The Weblog
Our goal is 100% Customer Satisfaction…comments, questions or concerns always welcome!
www.Facebook.com/MarketAtDothan
July 9, 2022 M@D Newsletter
GROWER & MARKET NOTES
MOUNT MORIAH FARMS Mia graciously gave us permission to share the newest addition to their lives. There is no doubt that Remington Wade will be a fabulous farmhand!
4 . May have anticancer properties: Okra contains a type of protein called lectin, which may inhibit the growth of human cancer cells. One test-tube study in breast cancer cells found that the lectin in okra may prevent cancer cell growth by up to 63%. Another test-tube study in metastatic mouse melanoma cells discovered that okra extract caused cancer cell death.
Keep in mind that these studies were performed in test tubes with concentrated and extracted components of okra. More human research is needed before any conclusions can be drawn.
5. May lower blood sugar: Maintaining healthy blood sugar levels is very important for your overall health. Consistently high blood sugar can lead to prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. Research in mice indicates that eating okra or okra extract may help decrease blood sugar levels. In one study, rats given liquid sugar and purified okra experienced fewer blood sugar spikes than animals in the control group.
Researchers suggested that the okra decreased sugar absorption in the digestive tract, leading to a more stable blood sugar response. That said, okra may interfere with metformin, a common diabetes medication. Therefore, eating okra is not recommended for those taking this drug.
6. Beneficial for pregnant women: Folate (vitamin B9) is an important nutrient for pregnant women. It helps lower the risk of a neural tube defect, which affects the brain and spine of a developing fetus. It’s recommended that all women of childbearing age consume 400 mcg of folate every day. A review that included 12,000 healthy adult women found that most consumed just 245 mcg of folate per day, on average. Another study that followed 6,000 non-pregnant women over 5 years discovered that 23% of participants had inadequate folate concentrations in their blood.
7. Easy to add to your diet: Though okra may not be a staple in your kitchen, it’s quite easy to cook. When purchasing okra, look for smooth and tender green pods without brown spots or dried ends. Store them in the fridge for up to four days before cooking.
Usually, okra is used in soups and stews like gumbo. It contains mucilage, a thick substance that becomes gummy when heated. To avoid slimy okra, follow these simple cooking techniques:
- Cook okra at high heat.
- Avoid crowding your pan or skillet, as this will reduce the heat and cause sliminess.
- Pickling okra may reduce the slime factor.
- Cooking it in an acid-like tomato sauce reduces the gumminess.
- Simply slice and roast okra in your oven.
- Grill it until it’s slightly charred.
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!
July 2, 2022 M@D NeWsLeTteR - OpEn 4 oRdErS!
GROWER & MARKET NOTES
New & Relisted Products
This is one of our family’s favorite quotes and has been a lifelong principal. It came to mind this morning thinking about the awful heat we endured last month. Now that we’re into the “hot” summer months in some ways it feels like we’ve already gone through them. Yet we press on, doing things the hard way because the hard way is the RIGHT way. Our growers have chosen a different path than traditional mainstream gardening. Sustainable practices involve a lot more WORK, and ours have chosen that path. Some would say it’s unreasonable, but it’s what makes it possible for our customer friends to enjoy CLEAN SAFE food every week. THANK YOU for supporting our local farmers and it is our deepest desire to be a blessing to you and your good health.
ALABAMA HOMESTEAD has a few new products listed this week in the Medicinal Herbs category. The product descriptions contain a lot of information about the various items and we hope you’ll take the time to learn about them and how to incorporate these safe items into your own health regime.
AVALON FARMS: Squash and cucumbers will not be listed this week. With that excessive heat last week the plants didn’t set any fruit and look rough. I’ve hit them with some kelp fertilizer to give them a boost. Some already look much better and have baby squash. I’m hopeful that they’ll be back in the market next week.
The blackberries are finished for this year. Blueberries will be available this week and maybe longer.
We had a very strange thing happen this week. We found a kitten in our Mazda van! Apparently it was in there for 2 days!!! Black van, in the sun, in South Alabama summer heat…..don’t know how it survived. Or how it got in. It seems ok. Very thin. But getting it’s energy back. Must have climbed into the van when we were picking things since we leave the back open then. Makes me wonder/worry how many more babies are around.
