MISC MARKET NOTES

As an official confirmed dieter bread is one of those things I’ve greatly cut back on as our mutual love for each other seems to grow and grow and grow . . . or at least I do.

So it seems kind of odd that of all the seasons of life I have been surrounded by and feel the increasing call to finally learn this skill. It started in April visiting one of the kids. My dear SIL sent me home with a hot loaf he made the morning I left. Seriously, this man makes 2 loaves daily – one for the family, one to share. Everyone on his street loves him madly.

Then THIS came to my house . . .

Not long after Katherine joined M@D with her unique Eikhorn Sourdough. And blissfully Robinson Homestead has sourdough starter available which means folks are taking up the same call.

Finally I learned a that a slice of sourdough adds very little to my daily fat/calorie count . . .

You see where this is going.

So sometime this summer after I’ve finished all the canning I’ll take the plunge. And I’m thankful Kathy Stewart, one of our growers, who doesn’t even offer bread products, created what follows in the rest of this segment. It has given me great hope that I don’t kill my Alaskan starter or make us sick.

Congratulations, you brought home a jar of sourdough starter! Now what? Take the lid off and put the cloth square over the jar and secure with a rubber band. It needs to be able to breathe while it sits on your counter and adjusts to its new home.

After it’s been at your home for a couple hours, if you see that there are bubbles in the jar and it has grown in size, its time to feed it for the first time.

1. Empty jar into a bowl
2. Measure 4 tablespoons or 2 ounces of your starter and put back in the jar
3. Add 4 tablespoons or 2 ounces of all purpose flour into the jar. I use King Arthurs brand all purpose flour.
4. Add 4 tablespoons or 2 ounces of warm bottled or well water. Chlorinated city water will kill all the good yeasts and bacteria in your starter and it will die. A very sad event.
5. Give it a good mix, place clothe back on jar and let sit on counter. Please note, I don’t use a clothe but a plastic lid that doesn’t fit tightly. When it has almost doubled in size, place the lid back on it and put in the fridge until you want to use it again. If it hasn’t doubled in size, feed it again following the above steps. If it developed a layer of grey liquid while resting in the fridge, don’t despair. That liquid on top is normal and even has a name! Its called hooch, just stir it into your starter and feed as described above.

Yay! You just fed your sourdough starter for the first time, you are now on your way to sourdough heaven!

Now that you have fed your starter, you have some unused starter in your bowl, that is your discard. It can be used to create many yummy things……pancakes, waffles, pizza dough, brownies, biscuits, cake, cookies, bread……you get the picture. There are many recipes online that use sourdough discard.
Here are a few things that I do with mine:

1. Pancakes – add 1 egg, 2 Tablespoons of flour, pinch of baking soda and a pinch of salt. Stir it up, if its to thick add a splash of milk or two. Cook as you normally would for pancakes
2. Waffles – almost the same as pancakes, but separate the eggs and beat egg whites until stiff, mix yolks into your batter then fold the stiff egg whites into the batter.
3. Pizza Dough – into the bowl of a stand mixer use the dough hook, add your starter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of salt. Add about ½ cup bread flour and adding more flour or so water to develop your dough. When its done kneading, let rest for 30 minutes. Shape into your preferred pizza shape, spray or brush the dough with oil, add toppings and bake at 435 for 12 – 15 minutes. It’s done when the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Sometimes I will take my discard and feed it equal parts water and flour (I guestimate, sorry) then let it sit for a couple hours until it is a bubbly bowl of active sourdough starter. In doing this I am increasing the amount of starter I have to work with. I will empty it into my mixer bowl with the dough hook attached along with olive oil, powdered milk(about 1 tablespoon) and salt and slowly add bread flour until I have a nice ball of dough (I can touch it and it isn’t sticking to me, think same as yeast bread) that I then put in a greased bowl, turn it over (the dough so it is covered with oil on both sides) cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled in size. Carefully turn out on a piece of parchment paper which is on a baking sheet. Take a sharp knife and make a cut down the middle of
your dough about 1\4 to 1\2 inch deep, quickly, you don’t want to pull at the dough. Place in a preheated 375 oven and bake about 20 – 25 minutes. Its done when it sounds hollow when you knock on the bottom of your loaf. Wrap in a slightly damp tea towel until it has completely cooled down. Best if overnight, but I understand if you can’t wait. It will slice nicer, though if it has totally cooled down. Wrapping your bread in the towel will keep your bread crust softer and will also serve as a protective wrap for your bread as you eat it. If it lasts that long. Hee hee.

