In Your Community - August 28^th, 2013

It's been a busy week for LFM outreach, which means we have a lot of exciting news to share with you:

Our very first radio ad is on the air! The ad features one of our favorite local food advocates, Myka Smith-Jackson. At just nine years old, Myka has already created an award-winning recipe, visited with First Lady Michelle Obama, and sampled her creation at our Saturday Market. Now, she can ad radio star to her list. Tune into 103.9 or 104.5 to catch Myka's performance!

4,000 LFM postcards are on their way to mailboxes in North Lexington! If you are one of the lucky 

folks who receive a postcard in the mail, bring it with you the next time you visit one of our market locations. Turn in the postcard at the LFM Information Booth and you'll receive a seasonal calendar, magnet, and coupons!

LFM information will soon be posted inside Lextran buses! The next time you ride a Lextran bus to work, school, or around town, look up. You very well may see that LFM logo you know so well. Snap a photo and send it to the email address below - you could be featured on our Facebook page!

Check our events calendar for upcoming community events! We're out and about more than ever and we could be coming to your community next. You know we'd love to see you. And as always, if you'd like to see us at your next event, let us know!

Stephanie Hopkins

Food Desert Initiative Coordinator

Stephanie@lexingtonfarmersmarket.com

The 2013 show will include two cooking presentations by celebrity chefs The Deen Brothers in Rupp Arena and cooking demos by award-winning local and regional chefs. The show will also include:

• National & Regional Cookbook Authors
• Culinary Seminars
• Quick Tips booth
• Local Wineries
• Restaurant Row
• Traditional Foodcraft

Now in its 5th year, the Kentucky Proud Incredible Food Show is the event of the year for everyone who loves food, cooking and entertaining. Featuring more than 100 exhibitors including specialty food companies, caterers, restaurants, kitchen accessories and appliance distributers.

Everyone's favorite The Marketplace will showcase products to sample and purchase. Kentucky Agricultural Commissioner Comer sums it nicely by saying "The Kentucky Proud Incredible Food Show is the biggest event of the year for Kentucky food lovers. To have one of the world's most famous chefs and fresh, healthy, delicious Kentucky Proud products all under one roof is something well worth experiencing!"

The Kentucky Proud Incredible Food Show is held at Lexington Center in Lexington, KY. It is easily accessible from I-75 and I-64.   

For more information, call (859) 233-4567.

1. Lay out a bushel of grapes onto a parchment-paper lined baking dish, pulling grapes from their stems as needed to that each grape is resting on flat surface. Add a dash of salt.
2. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, or until the grapes have reduced in size and caramelized. 
3. Spread a layer of soft goat cheese over a piece of toasted whole-wheat or whole-grain bread.
4. Top the cheese with the roasted grapes while they are still warm.
5. Garnish with parsley, mint, or thyme and drizzle with honey.
6.   

These products can be purchased from LFM market members:

• Grapes
• Salt
• Goat Cheese
• Bread
• Honey
• Parsley

Fayette/Clark County

 

We have plenty of milk to supplement our own now - thanks to Luisa and Steve Dalton's newly permitted Double D Dairy (cute, hunh?) in Nelson County.  We will have lots of cheeses at the market this week, including FETA.  Be sure and check out our new little aperitif cheeses - baby rounds packed three in a container and perfectly awesome on a salad plate or as an hors d'oeuvre.

 

When you get a chance, take a look at our new website and meet some of our critters.  And you must follow the Crave Lexington website and FB page for news about this huge, fabulous food and music festival happening September 21 and 22 at MoonDance Amphitheater and all around town with pop-up events this month and next.  Both our market and Bleugrass Chèvre are part of the tours on Saturday, the 21st.     

 

Blue Moon Farm {Website} {Facebook}

Today we welcomed our market director, Jeff, to Blue Moon Farm for our LFM farm inspection.  It's been many years since he was here, and we all enjoyed the walk to the river bottom and through the garden patches.  Note the BIG basil patch on the right in the photo!