1. Rich in nutrients: Okra boasts an impressive nutrient profile.
One cup (100 grams) of raw okra contains:
*Calories: 33
*Carbs: 7 grams
*Protein: 2 grams
*Fat: 0 grams
*Fiber: 3 grams
*Magnesium: 14% of the Daily Value (DV)
*Folate: 15% of the DV
*Vitamin A: 14% of the DV
*Vitamin C: 26% of the DV
*Vitamin K: 26% of the DV
*Vitamin B6: 14% of the DV
Okra is an excellent source of vitamins C and K1. Vitamin C is a water-soluble nutrient that contributes to your overall immune function, while vitamin K1 is a fat-soluble vitamin that’s known for its role in blood clotting.
Additionally, okra is low in calories and carbs and contains some protein and fiber. Many fruits and vegetables lack protein, which makes okra somewhat unique.
Eating enough protein is associated with benefits for weight management, blood sugar control, bone structure, and muscle mass.
2. Contains beneficial antioxidants: Okra packs many antioxidants that benefit your health. Antioxidants are compounds in food that fend off damage from harmful molecules called free radicals. The main antioxidants in okra are polyphenols, including flavonoids and isoquercetin, as well as vitamins A and C.
Research shows that eating a diet high in polyphenols may improve heart health by lowering your risk of blood clots and oxidative damage . Polyphenols may also benefit brain health due to their unique ability to enter your brain and protect against inflammation. These defense mechanisms may help protect your brain from symptoms of aging and improve cognition, learning, and memory.
3. May lower heart disease risk: High cholesterol levels are associated with a greater risk of heart disease.Okra contains a thick gel-like substance called mucilage, which can bind to cholesterol during digestion, causing it to be excreted with stools rather than absorbed into your body.
One 8-week study randomly divided mice into 3 groups and fed them a high-fat diet containing 1% or 2% okra powder or a high-fat diet without okra powder. The mice on the okra diet eliminated more cholesterol in their stools and had lower total blood cholesterol levels than the control group.
Another possible heart benefit of okra is its polyphenol content. One 4-year study in 1,100 people showed that those who ate a diet rich in polyphenols had lower inflammatory markers associated with heart disease.
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!
June 18, 2022 M@D NeWsLettEr
GROWER & MARKET NOTES
Welcome Alabama Homestead! Alabama Homestead is a very small inner city farm run by a Master Gardner who utilizes organic practices to produce high quality culinary & medicinal herbs. Some may know Christine Springis from her lectures on diy vermiculture composting which she incorporates into her gardening. She will be offering a variety of herbs, medicinals and hopefully a few vegetables on down the road.
New & Relisted Products
RICHTER FARMS: Thank you everyone for your prayers, notes and concern for me after my car accident. As some of you know my right wrist was severely broken and I have not been able to participate in the market. Good news is I am now in Physical Therapy and getting stronger each week. I have included a picture of my x-ray so you can see how extensive the break was and now with a titanium plate I’m officially a “bionic farmer” ! I look forward to seeing everyone soon. Viki Richter
AVALON FARMS: This is heating up to be a really hot summer. Our little weather station has been recording temperatures over 95 most days, with a heat index of 108. Always thankful for some clouds and a breeze. These temperatures are way too much for snap peas and lettuce. I’m still hoping the sprouting broccoli might manage to make, but don’t hold your breath.
The earliest spaghetti squash are looking nice. (They like heat. Ha ha)
Elephant Garlic is drying under the pole barn. Yeah! The other garlic is not looking great, too hot and wet. I think there is some rot going on. We’ll harvest them in a couple of weeks.
Speaking of Elephant Garlic I’m trying this recipe.
Elephant Toes (Baked Elephant Garlic)
Baked cloves of the giant elephant garlic, lightly salted and spread on sandwiches or crackers. Also great in vegetables, potatoes or pasta and on meats. Recipe from The Lazy Gastronome.
Ingredients
1 full head elephant garlic
3 Tablespoons olive oil
salt to taste
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350° -
Elephant garlic has much larger cloves than regular. Separate those cloves and lay them, unpeeled, in a small baking dish.
Drizzle with olive oil and bake until the cloves are fork tender. Remember the small ones will get done first, so watch them and remove them when they are done.
Once they are soft, remove them from the oven and add some salt to the top. Let them cool before you try to handle them. Carefully remove the skins and the hard ends.