If you have decided you are brave and want to try a soft sandwich bread this is a link to the recipe I like for that: https://www.theperfectloaf.com/pain-de-mie/

Editor’s Note This document is permanently posted in the MarketatDothan.com website with photos! This is the link, https://marketatdothan.locallygrown.net/files/document/document/6751/original/Kathy_Stewart_Sourdough.pdf?1687630275, and it may be found in the Q&A section of the website.

Looking Ahead: Starting late July we will return to a bi-weekly schedule for the months of August and September, and possible into October. As we approach those dates we will publish a more specific schedule but for now please know that July 28 will be our last Friday for pickup before the schedule change.

JBW Farm Fresh:  More fences are going up and the herds are expanding. The ground is getting harder to push posts into so we are having to drill holes to place them into. Yesterday we finished doing the last of our filming for a video of life on our farm. A snippet of what the finished video will look like can be found on our Instagram or Facebook page! We cooked some of our short ribs in the crockpot and they were so tender and delicious. We still have a selection of those up for sale and highly recommend you to try them! 

Mt. Moriah Farms: This weekend is a special time to celebrate our fathers. Where would we be in life without those strong males in our life? I do realize not everyone is blessed to still have their fathers around, I am among those that are. My dad is the one who built our farm and also gave it our name, Mt. MOriah Farms. I do hope everyone who still has their dad around will take time to make them feel special on sunday. Also check out our new products we listed on here!

We look forward to seeing you next Friday at one of our pickup locations. 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!

MISC MARKET NOTES

Editor’s Note – We love our customers and love the wealth of knowledge and experience they are so willing to share to help others. What follows is from our own Sherrie T. who contributed to this unique website to both educate and warn about hidden environmenal dangers all of us are exposed it. We highly recommend you bookmark this valuable resource.

That’s the first thing you’ll see on the home page of the Fragrance Free Coalition. While there’s not a lot of information about the Fragrance Free Coalition (FFC) itself, it’s obvious that those involved put a LOT of thought, research and development into the poster that follows. Sherrie T. was one of those who poured many hours into its development. While the poster (below)is printable, each part on the website is interactive and when clicked on leads to pages and pages of research showing the dangers of things in our environment that can cause harm. The website linked above is fragrancefreecoalition.com.

JBW Farm Fresh:  More fences are going up and the herds are expanding. The ground is getting harder to push posts into so we are having to drill holes to place them into. Yesterday we finished doing the last of our filming for a video of life on our farm. A snippet of what the finished video will look like can be found on our Instagram or Facebook page! We cooked some of our short ribs in the crockpot and they were so tender and delicious. We still have a selection of those up for sale and highly recommend you to try them! 

Mt. Moriah Farms: As many of you know Mt. Moriah worked together as a family long before our family started going many directions. We thought you’d enjoy seeing that we’re working on training the next generation! Thank you for your support of our goat milk products!

We look forward to seeing you next Friday at one of our pickup locations. 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!

MISC MARKET NOTES

June – what a month! Kids are finally out of school, parents are engaged helping them have fun while growing, gardens are yielding their bounty, people are getting married – all sorts of happy productive things.

In the kiddo department – more and more research points to the fact that unrestricted creative PLAY is one of the best things for a child’s mental, emotional, psychological and physical development. Most of us adults have memories of long summer days playing outdoors building everything from sand castles to forts, using everything from sand (of course) to pine straw to hay bales. We developed creativity, teamwork and a sense of accomplishment doing these things. My own sons invented “things” for their elaborate games involving paint balls down in our woods. A mishap once, where a stray paintball brought the entire fire department and law enforcement to our place led to one of the best parental teaching opportunities to ever land in our laps. Looking back that paintball was ordained by God to help grow a bunch of boys into fine men.

In the garden department if you preserve any sort of bounty THIS IS YOUR SEASON! More and more people are venturing into canning, freezing, dehydrating, etc. Word has it that one of our M@D family has taken the plunge to invest in a freeze dryer! If food preservation is something you are interested in please know our M@D vendors are a rich resource with many years of knowledge and experience who would be glad to help you. And you don’t have to be afraid of a pressure canner! Some of our customers have given talks on the topic as well so all you have to do is say “HELP” and one of us is sure to have experience with your particular need.

Lastly, the WEDDINGS!. We were thrilled to learn of a customer who recently became engaged. (You know who you are (wink!)) We hope everyone you know taking that plunge will be perfectly matched and blissfully happy for many, many years.

Avalon Farms:

Ozark Farmers Market, Tuesdays 2:30 to 5:30
Poplar Head Farmers Market in Dothan, Saturdays 8 to 12

Come on out and meet the crazy farmer. Happy to answer questions. And there are FREE samples of all the jarred stuff. Looking forward to seeing your smiling face.
 