This week of hot weather will be the test for our August patch of LETTUCE!  We'll just have to see how it does, and hope to have our beautiful BABY LETTUCE MIX back in a couple of weeks.  We're hoping to have our BABY SQUASH MEDLEY soon too!   It will like the hot dry weather much better!  Stay tuned! There's not much time left for corn on the cob, so get it while you can! And be sure to try it with some of our GARLIC SCAPE PESTO smeared on instead of butter!   It's also great on fresh sliced tomatoes, or a STEAK, BURGER, or PORK CHOP on the grill!  Colcord Farm's GRASS FINISHED BEEF steaks are on sale for 30% off!!  SIRLOIN, RIBEYE, NY STRIP and FILETS Also, while the fresh tomatoes hold out, get your fill of BLT's!  We can supply you with the ARTISAN BREAD from Sunrise Bakery, LETTUCE from Vibrant Greens, and the best BACON in town from Stone Cross Farm!  Roland's got terrific HEIRLOOM TOMATOES at his booth, right next door to ours.  For something different, top your sandwich with our CHAMPAGNE DRESSING instead of straight mayo!

If you'd rather have sausages, Stone Cross Farm supplies us with great ITALIAN, POLISH, BRATS, CHORIZO, ENGLISH BANGERS and HOT DOGS.  Get a few kinds and do a mixed grill with bell peppers and onions!  Stone Cross also supplies us with BREAKFAST SAUSAGE (mild, medium or hot) for patties or in links, and terrific PORK CHOPS, ROASTS and TENDERLOINS.

Kentucky LAMB from Bourbon County.. RACKS, GROUND, STEW MEAT (great for shish kabob!), SPARE RIBS or Bone-In LEG ROAST.  LOIN CHOPS are back this week too!       

GARLIC!!  BULBS, BAGS and HANDMADE GARLIC BRAIDS!!  1ST of the season, SIBERIAN GARLIC by the bag or braid.  It is reputed to have the highest ALLICIN content of ANY garlic!!   FRESH CUT BASIL and CILANTRO!  GARLIC POWDERS and PEPPER POWDERS.  GARLIC SCAPE PESTO, and CHAMPAGNE DRESSING made with our garlic!  Our own GARLIC POWDER, smoked and not.

ARTISAN BREADS from Sunrise Bakery, including the best GARLIC BAGELS in town, GARLIC TOPPED FOCACCIA and  PASTRIES too!

Blue Moon Farm SUNDAY TEA..an Earl Grey base, either black or green, with lavender and rosemary...aromatic and relaxing for a Sunday morning cup!

3 delicious CHEESES from Stone Cross Farm's Cloverdale Creamery..we'll have samples for you to try!  We have their HANDMADE SOAPS too! While we're waiting for our LETTUCE MIX to be ready, we'll have Vibrant Greens hydroponically grown greens ...BIBB LETTUCE and ARUGULA, maybe some ROMAINE.  WATERCRESS and PURPLE BASIL by special request.

Keeneland Racing isn't too far off!  If you are planning a big party, we can get you a whole pig or lamb to barbeque. (10 days lead-time required)  For a little smaller get-together we have a couple of beautiful whole BEEF TENDERLOINS, or a KY Lamb RACK!  Tell us what you need!  We'll put it together for you. Come join us this weekend for a celebration of fresh local food!!

If you haven't yet, we would like to invite you to join Blue Moon Farm on Facebook...just click the link above!  We do last minute information before markets and post lots of great pictures, like the one you see here.

Looking forward to seeing you this weekend...rain or shine!

We were featured on Food News and Chews on Fox TV Sunday night. Here's a link.  

Our cheese is made from all natural JD Country Milk, a family owned Mennonite dairy farm in Logan County. The cows are pasture grazed and never given any antibiotics or hormones. Instead they are fed a vitamin enriched diet and all the grass they can eat. The milk is not homogenized and is pasteurized at just 145 degrees, then quickly cooled to preserve the natural flavor and enzymes that Mother Nature intended. We think the milk tastes better because the cows are happy.

You won't see hydraulic presses and fancy modern equipment around here. Instead, we make our cheeses by hand using traditional European techniques to protect the delicate curds. This is a lot more work and very time consuming, but we believe it creates better cheeses with rich complex flavors. We hope you agree.

Thanks for your support. See you at the market.

Boone Creek Creamery

859-402-2364
www.boonecreekcreamery.com
ed2@kycheese.com

I pulled off the road and cut the engine. Darkness and silence all around.

Slumped next to me, in the passenger seat, was Lexington's most famous - oh, wait, I could see in the rear view window that I was being followed, pursued, again, by some unoriginal persons. I best drive until daylight. Downtown, at the Lexington Farmers Market, is what I need:

" Fair Trade, certified organic, hand-crafted, and utterly delicious "

The Lexington Herald- Leader

Roasted in downtown Paris, Kentucky. 

