Break in Weather Breathtaking: July 6 Farmers Market report

We had a great weekend last Saturday and will have an even better market this Saturday! The weather is warming and drying up so we will see increased production of the summer products. The head lettuce and romaine are in the market at most tables now. Tomatoes are in. We expect more field grown heirlooms to start coming in over the next few weeks. Various varieties of yellow summer squash and zucchini are now available and eggplants are starting to come on so I think that we have enough summer ingredients to make gazpacho and ratatouille now!

The new potatoes are starting to come in as are the green beans. Good Food Good People have bicolor sweet corn, yellow and purple scallions, and English shelling peas aplenty. Riverstone Farm will have more all organic greens, beets, and carrots next week. Kester Clark expects to bring more of their fine green beans as well.

Also available from around the region are products for those with a sweet tooth. Good Food Good People has honey, maple syrup and sorghum molasses in containers large and small. The molasses comes to us from farmers in Tennessee. GFGP also has Baby Swiss cheese from Mountain View, Curtis Goat Dairy’s delicious chevre and feta cheeses, and Leraysville cheddar cheeses out of Pennsylvania.

Check out Kathy’s progress on the market basket this weekend. She will put on the handles this week and we will be selling raffle tickets at the Information Table and the Highland Farm table. While you are at the Highland Farm table, check out her meat selection! The tickets are $5.00 each-a great buy for a basket with a $250 value! The basket is huge, sturdy, and beautifully hand crafted- a lasting reminder of the 2013 Floyd Farmers Market for the lucky winner!! The drawing will be the second weekend in August to give all our shoppers plenty of time to buy at ticket. We hope that all Kathy’s hard work and our vendors’ products will help us raise money towards installing a sound system throughout the market.

Speaking of market baskets, we are also handling the VDACS Virginia Grown Farm, Fresh, Pledge market basket raffle. These raffle tickets do not cost anything for shoppers in the market-just a few moments of your time to record your purchases of Virginia grown agricultural products at the Information Table! Their market basket is also has a $250 value. Their drawing will be the first week of October.

We always want to remind folks that the Floyd Farmers Market offers EBT services for SNAP beneficiaries as well as a Double Value matching program. The money that supports the matching program comes from a Woodrow Vest grant as well as donations from our community. The Double Value program effectively halves our product prices for our neighbors on SNAP benefits to enable them to purchase wholesome, fresh products from our market, which also supports our local vendors and farmers.