those thousands we talked about last week. They may have access to nesting boxes and even bars to roost on, but they also may still live in terrible conditions inside ?a house.

Many farms successfully use outside enclosures, cages, and other methods for their birds and they have an excellent quality of life.

On our farm we use a variety of methods for our birds. From complete outside access to outside mini coops, and hoop houses, their quality of life and safety is important to us.

At harvest time, the meats birds that are set to be processed are moved to a enclosed holding area. This is complete outside access and they get to enjoy the time they have left. It allows us to separate those birds who are ready for harvesting while preserving their quality of life.

The above picture is one of our hoop houses as a work in progress. We use these to move our meat birds to fresh grass. We also use them for broody mama hens, to quarantine new flock members, and to allow young chicks and turkey poults safe outside access.

This series applies to all growers and producers, be it a grocery store, farmers market, or a direct farm. As consumers and people who grow and eat these birds and the eggs that they produce, giving them the best quality of life means that we practice and support a clean, safe, and natural environment for our chickens and those that we purchase from others. If this matters to you, then this education is important.

For example, now is the time of year when local farmers, us included don’t have many eggs or maybe none at all. So as we branch out to get our eggs from elsewhere please read the label carefully and choose wisely.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this series and found it to be informative and educational. If you have questions or would like more information, we would love to share with you. Please email me directly at:
rachel@hawkinshomesteadfarm.com
 
I’d love to hear from you!

BAIN HOME GARDENS: Good Afternoon Marketeers!
    How are you? The Bain family is always excited around this time of year. Why? Nineteen years ago two people from two very different walks of life said “I do”. In these years we have experienced trials and tribulation but never outweighed by the joy & happiness that neither of us ever thought we deserved.  Life has a funny way of surprising you. Our biggest surprise is that we are FARMERS! If my 37 year old self would have told my 18 year old self I would be a farmer I would have laughed in my OWN FACE! We truly have much to be thankful for. The experience of joining the Market at Dothan has been a journey of its own. Since we are smaller than many of our fellow growers it’s hard to at times feel like we are helping the community, at least to the degree we had hoped. Your words of encouragement have been a real source of strength. Although our selections aren’t as bountiful this time of year, we do strive to grow what is reasonable, especially after hearing from you. Notice what one of our Marketeers had to say in this online interview. Please note that reason 2,4, & 6 will be published later on our Webpage.

Shena:” How long have you been a part of the Market?”
Patty: “I have been a member of Market at Dothan since I got to Dothan in May 2012.  I had been in communication with the manager of the market for a few months before I ever got here.”

Shena: “How do you benefit from our year round market schedule?”
Patty:
“1.  I have severe chemical sensitivity and my diet is severely restricted, not so much from allergies but from residual antibiotics, hormones, pesticides and other chemicals found in conventional food.  Before I figured out what was happening, these resulted in multiple ER visits. I have even had reactions to grocery store certified organic foods but have never had a reaction to anything I’ve bought from the market.  So, I have year round access to foods that meet my special needs.
…
3.  I consider the vendors friends and it is awesome to meet people who share my passion for growing/raising things safely and sustainably.  Honestly my time at the market every week is virtually the only socialization I’m able to have.
…
5.  Year round availability gives me the ability to try new foods that I never would have thought of trying.  I may not always like it but I don’t think there’s much new that anyone has introduced that I haven’t at least given a shot.  So this has definitely expanded my palate.”

Catch the remainder of Ms. Patty Donovan’s interview over on our Webpage . It will be under the Interviews tab. Check back next week as we interview more of our loyal Marketeers! From our family to yours…!

OPEN HOUSE MARKET CHITCHAT

And now a word for those of you who wish to place orders this week . . . .

As you know the majority of our Market Growers are smaller farms dedicated to producing the highest quality foods. Some will be present at Open House, some will not! So if you want lemon grass from Bain Home Gardens or microgreens from Smart Doc Resources, be sure to order them! Online ordering ensures first pick of each week’s products.

Order Pickup will take place at the Market Shed from 1 pm – 2:30 pm on Thursday, December 6. There will be no Daleville or Enterprise deliveries this week. We invite our friends from those areas to visit us at Open House. If you can’t arrive between 1 pm -2:30 pm to pick up an order because of work or other responsibilities, please send a message to marketatdothan@gmail.com so we can arrange something satisfactory for you.