"The stuff that dreams are made of" Sam Spade

We appreciate seeing so many familiar faces returning to the markets on Saturday and Sunday outdoors, as well as lots of new people just moving to the area.  We will continue to attend each market each week including Tues, Wed, Thurs, rain or sun or something in between - hope to see you as well!

PRODUCE we are harvesting now includes Broccoli, Green Beans, Beets (Red, Gold, Candy Stripe), Carrots (Orange and Yellow), Cabbages (Savoy, Green, Red, Napa), Greens (Kale, Lacinato, Red Russian, Collard), Summer Squash (Yellow Squash, Green Zucchini, Patty Pan, Baby Squash Mix), Swiss Chard, Cucumbers (Slicing, English, Salad), Kohlrabi, Garlic, Green Bell Peppers, Turnips, and more coming on each day.

NEW  We have found a professional charcutier to make delicious sausages, bratwursts, and franks for us from Elmwood organic beef.  It has been several years since we had our all-beef sausages to offer, and we are really excited about these tasty and high quality offerings.

EGGS We offer each market our certified organic eggs from free-ranging hens who live outdoors on grass pasture.  Both whole dozen and half-dozens available. Our hens are always outside, enjoying the green growing grass & clover and rewarding us with beautiful big brown eggs packed full of flavor, orangey color, and healthful omega-3-fatty acids.

MEAT and POULTRY  We have restocked our inventory of grass-fed Angus organic beef, along with our certified organic whole chickens, cut-up chicken pieces, and flavorful hearty stewing hens.  In addition, we have chicken liver and ground turkey.  Feel free to order ahead for quantity amounts or a particular cut for that special meal, and we'll have it ready for pickup at any of the farmers markets.  View our website for special Beef & Chicken Bundles, and other quantities packages.

These days, more than ever, it's important to know the source of your family's food and you can look to our local organic farm to meet your body's nutritional needs resulting in good health.  Visit our website to learn more, review our price lists, pre-order your special items, or contact Elmwood for more information(scroll up a little for a quick link!)

Elmwood Stock Farm

859-621-0755

If knowing the origin of what you consume is important to you, as it should be, then we are the folks to shop with.  EVERYTHING we offer is started from seed and grown by us just 15 miles away at our farm in Nicholasville.  We opt to use biological controls and to release beneficial insects like lacewings and lady beetles (We recently released 35,000 of them) instead of spraying with pesticides that kill honey bees and other beneficial predators to create a pest management system that is friendly to the food we bring to market as well as to the environment.  

Look for us and our big box truck at the corner of Short and Upper on Saturday and at Southland Drive on Sunday.   All of our offerings are sustainably grown, Kentucky Proud, 100% homegrown, and pesticide free.  We are delighted to inform you that we do not sell anything that we do not grow.  We will have the following:

-Heirloom and hybrid tomatoes, multiple colors

-Multi colored cherry tomato pints

-Heirloom Roma tomatoes, great for sauces and salsa

-Fresh cut basil

-'Doyce Chambers' heirloom greasy beans

-NT half runner beans, developed by Bill Best

-Tomatillos

-Assorted hot and sweet peppers

-Eggplant, multiple varieties

-Fresh purslane

-Our popular Uglies But Goodies

Check out all of the exciting things going on at the farm as well as lots of market pictures on our Facebook page.  We look forward to seeing you at the market!

Local Raw Honey by Nick and Bev Nickels {Website}

The outdoor Lexington Farmers Markets for 2013 are now open. We will be at the following markets this week:    

Southland Drive, Sunday, September 1st (10am-2pm)

Magic Beans Coffee Roasters {Website}{Facebook}

This Week: The Return of the Baby Hippopotamus! If you were around the market earlier this spring, you may have tried our Tanzania Kiboko Peaberry coffee, which we nicknamed the "Baby Hippopotamus." Kiboko is the market designation for the region where this coffee comes from. In Swahili, it simply means "hippopotamus." 

These peaberries, a natural variant that occurs when a coffee cherry produces only one seed instead of two, reminded us of baby hippos: cute, tiny, and very round. Their flavor is similar to a Kenyan coffee, with a lush, fruit-like acidity reminiscent of blackberry jam, a full body, and a smooth, dark-chocolate finish. It quickly became a favorite for many of our regulars. 