Slice or mash the cloves and serve with crackers. Or store in the refrigerator to use in potatoes, on meats, with vegetables or as a sandwich spread.
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!
M@D Newsletter, June 11, 2022 We are OpEn 4 OrDeRs
GROWER & MARKET NOTES
We may be a few days shy of Summer Solstice yet but our temperatures sure don’t know that! It’s a reminder of how blessed our Market is to have a great place for order delivery and pickup every Friday morning! We are always indebted to JD Boone and Dothan Nurseries for hosting Market at Dothan. Between the curtains and the fan and opening the refrigerator and freezer all along it’s reasonably comfortable in the Market Shed. And we greatly enjoy serving our growers and customers with the best local food to be found in the area!
New & Relisted Products
From our Question & Answer Page.
How do I order?
4 EASY CLICKS…HERE’S HOW:
Click #1: Add To Shopping Cart
Click #2: Proceed To Checkout
Click #3: Choose your “PICK UP LOCATION”
Click #4: Place This Order
Each Saturday at 5pm, an email is sent to all of our registered customers with a link to our website notifying that the site is ready for shopping! Orders are placed here on our website. This is our only method for ordering and is designed to reduce the amount of time it takes you to shop and for us to process orders.
Customers have 72 hours to place their order. Shopping closes Tuesday at 5pm.
VIP to make sure your order was placed by checking your email for an order confirmation! WARNING – If you neglect to specify a location you will not receive an email confirmation and your order will disappear into cyberspace! Always check to be sure you receive an email confirmation! We hate it when people show up to get orders that did not go through!
On a side note, if you ever have an issue with your order after Market closes please notify us at marketatdothan@gmail.com and we’ll do everything in our power to help you.
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!
M@D Newsletter - June 4, 2022 Edition
GROWER & MARKET NOTES
New & Relisted Products
The following was lifted from our Question & Answer Page. This, of all our questions, may seem like “old hat” to most of us, it is there to help those navigating our site and system for the first time. And we’ve all been there.
Will I have to buy vegetables I don’t want?
While some of our vendors offer traditional CSA boxes, the bulk of our products are listed on an individual basis. This way you get to order what you want, in the quantities that you want, from the farms that you want. The weekly update provides current Market information, grower announcements, new and returning products, and helpful information. We encourage you to browse the Market every week as the products our farmers list constantly changes depending on what is in season and becomes available. You might just find your new favorite food!
AVALON FARMS:
Woo Hoo! Blackberries are ripening now. These are SO good. Big berries with great taste. Will also be offering Frozen Blackberries. They make great additions to smoothies. Use in recipes. Or tasty ice cubes, to keep that glass of wine cold.
MOUNT MORIAH: Wow! Absolutely crazy that we are in the month of June! Just wanted to say a big thank you to all of y’all who support our small businesses! We truly appreciate you! This month is a very special one for us. That reason is because I’m due to have my first baby June 17! We are having a baby boy and just so excited. We are taking it one week at a time with all the markets and plan on keeping with it until baby boy makes his appearance! My husband has been extremely supportive of me continuing my business and has been a big help. We hope y’all have a blessed weekend!
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!
May 28, 2022 M@D Newsletter
GROWER & MARKET NOTES
We hope you’ve had a great week and want to say THANK YOU to everyone who ordered last week. There are three new products listed:
Please check the category listings for relisted favorites.
We’re keeping things brief today but not without wishing you a thankful and blessed Memorial Day.
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!
May 21, 2022 M@D Newsletter - We're OPEN 4 ORDERS
GROWER & MARKET NOTES
To Our New Customers
A technical reminder about ordering: DON”T LEAVE YOUR ITEMS IN THE SHOPPING CART! Market at Dothan’s shopping cart works like other online stores in that you have to click PLACE YOUR ORDER for it to go through. We recommend checking your email after ordering for the confirmation message sent after each order is placed.
AVALON FARMS: Relisting CUCUMBERS this week!
MOUNT MORIAH FARMS: Hope everyone is getting ready for a wonderful Summer! All the babies on the farm have gone to their new homes so we are back to just our adult does. We are currently milking five of them twice a day and they have settled into a beautiful routine. Thank you to all of y’all who have supported our small business by purchasing from us! We sure hope you are enjoying all of your orders for your pets. I have failed to mention that if you have purchased milk from us that we would appreciate it if you would return the jar to M@D. That would be fabulous and helps keep costs down! We also hope everyone has a fantastic Memorial Day!