Market at Dothan will continue our normal schedule with this year’s last pickup taking place on December 21. Then we will be closed for two weeks. The next order cycle will start on January 5 with the new year’s first pickup date being Friday, January 11, 2019.

THIS WEEK’S GROWER NOTES

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

AVALON FARMS: Taking inventory and checking it twice, getting ready for the Christmas Open House. Some of you may not be familiar with our “jarred stuff”. On the savory side we have garlic salt, rosemary salt and an herbed brine. This year we added these savory options to utilize herbs we were growing. Our eldest is a chef and pointed us in this direction and helped us with recipes that have a wide appeal. Not too fancy, but, oh so flavorful!

On the sweet side we have 3 jams; ginger pear, pear honey and sassy apricot. Sassy apricot is NOT your grandma’s jam. This is an apricot jam married to habanero pepper jelly! It is a heavenly combination of bright fruity flavor with a warm pepper finish.  Pair it with goat cheese for an amazing appetizer. Use as a sassy condiment for pork or chicken.

We still have several whole chickens, livers, gizzards, feet and hearts available now. We’ll be processing more next weekend. If you would like them unfrozen contact me at Avalon Farms to make arrangements to pick them up on farm. Put “Avalon Farms, Kinston” in Google Maps and it will take you straight to us.

BAIN HOME GARDENS: Marketeers,
    We hope you are all tucked away warm and dry on this wet Saturday afternoon. Admittedly, we are doing nothing. That’s right! It’s been an extremely rollercoaster kind of a week! Taking time to relax & recuperate with the people whom we love most in this world, each other, is a welcome change of venue.   

  Thanks to all who tuned into our Lemongrass video! Who knew so many of you loved Lemongrass! Thanks Virginia Schafer for sharing your Coconut Lemongrass recipe. We will share another video when we make it!
    Our little community of market supporters is growing! Thanks to all of the new supporters and special thanks to all you longtime loyal supporters! Our shared love of clean & healthy eating brought us together but it is your loyalty that keeps us together.
    We love sharing our adventures with you. What is more, we love hearing from you! Follow us on Facebook, Webpage , or Instagram for more gardening fun – from our family to yours!

HAWKINS HOMESTEAD: Hello Market Friends,

Thank you to everyone who tuned in for our big announcement on Cyber Monday! If you missed it, don’t worry it’s still up on our Facebook page, so feel free to check it out.

As promised we want to speak to you this week about “no added hormones.”
So what does that even mean? Why would poultry be labeled as having no added hormones?

FACT: It’s illegal in the United States for poultry to be given hormones. Whenever these labels are placed on poultry, it is then required for them to say something to the effect of how the use of hormones isn’t allowed in poultry. There is usually a star or a marker for you to read and follow the fine print.

So why the label? Simply put, it’s because the public assumes that all grocery store meat is produced under the same guidelines. But that’s not the case. And there’s no getting around that part of it is marketing strategy. (edited)

I will be the first to tell you that before researching this we had our chickens labeled as steroid free, but as we became educated we realized this was not necessary because of the laws governing chicken in the United States.  

I know what else you’re thinking….why the super chickens? You know those whose legs are huge and the chicken breast is bigger than the entire chicken. It’s called confinement and targeted nutrition. Remember from our last post, chickens are omnivores. They will eat just about anything they can find or are given. Let’s illustrate it this way. If a chicken is housed with 20,000 of its friends, given a diet that mostly consists of genetically modified corn, and they don’t have much if any room to move around, they can be marketed and labeled as “vegetarian fed” with “no added hormones.” Is that what you want to eat and feed your family?!?! NOPE! That is not for us! I’m sure that that is not for any of you either, or else you wouldn’t be here!

In the end we just want you to be educated. Anyone can slaughter a chicken and sell it. They can use creative marketing that looks like something you want, but the facts are that not everything that looks good, is!

Since the Market pick up is on Thursday this week, we will be sitting this one out, but we hope you will read our blog next time when we will tackle what “cage free” labeling means. See you then.

Editors note, This is the poultry industry’s position on the issue if you wish to examine their take on hormone labeling.

MARKET CHITCHAT

Woo Hoo – we’re back to a normal schedule, at least THIS week. We’ll be in the Market Shed on Friday, Nov. 30 and deliveries to Daleville and Enterprise will take normally.

I say “this week” because OPEN HOUSE takes place the following week on Thursday December 6. Pickup will take place between 1:00 and 2:30 pm in the Market Shed prior to Open House festivities starting at 3pm. We don’t want our Market customers to have to fight the crowds and traffic that will get under way when the music starts and food starts being served. . . . though we do hope you’ll stay for that!