We have just two batches left of this particular lot, so this will be our "special guest" coffee this week. We will also be reintroducing our Espresso Blend No. 1, made for espresso machines but delicious as a regular brew as well. We'll have an assortment of other recent single-origin roasts. 

Aspiring authors: Don't forget to enter the Magic Beans "Cafe Noir" micro-fiction contest, in tribute to the late, great Elmore Leonard. Submissions should be hard-boiled, between 1,000 and 1,500 words, and should prominently feature coffee as a key story element. (One caveat: Coffee can't be used as a murder weapon.)  The winning entry will be serialized in future Magic Beans newsletter entries, and the winning author will get a swag package full of cool stuff. Send entries to murder@magicbeanscoffee.com. Deadline for entries is 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21. All entries will become the property of Magic Beans and cannot be returned. 

Shelby County

Another holiday is rapidly approaching and again Quarles Farm is going to offer, this week only, our ground beef, 5 pounds for $21. This is a savings of fifty cents a pound so now's the time to stock up and enjoy some great beef at a super savings. This will be the last special offered this year so get yours this week. Call 502-803-7292 or drop us a message to arrange delivery to either of the markets on Saturday or Sunday.

We'll also have plenty of hamburger patties, bratwurst, steaks and lamb cuts for holiday grilling.  There'll be a good selection of breads and cakes for your family and company.  Great for breakfast or anytime.  Jams, salsa, relishes and other canned goods will be on the tables as well.  Need produce?  We'll have a good selection of that as well.  New plantings of yellow squash and zucchini have come in this week and we'll have lots of potatoes, tomatoes, onions, corn and other staples of summer. 

Have lunch or breakfast with us on Saturday or Sunday.   Omelets, biscuits with your choice of fillings, burgers and brats made with our beef and topped with home grown tomatoes and onions.  It's all good and it's there at the market.  Eat Well, Eat Local.

Reed Valley Orchard {Website} {Facebook}

Here's what we have on the menu for this Saturday:

• Oriental & Hybrid Lily bulbs!! - Every week people ask when we'll have our lily bulbs for sale and the GOOD NEWS is that it's beginning this Saturday!! Oriental and Hybrid Lilies are sensational garden performers in our regional, growing even larger and more exuberant each year. They are also amazingly easy to grow and we'll have complete planting and growing advice to get you started. 
• Dahlias - Our specialty Dahlias are coming into bloom! The colors range from deep and intense jewel tones to pale, creamy blush and lavenders.   
• Lemon Basil & Zinnia bouquets - Loaded with lots of happy summer colors, along with the great fragrance of fresh-squeezed lemon! The basil also tends to root in water, so you'll have it to add to salsas and other summer treats for weeks. 
• Lisianthus - We hate to say it, but the Lisianthus are winding down for the year :o( We still plan to have all five colors -- pure white, deep dark purple, lavender and white blush, sweet rose and lemony yellow -- but quantities are beginning to get a bit limited. 

If there's anything we can do in the way of a special order, regular delivery or planning for a future event (including weddings!), please send us a message on Facebook or give us a call. Many, many thanks for your support and we look forward to seeing you soon! 

- Charlie Hendricks, Elizabeth Hendricks and Val Schirmer

Wildflour Scones & Tea {Facebook}

We will be set up this Saturday at 5/3 Pavilion from 7am until we sell out. Come enjoy a locally made breakfast or afternoon treat with us this weekend!

Our flavors this week will be:

-Maple Blackberry featuring blackberries from Home Pickin's

-Cinnamon peach featuring Ms Mary Tyler's peaches

-Roasted Pear Dark Chocolate Chunk featuring pears from Reed Valley Orchard

-Ham Swiss & Tomato with Emmenthal cheese from Boone Creek Creamery and cherry tomatoes from Paw Paw Plantation

 
We will have our sweet fruit iced tea this Saturday! This week we will be serving peach iced tea featuring Kentucky peaches from Raggard Creekside Farms as well as brewing Caffe Marco coffee, locally roasted in Paris.

Check our Facebook page for more info and flavor postings on Fridays.

Facebook.comWildflourSconesandTea

See you Saturday!

In Your Community

Please see the Market News section for this week's update.