3LC APIARY is listing PROPOLIS for those of you into natural remedies. It is listed under Medicinal Herbs as bees make it from plant resins.
GRIER ACRES: This is Jeannie and Harry and we have been super busy. Kidding season for our ‘practice goats’ just ended earlier this month. Our garden is looking so good. We are struggling to get the gourd like items in ground. We are going to try using landscape cloth since the area has not been used for gardening much and tends to have lots of weeds. We have thoroughly been tilling and hand weeding our row crops. Beans and peas look great. Our usual okra staple looks great. Our turnips and collards are also looking good. Jeannie harvested the turnips for us and her mom about a week ago. So tender. Our onions are almost ready to be picked. Our garlic is also doing good and some is starting to cure now.
We have been working on tractor but Harry is going to probably have to take it to John Deere. He is also hoping to get our hay baler and sickle mower operational. We would like to grow hay/square bales for our goats. Hope everyone else is doing good.
A Word About Garlic Scapes – Some of us had to learn what scapes are and how to use them!
We thought you may be inspired by the following mouth watering ideas.
1. Scape Pesto: Far and away a favorite use for garlic scapes is pesto, either straight-up or mixed with herbs like basil and dill. Pesto showcases raw scapes in all their glory. Scape pesto can be very pungent, but it mellows substantially after a few months in the freezer. This writer likes it best in the middle of winter, but I think that’s one part mellowing and two parts deprivation.
2. Grilled Scapes: Another great, and very different, way to showcase scapes is to grill them, tossed with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, over direct heat for about two minutes. Flip them once, halfway through, and finish with an extra sprinkle of flaky salt and maybe a bit of lemon juice and zest. They’ll be charred in spots and just soft enough, and their flavor will have sweetened and mellowed dramatically. Grilled scapes are surprisingly reminiscent of asparagus, and surprisingly different from raw scapes.
3. Scape Hummus: For the same reason they work well in pesto, scapes are a brilliant swap-in for garlic in your favorite homemade hummus. They work especially well in a lemony, tahini-free hummus, which really gives them a chance to shine. Edamame “hummus” with scapes works nicely too, and color coordination is tough to argue with.
4. Scape Compound Butter: Scapes would make a lovely compound butter with a little lemon and maybe some fresh thyme. You could use the butter to make a tarted-up garlic bread, and other foods could be tossed on the grill and finished with a nice slice of this melting goodness.
5. Scapes as aromatic: To take a more utilitarian approach, you can slice scapes to whatever length you like and use them as you would garlic, as an aromatic in a wide variety of recipes. Scapes lose a lot of their bite when sautéed, more so than garlic cloves, so use at least three or four times as much scape-age as you would clove-age.
6. Scapes as Vegetable: Scapes also work well as a vegetable, cut into lengths and added to stir-fries or blanched and added to salads, much as you might use green beans. They’re chameleons among vegetables.
7. Scape Soup:
If you don’t like the texture of the scape heads, they work fantastic and add unique flavor in soups where garlic or chives are used.
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!
May 14, 2022 M@D Newsletter - Many New & Relisted Items Available!
GROWER & MARKET NOTES
New & Relisted Products
Have you looked around our website recently? It’s only natural that the Market Page get 95% of the site use, but there’s a lot of other valuable info in there as well. We’re going to share a few things in the coming weeks, starting with info from our Question & Answer Page. The reason for this is that we’re often presented with questions that are already answered in this section of marketatdothan.com. It is required reading for new vendors but often the rest of us forget it’s there or are too busy to look things up. Hopefully this will help.
What makes your Market different?
FRESH: Fresh produce in your order is picked no more than 48 hours prior to delivery.
LOCAL: Our growers are Wiregrass residents within 50 miles of Dothan. We do not sell anything that is trucked in from out of the area.
SUSTAINABLE: Market at Dothan DOES NOT ALLOW GMO’s, CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS, PESTICIDES OR HERBICIDES. Our vendors are carefully vetted on both their growing philosophy and practices. While most of our growers are too small to invest in organic certification, they DO use organic/sustainable methods to grow your food. You may learn more about each farm on our Grower page.
YEAR ROUND: You read it right. Because we don’t participate in truck farming, you can’t get fresh strawberries in September or corn in January. But, because our growers are super sharp and know what they’re doing, we are able to offer many products outside their traditional growing season.