So far this is the lineup of who will be present

• D’s Jellies
• Martin Teas
• Smith Farms
• Hortons Farm
• Smore’s Dessert Company
• Koning Pottery and Mary’s Magic
• Misty’s Crafts from Blakley
• Avalon Farms
• Mayim Farms

THIS WEEK’S GROWER NOTES

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

AVALON FARMS: Fryers \ Pullets – We butchered our first fryers this weekend. With our assorted family schedules our Thanksgiving wasn’t till today (Saturday) so Thursday was open. Like everything else in life, we get better everytime we process a bunch of chickens. (It only took us 3 hours to process 20! ?) We’ve listed feet, gizzards (big honkers!), livers and hearts this time along with whole chickens.

These birds are Freedom Ranger chickens. They do not have the huge breasts of the Cornish Crosses, but they are better foragers in the fields. They also don’t grow as fast, therefore they don’t have the health issues associated with the Cornish Crosses. These take 12 to 14 weeks to grow out, compared to 8 weeks
on the Cornish. They are touted to be tender and tasty…we shall see! Please report back your findings.

Also, because of all the fun (craziness) this weekend some of my products won’t be updated till Monday. So sorry in advance.

SMART DOC RESOURCES: I don’t know about you all but it has been a crazy Thanksgiving. All good though. Lots of family, friends, food and fun. And Cleaning and Cooking! LOL. Hopefully you all can come to the Home Hydroponic Class at SEC church on Wed. Dec 5th at 6pm. It’s also a veggie potluck so bring a dish if you wish. It’s free and so is the food! On the homefront we are experimenting a bit with seeds and techniques so we have a variety of veggies available. Not all will be ready for market next week but soon. Okra is almost ready…blooms are coming! We also have tomatoes coming soon. This week in market we will have mini swiss chard and micro dinosaur kale. Then we also experimented with a sprout mixture that has been doing well. Three kinds are available are (1) organic alfalfa, mung and brocolli and the second(2) is alfalfa and red clover and the(3) third is alfalfa, red clover, broccoli and radish. We will have 2 orders of bibb that are getting bigger by the day! Hoping to expand our greenhouse soon! Happy Holidays!

BAIN HOME GARDENS: Marketeers,
The week just didn’t seem the same without you! We enjoyed our staycay! You?

It’s out with the old & allowing room for the new at Bain Home Gardens. Clearing and planting has led to a few interesting discoveries. This Red Veined Sorrel was hiding comfortably under the sea of leaves in one of our raised beds. We have tried to grow this on a larger scale but haven’t found success. If at first you don’t succeed – try again! We shall!

On the market this week we have our tasty Pepper Jelly & beautiful Kale Salad Blend. New to the market this week is Lemongrass! We are happy to finally be able to add this to the diversity of the market. Some months ago, while visiting some friends of ours from Thailand, we learned that it is very difficult to buy staple items in Thai cuisine locally. So went the undertaking of a Thai Garden! So far so good! As Spring approaches more items will be added. This journey is bound to be a fun and tasty one! Try it with the Asian Stir Fry Green Mix from Hawkins Homestead Farm or make a soothing tea. This Tuesday, join us over on our Facebook page as we make our own Lemongrass tea – great for staying well this cold and flu season!

We are really excited to learn all about Hydroponics from our friends over at Smart Doc Resources December 5th! Adding to our knowledge and increasing our scope of growing food is an amazing opportunity! Hope to see you there!

HORTONS FARM: We hope you and yours had a blessed Thanksgiving week. 2018 was very different for the Hortons as it’s the first time ever we’ve been alone at Thanksgiving and the first time since going keto that Ros faced a major holiday! We formulated a plan for the week that worked beautifully and feel more confident to get through December without sugar and carb laden foods as well.

Now that we’ve got nearly four months behind us I am ready to start sharing about this experience and will start including some Keto/Low Carb information in our newsletter all along to encourage the rest of you who have embarked on this journey.

On a different note, we have just completed packing up forty more elderberry syrup kits. About half of them have been claimed already and the rest are listed on the Market. We will continue to make these as need requires.

HAWKINS HOMESTEAD: Hello Market Friends! Isn’t it good to be back? We think so! We have SUPER EXCITING NEWS! We will be sharing with an announcement via Facebook on Monday! The time will be announced Monday morning and there will be a live video feed to watch so stay tuned for our exciting announcement!

