We have a raffle winner! Aug. 10 Farmers Market Report

The market developed a good crowd of shoppers on Saturday. They found sprite and Canary melons, peaches, damson plums, nectarines, apples, and blueberries. We had many-colored potatoes, red and green cabbage, sweet and hot peppers, beans (yellow wax, green, purple, and striped), carrots, and cherry tomatoes. Also, plenty of heirloom tomatoes along with sweet corn, summer squashes, onions, eggplant, fresh herbs, and cucumbers. Swiss chard, mixed greens, and head and leaf lettuce have a continued presence in the market. There was also a purple okra sighting as well! It was a brief sighting as there were only a few available. Hopefully, with warmer weather, more okra will appear in the market.

Meat and eggs will be available next week through Highland Farm, Bent Castle Farm, and Good Food Good People. Highland Farms has plenty of chickens and ground beef. They are currently out of pork.

Buffalo Mountain Kombucha was back and they brought their new ginger elderberry kombucha along with them. It is delicious and a fine addition to their ginger and pomegranate hibiscus teas. Sam of Good Food Good People brought two peach pies that were works of art and which sold quickly. Hopefully, he will be able to bring more while the peach season is going so well. You will find them at the Good Food Good People table.

The winner of the beautiful and practical Floyd Farmers Market Basket was Susan Goranson. Susan was delighted to win the basket and its contents. Kathy Dulaney of Highland Farm crafted the basket, a type of potato basket, of sturdier construction than usual and reinforced handles. The basket was generously filled to overflowing by our enthusiastic vendors. Both Kathy and all of our vendors teamed up to present a truly wonderful prize. Congratulations to Susan!

At next Saturday’s market we will hold our annual Floyd’s Top Tomato Contest. We will have two categories: Biggest Tomato (by weight) and Best Tasting Tomato (by decree of our market patrons’ vote). Phoenix Hardwoods has generously provided our Prize, a beautiful oiled cutting board made at their shop in Floyd County. Contestants should bring their entries to the market on Saturday no later than 11 am. For those bringing a small- sized entrant such as grape or cherry varieties for the Best Tasting, try to bring several so that we will have enough samples for the many judges. Also, we would like to know the name of the variety of your entrants for both categories. Judging will begin as soon as all samples are ready. We will stop at noon and tally the votes for Biggest Tomato. The winners will be announced immediately thereafter.

Rumor has it that Dennis Dove of Good Food Good People hopes to best Bess Weber of Kester Clark Farm in the Tastiest Tomato category. Bess has won prizes in the market with her excellent German Johnson heirloom tomatoes. This should be interesting to see what Dennis has to bring to the contest! Lyn Chipkin of Indian Valley Farm has a battalion of heirlooms to bring to the battle. So, we have all the makings of a great contest this weekend. We welcome all you gardeners who have dodged the blight and have tomatoes to make this a fun event.

As always, we would like to remind the Floyd County beneficiaries of SNAP benefits that the Floyd Farmers Market provides EBT service at the market and has a program that allows us to double your SNAP benefits. Yes, truly! We will match your EBT benefit up to $50.00 per market day, which allows you to effectively double your purchasing power in the market. What a great service to our community. Come by our EBT/SNAP Information Table for more information.