We make no claims to be like other markets and invite you to check us out! You will find a wealth of information on our Home Page, the Market Page, the Grower Page and hopefully everything else here on the Q&A page. The
Weblog contains newsletters with a wealth of information. There are two Facebook pages for announcements and interaction.
If that’s not enough, just come by and visit us at the Dothan location one Friday morning and take a look for yourself! We would love to meet you!
GRIER ACRES: Just truying to stay up and at em. Harry has almost got us irrigated with solar power and water from creek with ram pump. We have a new baby goat—a doeling. Jeannie stays busy with her mom. We picked a few turnips for her for mothers day and will have some for sale this week if anyone is interested. Our collards are a little slower. Our gourds died that we planted so we restarted. Irrigation was not set up and I think just dried up.
AVALON FARMS: Finally! We have squash. All 3 kinds: yellow, green and green/yellow. Ha Ha
The cukes will show up in a week or 2. My favorite Kinston Sweet Onions are ready!
Garlic News: The Elephant Garlic has started sending up scapes (flower stalks) which are fun to eat. The scapes also signal that the bulbs are starting to form and should be ready to harvest in 4 weeks. The Music Garlic will start scaping after the Elephant Garlic. Music Garlic is a robust, stronger flavored garlic than the California white usually found in the grocery store. Looking forward to trying that.
We almost lost the squash plants 2 weeks ago. Suddenly the leaves had these yellow spots! A fungus of one sort of another (there are so many when dealing with heat and humidity). After multiple sprayings, alternating between neem oil and potassium bicarb (close cousin to baking soda) the plants are looking better. They’ve started producing but I’m still finding fungus damaged baby squash I have to throw away.
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!
May 7, 2022 M@D Newsletter
GROWER & MARKET NOTES
Thank You
to everyone who came out to the annual Mother’s Day Open House today.
Mother’s Day: Yes, we know not everyone who receives this newsletter is a mother, but you do have one! We hope you have sweet memories if you’re not able to appreciate her personally this year.
We are resuming our regular weekly schedule with Friday pickup this week. Right now the next scheduled Market break is July 2 – July 8. We may take off additional weeks late summer depending on how vegetables are holding up.
With this newsletter being drafted on Friday evening we don’t have an update on New and Relisted products for next week, so be sure to check the listings for your favorite items. You never know what you may find!
If you enjoy cooking videos or new ways of cooking familiar foods then Przepisy od Katarzyny might be for you.
Przepisy od Katarzyny is a youtube.com channel we learned about this week when a sweet sister shared this video:
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!
April 30, 2022 M@D Newsletter - SATURDAY pickup this week!
GROWER & MARKET NOTES
Next Saturday
is Dothan Nursery’s annual Mother’s Day Open House
We’re very aware that some of you do not care for the hustle and bustle during these events and to avoid that we request that you pull up to the Market Shed, “covid style” for curbside delivery. That way you don’t even have to get out of your car if you don’t want to!
AVALON FARMS: So happy to finally be able to offer a few veggies. This week we’ve added Leeks, Spring Onions (from our Kinston Sweets!) and really new for us, Lettuce!
Saw the first squash bloom this morning! So about 2 weeks or so on those. Sugar snap peas are also blooming. Oh, and little tomatoes and pepper blooms! Spring is like that…super fast and super slow at the same time. Ha ha
So many things “coming soon”. Don’t lose faith.
HORTONS FARM: If our farm had a gossip column the latest headline might go something like this:
All would fit and yes, moi is the dog, mouse and grandmother who climbed up on this bad boy and did some WORK last week.
The backstory is I’ve always been secretly envious of ladies who drove tractors like my mom and others I’ve known. And my Mr. seldom let me near the controls of any of the heavy equipment he used to operate. But when this came home last year he sat me in the seat and let me operate all the controls in case I ever needed to do something heroic. (Like I would remember what each of 3 joysticks, each with multiple functions would do without practice. Plus it has tracks instead of wheels.)
So I’m getting in some practice! So far I’ve moved a lot of dirt, pulled out some roots and debris doing prep work for my first new raised bed in the original garden in a bit over 25 years. With a little help from friends we were able to get some root vegetables in. I’m eager to get back at the controls to prepare for the next installation.
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!