In other news we think it’s important to try and educate all of you on what you decide to feed yourself and your family. So today we want to talk to you about poultry. Over the break, Brandon and I were in the more upscale market in our area and we saw poultry that was listed as “vegetarian fed.” Not just any poultry, but the fancy kind with the fancy price tag. Well anyone looking at these labels may think they should buy these…..BUT SHOULD YOU? We hope by educating you as the consumer, we are helping you to choose wisely! Not everything that looks good is!

FACT: Chickens no matter what breed they are love to be chickens.They are omnivores and if you provide them with an environment that allows them to be chickens their natural instincts kick in. They are not vegetarians! What they’re fed and how they are raised is what matters! So whether you’re raising hens or meat birds of all sorts, chickens adapt to their living conditions.

Of course we feed our chickens a 100% certified organic feed. It is verified by the Non-GMO project and keeps them healthy and strong. We buy it in bulk and make sure that they’re getting the BEST feed. Their first choice is always whatever they can find, but they love their feed and so do we!

Stay tuned next week where we will talk about “no added hormones” and we hope to see you all on Monday for our exciting announcement! Until then…..

THEN & NOW

Did you know that the first Thanksgiving in the United States has some strong similarities to the biblical Feast of Tabernacles? The Feast of Tabernacles is described in the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament of the Bible.

Although the pilgrims did not consciously observe this biblical feast, it is interesting to study the parallels between these two celebrations that share the common spirit of thanksgiving to God. Both were celebrated in the autumn in the northern hemisphere, and both were a time for giving thanks to God for the blessings of the harvest season.

“Though it’s a uniquely American tradition,” adds a Jewish Web site, “the roots of Thanksgiving go back to ancient Israel. In a real sense, the Jews invented Thanksgiving. (I) count 28 references to the word thanksgiving in the King James Bible—all but six in the Old Testament. For the ancient children of Israel, thanksgiving was a time of feasting and fasting, of praising God, of singing songs. It was a rich celebration—and still is for observant Jews today. Just like it is for many Americans.

Regardless of its origins, psychologists today recognize that gratitude is a powerful force for good regardless of one’s beliefs. Psychology Today lists 7 benefits of Gratitude:

• Gratitude opens the door to more relationships. 
• Gratitude improves physical health.
• Gratitude improves psychological health.
• Gratitude enhances empathy and reduces aggression. 
• Grateful people sleep better. 
• Gratitude improves self-esteem. 
• Gratitude increases mental strength. 

MARKET CHITCHAT

New & Relisted Products Some of these may be familar as they were added to the Market after last week’s newsletter went out.

• Hot Pepper Sauce from Hawkins Homestead
• Broccoli from Avalon Farms
• Hydroponic Micro Bibb Lettuce from Smart Doc Resources
• Old Fashioned Skillet Bread from Mary’s Peeps
• Asian Stir Fry Greens from Hawkins Homestead
• Stewing Hens from Avalon Farms
• Microgreens Musclun Blend from Smart Doc Resources
• Shena’s Pepper Jelly from Bain Home Gardens
• Mary’s HONEY Cornbread Muffins
• Pak Choi cabbage from Hawkins Homestead
• Stuart Pecans from Smart Doc Resources
• Rosemary Salt from Avalon Farms
• Gift Baskets from Hawkins Homestead
• Hawkins Organic Bone Broth Kits are relisted

THIS WEEK’S GROWER NOTES

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

SMART DOC RESOURCES: Greetings from SmartDoc Farm  It has been a busy week. Yea, we sold out of our hydroponic veggies so I hope you enjoy.  We were holding our breath since we had to start fresh after the hurricane and being out of power and water for 7 days!  This weekend we are enlarging so we will have more and a variety of items to offer over the winter. We are experimenting on more techniques and seeds too.  In the next few weeks we will have swiss chard and hopefully okra and of course lettuce and microgreen mix. I will be giving several talks over the next couple of weeks….Saturday at the Market (actually earlier today) about stress. Then on Dec 5th at the community room at SEC church I will be demonstrating easy and inexpensive ways to hydroponic in your kitchen!  Flu and cold season is coming up(maybe now with all this crazy weather) so check out the CBD oil. It’s good for many things …check out my smartdocresources page for some scientific studies. I also completed the cottage law course so in the next few weeks I will be offering some special dried herbs and Christmas candies! Til next time….stay healthy and eat well.