We look forward to seeing you next Friday at one of our pickup locations. 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!

MISC MARKET NOTES

I recently read a short article about Brittney Griner, the US athlete who was detained and imprisoned in Russia last year. Without getting into the politics of the situation the article concluded that Griner has a newfound appreciation for her country following her release.

Sometimes it takes seeing how things are in other countries to appreciate the privilege of living in the US. No, it’s not a perfect country and we certainly aren’t a perfect people, but it’s still the best the world has to offer. My first epiphany about that occurred in 1980. My Mr. and I took our very young daughter to meet her grandparents in Haiti. HAITI. Haiti right after a hurricane went through where we got to see US Marines side by side with the Hatian army and holy smoley, was I ever glad the Marines were ours! That was just on arrival at the airport. Seeing how years of corruption and poverty affected the hope and the hearts of the people made my problems look small.

We would not have it so good were it not for the sacrifice of those who gave their lives in service of this country. Freedom is NOT free.

JBW: Exciting new happenings going on at JBW! This week we cut a hole in a wall at our store front, added more honey supers onto our bees, and also expanded our poultry program. We are expanding at the store to make room for a new cooler to hold pastured pork we will be selling at the end of summer. It is always so rewarding to see results of months of hard work and planning. The rain we received was well needed, the pastures are springing back up nicely. At JBW Farm Fresh, we are regenerative farmers. Our goal is to grow healthy soil, as well as healthy animals. Our cattle are 100% Grass Fed and Grass Finished. We adaptive graze through pasture rotation. We do that with multi-species animals (cows, sheep, goats, hogs, chickens, and ducks). We do not spray our pastures to kill forbes (weeds). We encourage the growth of forbes through proper grazing of our different livestock and poultry. We utilize their manure to renew life into the soil. We don’t want the soil dependent on us. The grass and forbes which grow from the naturally fertilized soil, have more nutrients and vitamins for the livestock. This gives our products the most nutritional benefits! 

Mount Moriah Farms: As of Friday this week, we have put our five dry (non-lactating) does in with the buck. Four of them have never had kids so we are excited to see how they do! We added a Great Pyrenees puppy to the herd as well. Her name is Moriah and her sole purpose is to protect the goats. Two of the hardest things raising any kind of animals is #1 Parasites and #2 Predators. It is so hard to not spoil her but she does have to be raised as a working dog and not a pet. Whatever we have on the farm must give back in some way. We have also formulated a new product ( very excited about this one) and will have it up for sale next week! We wish everyone a happy Memorial Day! 

Editor’s note: Call this a mini product review: We tried the sourdough bread from K’s Kitchen. THIS ISN’T GROCERY STORE BREAD. It’s thick and dense and delicious. We loved it.

We look forward to seeing you next Friday at one of our pickup locations. 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!

MISC MARKET NOTES

As just one little person in a big community, I feel privileged to be joining a group like Market At Dothan. It’s a unique and sweet thing to see people working so hard for better nourishment and life in the Wiregrass area. I went ahead and talked about nourishment in my product description, but it also works as a summary of why I feel that we need to fill the bread-bakery vacuum in the Dothan area. 
“The ultimate staple food until only the last century or so, bread has rightly been used to symbolize life. However, it is because of the nutrition and easily-digestible properties of natural, whole wheat grain that our ancestors for thousands of years survived dark ages of wars, low technology and medicine, and hard labor. Modern wheat has been crossbred into dependence on pesticides, herbicides, and artificial fertilizers for its own survival, stripped of many of its nutrients, and loaded with gluten in a form that is difficult for the digestive system. For this reason, many gluten-sensitive shoppers or nourishment-minded bakers are turning back to the most ancient form of wheat in history: einkorn. Its genetic makeup is vastly simpler than that of other wheats, because it has never been crossbred. It has the lowest gluten, and, in our opinion, the richest and sweetest flavor. With the probiotics from sourdough (made using only wheat flour and the atmosphere of your local area), this bread could possibly be the healthiest food you could eat.” I hope we won’t stop asking ourselves, “What is one little step I can take to put more wholesome foods into my body?” Thank you for welcoming me! It’s so encouraging when a community builds community.

