Welcome!

Hello All!  Welcome to another fabulous season of the Macomb Farmers Market!  I know that I have been anticipating the first market day for months and can’t wait to browse the stands filled with wholesome foods amidst Macomb’s historic town square. The Macomb Farmer’s Market is open from 7 am until 1 pm Thursday and Saturday.  I hope that you are as excited as I am! Be sure to stop by the FIG Children’s Tent between 9am and 11am on Saturday. Here, kids can take home sprouting peanuts. During the season, if there is anything that you’d like to see in this newsletter, or any feedback you’d like to give, please don’t hesitate to email em.schoenfelder@gmail.com. Happy Shopping!

Spring Greens with Hot Bacon Dressing

Serves 4

-1/2 lb. smoked bacon

-12 c. mixed spring greens, washed and towel dried
-1/3 c. water
-1/3 c. cider vinegar
-1/4 c. brown sugar
-1 ½ t. freshly ground black pepper
-Salt
-2 hard boiled eggs, sliced

Slowly fry the bacon in a skillet until crispy.  Drain, reserving 1/3 c. of the bacon fat.  Crumble the bacon and set aside.  Combine the bacon fat, water, vinegar and brown sugar in the skillet and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Simmer over medium heat until boiling.  Remove from heat and let cool slightly.  Pour the hot dressing over the greens and toss well.  Season with salt and pepper.  Garnish with egg slices.

A Few Reasons to Shop at the Market

1.) Local food is better for you! Produce contains the most nutrients when it is picked ripe and eaten shortly after harvesting. Many of the fruits and veggies seen in stores were picked green and shipped for thousands of miles before even reaching the shelves. Farmers Market produce is picked at the peak of freshness, often only a few hours before it is purchased by the consumer.

2.) Farmers Markets build community relationships. Shopping at the market allows you to get to know farmers and other customers, strengthening social bonds, and building relationships of trust between consumers and producers. There are always new and old friends to be found on market days.

3.) Buying locally builds the economy. Every penny spent at the farmers market stays in the community, helping local farmers and businesses, as well as being reinvested into the local economy.  In this way, the impact of every local dollar grows exponentially.

Join FIG’s E-Locavore News email list:

farmersmarket-subscribe@macombfig.org

Write and tell us what you think about this newsletter at: em.schoenfelder@gmail.com



Ok, these low tunnels in the White House garden are more precisely referred to as row covers since they are only about 2-3 feet tall and hoop houses are usually structures that a person can walk in.  But they function the same way and are much easier to set up or remove as the circumstances warrant.

Each week between May and October FIG will send both FIG listservs a link to the Farmers Market Newsletter. It is NOW available at: http://macombfig.org/pdfs/09May21.pdf

Included in the newsletter, you’ll find…

• a projected list of available locally sourced items
• market activities including the Children’s Tent (sponsored by FIG, hosted by different community entities each week)
• produce storage tips
• a recipe
• regional news/events

Feel free to send us feedback on the newsletter: eadietrich@gmail.com

We will be developing a listserv exclusively for the Farmers’ Market Newsletter. If individuals would like to receive the newsletter and are not interested in joining one of the FIG listservs, they can email me to join the e-newsletter list. (lisagruver@hotmail.com).

Please spread the word about the Newsletter to your friends. Feel free to print and post the newsletter in your office. Let’s get the word out about our Farmers’ Market!

Thanks!

Lisa Gruver
Elizabeth Dietrich

…members of the Farmers’ Market project team

You may have heard that the Food Initiatives Group (FIG) will be providing a Children’s Tent for the Farmers’ Market this year. We are excited about attracting new families to the market and hope to introduce them to the many delicious foods that the Market has to offer. We’re asking for local groups and agencies to help us by sponsoring the tent at least one Saturday during the season, which begins May 23rd and ends October 29th.

All we ask is that your group provide a craft or activity for the children, and staff the tent with several volunteers to assist the children with the activity from 9-11 a.m. that day. The activity or craft should be simple and take only about 5 minutes to complete. Some appropriate activities might be string figures such as cat’s cradle, braiding bracelets, simple origami, making cards, weaving paper, leaf rubbings, etc. If you would like suggestions for an activity, we would be happy to help you; don’t be shy! FIG will provide the tent, tables for the children to work at, and extra crayons and paper for children to draw and color. You may also bring a small sign with your group’s name, as well as literature or information about your group to distribute at the tent that day.