BAIN HOME GARDENS: Are you feeling a little crazy due to the time change? We are! We’ve been so totally confused! It’s just one hour yet it makes all the difference in the world! Personally, I can say I have never struggled so much to adjust as I have been struggling this with this time change. I wondered why so I did a deep dive into the web and found some awesome tips on how to cope with the time change:
1. Adjust Alarms. About 10 or so days before time changes, wake up 10 to 15 min later (earlier for Spring forward). This helps the body slowly adjust to the time change. It’s too late for us to implement this one but when we spring forward we will.
2.Nighttime Routines. You have likely had one of some sort since you were a kid. Put down the phone and tablet and quiet things down! These routines help slow the body down and prepare it for rest – rest that would be otherwise be interrupted by the time change.
3. Light. Expose yourself to light during the waking hours of the day only. At night, LEAVE THE LIGHTS OFF! Install night lights, they are much easier on the eyes and allow one to get right back to sleep!
Although we have had difficulty adjusting, we haven’t allowed the Fall back to stop progress. New & last plantings of peas are done. We are experimenting with a new variety this year so we are excited to see what the yields will be. There is so much more going at Bain Home Gardens! Follow our Garden Adventures on Facebook , Instagram or our more extensive blog posts on ourWebpage . Till next time – from our family to yours!

MARY’S PEEPS: Hello Everyone. Thank you for those of you who have stood by me this year. We’ve had ups and downs and are happy to have made it through to continue baking the same delicious cakes for you that we make for our family. Please check out my selection of baked goods that are listed on the Market Page. There’s sure to be something that will make your Thanksgiving easier and more delicious. Thank you for your support. Mary Dale Peeples

Editor’s Note – you can use the Display Options on the left side of the Market Page to see an individual vendor/grower’s items exclusively.

AVALON FARMS: Onions will no longer be available as they are starting to sprout and that is not good eats. (Bummer. I love onions.)

Broccoli is doing well this year. Wish that second batch of transplants hadn’t been destroyed, then we’d have 4 times as much growing.

You’re going to be needing some rich broth for your Thanksgiving cooking and I’ve got just the thing! Stewing Hens. These pasture raised, clean eating and living girls have reached the end of their egg laying lives. Somebody’s grandma needs to make some chicken and dumplings.

Due to the farmers market on Saturday we won’t be able to process them till Sunday, so I’ll be listing them in the Market late Sunday.

HAWKINS HOMESTEAD: A huge thank you and a shout out to everyone who supported the Fall Farmers Market Day today. We always love getting to meet and putting faces with the names of our customers! With all the events happening around town, we appreciate you showing support to us!

This week we have got a lot to offer! It will be your last Market pick up before our break so please get what you need for 2 weeks instead of one. Of course, you can always contact us offline too, but we know how important it is not to be without.

Ok onto the new stuff right?

• We’ve got our organic hot pepper sauce up just in time for that pot of greens!
• We’ve added gift baskets that include a variety of our pear jams and you can even get one with pepper jelly. These gift baskets will be offered throughout the season.
• Asian organic stir fry greens are listed for you to cook up something wonderful.
• We’re also offering a listing of our Pak Choi cabbage. Just this on its own is delicious, but of course you can add it to your favorite meal.
• Not new, but why buy broth from the grocery store when you can make your own? Delicious and so much better for you! We know a lot of you will be making plenty of meals over the next few months, so we’ve got our organic bone broth kits listed and ready to go.
• Last, but certainly not least our stewing hens are back up on the Market. Remember to cook these low and slow…then enjoy!
  Organic peas will be up soon and if I can get my family to stop eating all the green beans (well maybe it’s just me) I will list those too! See you in 2 weeks if not before.

EGG UPDATE

We’ve been asked about the Market’s limited supply of eggs and the above photo is why there are so few these days. Molting is a normal and natural process of shedding feathers and re-growing them that all chickens go through. A chicken normally stops laying eggs during this process and resume once it is over. With it taking place so late in the year as the days shorten, they will resume laying at a slower rate until spring when the days get warmer and longer.

MARKET CHITCHAT

Many apologies to Hawkins Farm for bungling up their Growers Note last week. I fixed that section several times but in the end the word.doc gremlins got the best of this editor’s efforts. Rachel graciously relisted it on our Facebook page. The Market actually has two facebook pages and if you’ve not visited there we invite you to “like” or follow so you can keep up with Market happenings that take place during the week. Links to both are at the end of this newsletter.