JBW: Hello Everyone! Here at JBW Farm Fresh we are excited to have some of our selections of beef back up for sale. We have been busy working on some new body products made with our beef tallow! Tallow has a high percentage of oleic acid, a well-known skin conditioner. 
Tallow contains vitamins A, D, E, K, and B12, contributing to skin health and appearance. Given that the fat saturation of Tallow is close to human fat, the vitamins within it can be absorbed into the body easier, and it locks in moisture and nutrients without clogging your pores. This week we have added our Head-to-Toe / All Body Wash on the website for sale! It is a wonderful lathering, liquid wash that is so beneficial for your hair & body! Stay tuned for the rest of our upcoming Tallow body products! Have a blessed week :)

Mount Moriah Farms: Hey y’all! Thank you to everyone who purchased products from us at the Mother’s Day Event last weekend! We truly appreciate you choosing to support small businesses. We love making all of our products but couldn’t keep doing it without our loyal customers. We are currently milking five does and have five more does we will be breeding soon. Which happily means more kids in the fall! We choose to make goat’s milk soap because of the benefits to troubled skin. Goat’s milk has a PH level similar to ours so whenever there’s a deficiency it helps bring it back to the level it should be. If you have never tried some, we encourage you to! 

We look forward to seeing you next Friday at one of our pickup locations. 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!

MISC MARKET NOTES

As you can see from the New & Relisted section below our grower’s gardens are starting to share their bounty! We hope you’ll take advantage of this.

Please know that many items get added/restocked/relisted without our knowledge! We share info like that as often as possible but with over 200 products there’s a lot of room to miss things!

Regardless we encourage you to order early for limited quantity items and check the Market page a day or two later before closing for anything else that may have been added.

In unrelated news – a new vendor has been added! We’re looking forward to seeing all the good things that come out of K’s Kitchen. She’s been perfecting her skill for some time. It may be next week before product listings show so keep an eye out for her baked goods.

AVALON FARMS:
Seems like it’s been a long time coming, but the garden is finally producing well. Added several veggies this week. Will possibly have cucumbers next week.

Unfortunately the snap peas were lost to a failed refrigerator. 60 degrees is too warm. Actually it was apparently the perfect temperature for mold to flourish. SO SAD. I almost cried.

We look forward to seeing you next Friday at one of our pickup locations. 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!

MISC MARKET NOTES

M@D still has a good supply of tender young organic beets. Unlike the enormous ones earlier this year, these are smaller and easier to handle.

One cup of raw beets contains about the same amount of calories and carbohydrate as one serving of fruit. The carbohydrates in beets come from both naturally occurring sugar (9.2 grams per 1 cup serving) and dietary fiber (just under 4 grams per serving). Fiber helps to regulate blood sugars, increases feelings of fullness, and can help lower blood cholesterol. Other benefits are:

Fights Inflammation: Beets contain phytonutrients called betalains, which give them their reddish-purple hue and provide them with antioxidants. These compounds help to reduce inflammation in the body and fight cell damage.

Improves Endurance: A research analysis found that those who drank beet juice prior to exercise were able to exercise longer, showing increased cardiorespiratory endurance. This is because of how the nitrates in beets turn into nitric acid, a process that may reduce the oxygen cost of low-intensity exercise as well as enhance tolerance to high-intensity exercise.

Reduces Blood Pressure: Beetroot juice has also been shown to help lower blood pressure in people with hypertension. Again, it is the nitrates in beets that seem to be responsible for this beneficial effect.

Improves Cognitive Function: A study of older adults concluded that a diet high in nitrates may also help improve blood flow to the brain, which boosts cognitive health and functioning. Another study of people with type 2 diabetes, published in 2014, showed an increase in reaction time (an indicator of cognitive performance) in people who consumed beet juice.

AVALON FARMS:

Things are moving along here, almost on schedule. Ha ha Planting. Weeding. Watering. Getting excited about first blooms and baby veggies. There’s also cleaning and organizing. This is the new improved hand tool storage. (Above) It only took half a day to drag all the bags, boxes, tools and assorted stuff accumulated over the last few years and sort it. Trash the busted things. (Why are we keeping this?) And suddenly we not only have a bigger better tool area, but also floor space. I can guarantee you it will not look this good come the end of Summer. (Oh. Just ignore the old election sign. I collect them after elections to make things.)

NEXT SATURDAY!

We look forward to seeing you next Friday at one of our pickup locations. 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!

MISC MARKET NOTES

We’re keeping the newsletter short and sweet this week as there’s so very much going on! Gardens are starting to produce, bees are still buzzing, and most days the weather is so nice there’s no reason not to have meals outdoors. Did you know it’s popular in Europe to eat outdoors? Especially in Scandinavian countries that have limited winter daylight. Good food, fresh air, and sunlight are a winning combination no matter what country you live in.

You saw it here first!