We hope that the community will embrace the Children’s Tent at the Farmers’ Market, and through your participation the community will become more aware of your group as well. Thank you for considering sponsoring a Saturday at the Children’s Tent. We ask that you please respond to Leslie Timlin (leslietimlin@hotmail.com) as soon as possible to let us know if you are interested, and in which month you would prefer to participate. We will send you an email with your date as soon as we finalize the schedule. If this date doesn’t work for you, please let us know and we will accommodate you with another date. Also, please tell us briefly if you already know what activity you plan to have on your day at the tent.

Thank you for your support of the Macomb Farmers’ Market!

Sincerely,
Food Initiatives Group, Farmers’ Market Committee

The event…

We sold out and had more people still asking for tickets on Saturday. We had 23 FIG staff helping to host the dinner. There was a great energy as people continued to fill the rooms and opened their menus and special edition food guides. They knew they were about to experience something really unique. As the evening got underway, John Curtis delivered some opening remarks. There was complete silence and unanimous laughter at all the right moments. As the courses came out, the energy in the room intensified. People were enjoying getting to know the others at their table and were anticipating the next course. Behind the scenes was full of comradery, industriousness, steam (dishwashing) and beauty–chilled multicolored borscht swirling, tomato stacking, rainbow chard and carrot chopping, tart filling, and assembly lines of food plating. The FIG staff had as much fun hosting the event as the community that was feasting.

Thanks to everyone who purchased tickets for friends or sponsored tickets for guests of our choice!

The news…

• Macomb Eagle, August 13

The contributions…

Vajo Necak, event coordinator: collaborated with Dan Murphy on selecting the menu, creating food budget, preparing the food (~32 hours outside of work time the week prior to the event); sourced produce, facilitated communications with many folks involved, picked up food guides, kept records of ticket sales and meal preferences, worked out floor plan, secured building arrangements, secured furniture, transported furniture, and much more… including clean up till 2 am, more the following day, and accounts management.

Dan Murphy, chef: selected menu; created food budget; prepared foods and created evening game plan (~32 hours outside of work time the week prior to the event); managed the 25 FIG event staff; donated tablecloths, napkins, pitchers, bread baskets, bowls and other kitchenware for the event; cleaned up coolers and other supplies.

Eddie Chan: served as sous-chef; spent a good 20 hours in food prep; helped manage FIG staff on night of; ran errands for special needs; helped clean up.

Erin Orwig/Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs: designed the menu card; printed the menu and comment cards and provided envelopes; invited potential advisory board members to the dinner with a mailing; made a deposit; sat in numerous board meeting discussions about the dinner and sent out the minutes from each meeting.

Kelley Quinn: organized the “day of” set-up-arranging for flowers to be picked, arranging the flowers; directing help; making limeade from scratch; receiving dozens of cced emails to Vajo from Lisa; giving up family time so her husband could be off planning;

John Curtis: wrote up a detailed document about the vision of the event for the board; advertised the dinner at the Barefoot Gardens CSA; harvested and provided food and flowers; moved furniture; prepared and delivered remarks for the evening; seated people; served; hosted the evening

Ann Runner: sold tickets; provided eggs; ordered more t-shirts; worked with Sports-Zone staff to iron the logo on the t-shirts; contacted Lions club and borrowed their silverware; washed dishes (THANK YOU SO MUCH!), served, helped clean up…and sat through and participated in long board meetings.

Jan Welsch: stuffed and mailed dinner invitations to potential advisory board members and community leaders associated with financial institutions; conducted necessary communications; came early and helped stuff sugar packs, cream, etc. for each table; helped with everything behind the scenes that needed doing–tomato slicing!, tart filling, loading trays into racks, etc.; cleaned up;

Amelia Fox: helped move furniture; arrived early to help with food prep (despite family in town); sliced tomatoes; donated C&H packets and sorted into little containers; served tables; cleaned up; canned excess tomatoes and tomato parts!