THANKSGIVING SCHEDULE – Market at Dothan will be closed the week of Thanksgiving. This will give our growers a break for travel and visits, plus we do not believe anyone in their right mind would be wanting to pick up Market orders the day after a feast, not to mention that the same day is Black Friday with sales crazed shoppers running to and fro all over the city. If you are one of those shoppers we ask that 1) you be very safe out there, and 2) Get some good deals.

New & Relisted Products

• Mary’s Pumpkin Banana Loaf from Mary’s Peeps
• Breen Beans – Avalon Farms
• Cold Brew Coffee from Hortons Farm
• CBD Oil from Smart Doc Resources
• Tatsoi – Avalon Farms
• Kumquats from Hortons FarmFarms
• Shena’s Pepper Jelly from Bain Home Gardens
• Mary’s Pumpkin Pound Cake from Mary’s Peeps
• CBD Pain Cream from Smart Doc Resources

THIS WEEK’S GROWER NOTES

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

HORTON’S FARM: We were both aggrivated and heartbroken a few weeks back when our cold brew machine started showering the entire kitchen with coffee concentrate. Talk about a mess! After several retrys and an exam by the resident mechanical/electrical person in our house it was clear that the unit was done for and couldn’t be repaired.

I’m glad to tell you that wasn’t the end of the story. I contacted the manufacturer directly and . . . they volunteered to replace it at no charge!
Of course a happy dance was in order and we expect the replacement to arrive early next week. That’s why we are able to have our cold brew concentrate listed again.

And a little touch from heaven – Kumquats are ready! I still think it’s super cool that we get tiny bright bites of Vitamin C goodness at the start of cold and flu season.

BAIN HOME GARDENS: Marketeers, We hope you and yours are doing well. We have had a bit of an odd week with some minor health issues. What absolutely amazes me is that there are so many natural remedies for our everyday illnesses found right out there in nature. Here at Bain Home Gardens our first line of defense is prevention! Naturally occuring vitamins and minerals in what we consume goes a long way towards keeping the body operational! Supplements are great but if you have to take them, as Ros says, “research, research, research”! Remember that all natural does not mean all okay. Some vitamin supplements (Vitamin K) serve as an antidote to some prescription medications (Coumadin). So while nature offers boundless remedies and cures, be safe & do your due diligence.

We are so happy to have gone through the Cottage Food Law training! Most of what we learned was a reinforcement of things we had already picked up from other growers on this market. In fact, that is one thing I enjoy about being a part of the Market at Dothan – the gift of knowledge and education passed from one mind to another. A little education goes a long way! We are happy to use ours to better serve the Wiregrass area.

This week we will be listing Bain Home Garden’s Pepper Jelly for the first time! Featuring our very own Red Hot Cherry Peppers as well as beauties from Hawkins Homestead Farm (both seen above). We are making these available in half pint and pint sizes. As the months progress & the seasons change, we will be offering more flavors. Also this week we will be listing our Kale Salad Blend. We hope you will take advantage of this mix of Curly, Red Russian, & Premiere Kale with beautiful Marigold Blossoms! Top with your favorite dressing & enjoy! We hope to be listing lettuces within the next month but even if we cannot we know Rachel & Danny have you covered! From our family to yours!

AVALON FARMS:

Today’s thought –
“Being more sustainable by not being such a perfectionist. “

After being a part of this market for 3 years I am even more committed to providing clean,  natural and sustainable food for your table. This year I expanded plantings to grow more. But along  with growing more plants I have also learned that my perfectionism is the enemy of production. I’ve stopped picking out every leaf a bug nibbled on or otherwise isn’t perfect. Mind you,  I’m not talking about “bad produce” (aka chicken snacks) and if you ever have a problem just let me know and I’ll do my best to make it right. I’m also including an extra leaf or 2 to make up for any unusable part.

In other news -
Green beans are just starting. I’ll be picking the first few this week.

Tatsoi, in the aquaponics, is finally big enough. These are great for salad or saute.
Broccoli is coming along.  Hoping to have a couple next week.
Cukes are done till next spring.
Garlic is still waiting to be planted. Tuesday’s rain put a stop to getting the beds prepped.

HAWKINS HOMESTEAD: Hello Market Friends!

Things have been a little crazy busy here at Hawkins Homestead Farm. New birds, new plantings, along with the regularly scheduled program makes for one busy farmer.

Be sure to check out our Facebook page for all the new things to come…till next week!