HEALTHY LIFESTYLE CLASS UPDATE

A hearty THANK YOU to everyone who came out to our 3rd Healthy Lifestyle Class this morning at Dothan Nurseries. We know there are a lot of other things people could spend their Saturday mornings doing so it is both humbling and encouraging to have you come out and join us. It truly is our goal to help our community live healthier happier lives!

Today’s class was a treat! Lots of good info was presented, we laughed a lot, and a spinnoff class by the Hawkins is in the works. Plans will be announced when finalized. In the meantime check out our Market Discussion Page for a video of the demonstration and the Hawkin’s website for the recipes that were discussed.

Next month’s class will be taught by Ros Horton and the topic is Honey and Health. We’ll discuss us the composition of raw honey and why it’s best for you; honey with diets and diabetes; correctly cooking with honey, etc. Health benefits of other hive products will be presented as well. Roslyn is an Alabama Master Beekeeper who has managed her own hives in Dale County for 15 plus years and has taught Master Beekeeper Candidates since 2014. The date is Saturday, April 21.

THIS WEEK’S GROWER NOTES

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

AVALON FARMS: Let’s talk dirt. Or rather washing dirt (and other stuff) off of produce. Everything I harvest goes through at least one dunking in water. This removes the dirt and random bits of stuff (cover crop debris, mulch, etc). Squash, cukes, tomatoes, etc really only take a rinse and a check to make sure it all came off. Leafy greens, however, can take several dunkings in 2 or more sinks of water to get them well rinsed. Even so, it is always wise to inspect your produce. Look for foreign bodies (weeds, insects) and of course dirt.

This time of year with the pollen count so high the rinse water has had a definite yellow tinge to it. As you can see in this picture the moisture from dew/rain causes the pollen to stick tightly to the spinach leaves.

Bottom line – you should ALWAYS inspect fresh produce before eating it, especially leafy greens. I once found weeds in a bag of ready to eat spinach from the grocery store. So you never know.

This spring temperatures have been on a rollercoaster. The weather forecast for next week is still showing some cool nights. But these transplants need more space to stretch out. I’ll be putting out 6 kinds of tomatoes, 4 kinds of pepper and 1 eggplant  variety. Over 300 babies going to their “summer homes”.

BAIN HOME GARDENS: Hello Market Buddies!
We have been experimenting with different radish varieties  for a while now. Finally we are excited to bring you our “Domino Mix”. Available this week! Check it out!

This week concludes our fight the pollen series. Our final recommendation? Use essential oils to combat allergy symptoms. See allergens, like pollen, tend to make our bodies overreact to invaders by causing inflammation in our nose, throat, and/or lungs. Essential oils prepare us for battle by helping to fight the inflammation! Some studies even show that essential oils have detoxification properties!  Melinda Flynn of Simple Life, has been studying the benefits of essential oils for a while. We tapped into her expertise & have picked up an “Allergy Bomb” mix from her.

I have used it for just one morning so far, since mornings are when my symptoms are the worse, and what a difference! The results were not immediate but within ten minutes improvement was noted! So thrilled I didn’t have to muddle through the morning as usual! I look forward to using more non-pharmaceutical methods such as the ones we have been discussing over the last few weeks this allergy season. Even more so, tapping into food as a source of healing. We hope you can too. Hippocrates said it best, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food.”
Till next week, sending well wishes from our family to yours!

HAWKINS HOMESTEAD FARM: Hey everyone! What a blast we had today teaching our very first class. We learned all about how to stretch your meals off of just one whole chicken. Remember to check out our website for those recipes. They will be up later today. You can find them here: http://hawkinshomesteadfarm.com/category/life/recipies/

Thank you everyone who came out and joined us. We loved all the questions and a special shout out to our volunteer! We appreciate you all.

This week we are offering fresh peas! They have been growing like crazy and we’ve been patiently (there’s that word again) waiting on them to fatten up. Now that they have, we hope you take advantage of them while they’re available. In addition we have a nice salad blend that we created ourselves. It’s full of different romaine varieties, spinach, arugula, and even kale. Who doesn’t like salad? Whatever you choose this week, we’re happy that you’ve chosen The Market at Dothan and Hawkins Homestead Farm to supply your family with healthy and sustainable food. So thank you!