Dothan Nurseries graciously gave permission for us to publish their promo for Mother’s Day Open House first. Hope to see you there! Many of our M@D Vendors will be present along with great market friends.

We look forward to seeing you next Friday at one of our pickup locations. 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!

MISC MARKET NOTES

Have you ever run across a phrase, an idea, a piece of music, book or article call to you then latch on once you answered the call? If you’ve lived long enough there’s a good chance you’ve had that experience. This writer has several times. Many years ago a book practically leaped off the shelf into my hands – in the end it helped shape the lives of my children and the generations that will follow. Another time a song by an artist I considered offensive gripped my heart and helped me get through a difficult few years. A side benefit is that now I occasionally enjoy that loud annoying music at the top of my lungs when nobody is listening.

I have no clue where what follows will take myself or anyone else, but it’s been so beautiful and encouraging that I hope you’ll be blessed as well. This is from 6 Powerful Lessons from Japan that Helped Me Heal My Health.

1. Find one or two contaminating habits to quit. You don’t have to overhaul your life – just figure out a couple of things you could give up that would improve your life.

2. Go on walks. The more you walk, the better you feel and the longer you live. Workouts are fine for focused improvements, but they don’t provide the mental, emotional or long term benefits of walking. One region of Japan was able to reverse their high stroke rate by incorporating walk routes.

3. Forget progress, focus on the immediate payoff. The immediate payoff when you do physical work or walk or move is that you FEEL GOOD.

4. Embrace convenience. I found this section on Bento Box (food) culture intriguing as it had to do with balancing beauty and nutrition with microwave convenience.

5. Go Outside. Every chance you get. If you need to sit and read, do it outside. If someone comes to visit, sit on the porch. “Spending time in nature has proven health benefits, such as strengthening your immune system, lower levels of mortality and illness, decreased anxiety, and increased self confidence. “

6. Choose moderation over perfection. While this article doesn’t go into depth, the author does advocate Harahachi-bunme which is a a long-standing Japanese saying that directly translates to “8/10ths your stomach”; meaning, you should only eat until you are 80% full.

If you wish to look deeper this Medium Digest article can be found with the link below.

Avalon Farms:

It’s that time of year, the farm calendar seems to compress and there’s more to do every day. We are getting ramped up for summer farmers market. Started the 2nd succession of assorted squash and cucumbers using my “staby” planter. These went into plastic covered beds due to weed pressure. Snacked on the very first Sugar Snap Peas. Delicious as always!

Potatoes are blooming. Some say that means the tators are sizing up. Oh, and the first baby tomatoes! Which are already on an 8 ft trellis. Yay us, because we frequently run behind on that trellising chore.

Rather than continue to be a pest asking folks to contact their elected officials below is an email I recently sent one of our Representatives. Feel free to use it as a springboard for your own correspondence:

To:
anthony.daniels@alhouse.gov
Fri 4/21/2023 5:39 PM

Dear Sir,
As the manager of a very tiny organic farmer’s market in Dothan (marketatdothan.com if you care to look it up) I’m more than a little familiar with health from a nutritional standpoint.  Last year when my husband ran for Senate we agreed that should Alabama ever consider a grocery tax reduction that foods you can buy tax free RIGHT NOW from a state sanctioned farmer’s market should be tax free in a grocery store.
 
Norman lost the primary so nothing ever came of that idea, but it’s been encouraging to see strong support for a grocery tax reduction this legislative session.
 
Using WIC as a guideline is closer to the farmer’s market definition than SNAP which I know you favor.   Please consider the following:
 
1. Snap includes the unhealthy foods that has contributed to Alabama’s obesity problem.  Carbonated beverages, empty calorie foods like chips,  a multitude of foods containing high fructose corn syrup (a leading factor to high cholesterol but nobody wants to talk about Coke and Pepsi leading to strokes and heart attacks) . . . . I could go on but you get the idea.
2. Our state has been educating people to eat healthy as long as I can remember (I’m 65 if that tells you anything.)  IT HAS NOT WORKED.   Eliminating tax on healthy food would give people a financial incentive to choose a piece of fruit over a pack of cookies when they have a choice.  At least if they go for the cookies the tax could go toward Medicaid . . . which they could wind up needing.
3. Ideally incentivizing healthy food purchases could eventually lower overall health care cost in the state.
 
Thank you kindly for your time and attention.  And think about this the next time you go into a convenience store and watch what people set on the counter to purchase for their travels. 
 
Roslyn Horton
Newville, Alabama

Don’t Forget . . .

We look forward to seeing you next Friday at one of our pickup locations. 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!