Dan Barclay: sat through long meetings; received and read lots of email; made decisions; helped with everything behind the scenes that needed doing that night–tomato stacking, soup pouring, tray loading, tart filling, etc.; cleaned up

Scott Worl: sourced the meat products; harvested and provided food; sourced other food products; interviewed with Rich Egger; moved furniture; chopped basil, poured soup; opened fish packets?, and more on the evening of… cleaned up till 2 am.

Leslie Timlin: crafted a press release; web-searched for newspaper contacts; sent the press release to 20 some media contacts; donated bread baskets; folded 100 food guides; washed tomatoes, served tables, sorted plates, cleaned up.

C.T. Weiss: designed and printed tickets.

Jamie Lane: hard core dish washer… difficult and thankless job. Thank you so much!

Karen Mauldin-Curtis: hard core dish washer… difficult and thankless job. Thank you so much!

Linda Cox: sold tickets to the public through New Copperfield’s Book Service; prepared tilapia; washed kitchen tools and scrubbed pots; boiled pasta; cleaned up till 2 am.

Anne Patterson: harvested and provided food; made a delivery to Lewistown to save us a trip; donated a ticket; washed and stacked tomatoes, scrubbed pots, helped with other kitchen tasks; cleaned up.

Kristy Boggs: delivered blackberries from Havana; served tables; helped with drink making/straining; cleaned up.

Rich Egger: followed this story from field to plate!! (and that was no simple task–especially when on vacation); shared photos.

Michelle Langhout: washed tomatoes; helped with drinks; served tables; did whatever needed doing; cleaned up.

Anne Lobdell: served tables; helped with drinks; set tables; helped keep the people happy.

Karen Peitzmeier: Bonus helper! brought much needed napkins in the nick of time; helped with everything in the back from plate serving to chopping to cleaning; assisted with early planning..which helped us realize we needed to seek donations instead of renting supplies if we were going to be able to afford the event.

Heather McIlvaine Newsad: lead early planning which helped us realize we needed to seek donations instead of renting supplies if we were going to be able to afford the event; sent timely information about National Farmer’s Market week.

Sean Genovese: Bonus helper! helped set tables, serve tables, plate food, and more.

Dev Genovese: Lent us 300 plates from the Moses King National Historic District (The Brickyard) on very short notice.

Peter Cole: served tables, set tables, helped keep the people happy!

Joel Gruver: assisted with food pickups; served tables; provided mason jar vases; set up and took down trial sound system; cleaned up.

Margaret Ovitt: ironed tablecloths; came in the afternoon and helped set tables, arrange flowers, provided vases and prairie flowers for windows!; feasted happily and brought family.

Claire Kernic: came in the afternoon and helped set tables and arrange flowers.

Debby Dallefeld: came in the afternoon to help set up tables, stuff menus, and arrange flowers; donated meat.

Ken Dallefeld: helped move furniture before and after the event with his truck; donated meat.

Erin Easterling: posted announcements on website; edited food guide; responded to random calls from Lisa about the food guide; continues to post dinner info and recipes on the website.

Holly Stovall: ironed tablecloths.

Marjorie Allison: ironed tablecloths; feasted happily and brought a friend.

Stocking family: helped with food pickups; picked zinnias; set tables and arranged flowers in the afternoon; photographed the evening (Andy); happily feasted on the meal!

Colchester Lions Club: lent us their silverware.

Leffler Family of Twelve Baskets: ground the soft red winter wheat into flour.

Andy Clayton: facilitated drop off and pick up of wheat and flour.

Annie Moore: sat in on early meetings; donated supplies like tablecloths.

Sports Zone: ironed logos on shirts gratis.

Lisa Fulkerson/University of Illinois Extension: printed 100 color copies of the food guide.

Brenda Derrick/U of I Extension Adams/Brown County: posted our press release on their blog; sent out an email to their listserv.

West Central Illinois Special Education Cooperative: lent us tables and chairs.

Dan Lewis: permitted use of the Coffee House and Taylor Hall.

The Wine Sellers: offered their space during the event.

Lisa Gruver: enjoyed watching everyone else work!

Thanks to everyone! The whole event could not have happened without the plates, lent by Dev Genovese–and they had to be clean plates. This means that prior to the dinner, the dishwashing team washed them all before we could even use them…. and then they did the same thing when they came back dirty! Some of the grungiest jobs are the most important!

If you have pictures from the event, please send them to joelandlisa@gmail.com. Thanks!