Watauga County Farmers' Market

Watauga County Farmers' Market will be celebrating Plant and Herb Festival Day this Saturday, May 10. There will be live music by the Worthless Son-in-Laws and all the live plants and fresh herbs you need to dress up your landscape and your meals.

Richard Boylan will be offering fresh garlic, oregano, chives and lovage. Susan Wright and Brent Cochran of Shady Grove Gardens & Nursery have plenty of potted parsley, basil, lavender and rosemary and the Italian heirloom tomato Principe Borghese which is ideal for drying right on the vine.

Jeff Thomas of Creeksong Farm will be harvesting bunches of spring onions, and will have a wide variety of garden transplants to offer including culinary herbs, tomato and lettuce plants and lots of other types of vegetable seedlings. Jeff also offers the often difficult to locate and wonderfully fragrant pineapple sage transplants. Larry Denny also has an outstanding selection of vegetable transplants including cucumbers and summer squash. Larry offers 15 different varieties of tomato plants, including Better Boy, Big Boy, Beefsteak and German Johnson, and also has some fine looking peonies in full bloom.

Cheryl Piracci will have a wide variety of garden ferns as well as elderberry and rhubarb plants. There will be plenty of ripe vegetables to choose from as well, including fresh ramps and possibly some blueberries grown by V.J. and Jon Bost. Bill Moretz will have ripe tomatoes, half runner beans, squash, cucumbers and new potatoes. Bill also has local sourwood, summer mix and full season mix honey gathered from his own beehives.

Be sure to take a look at the great selection of one of a kind crafts offered at Watauga County Farmers' Market, including Caron Baker(Wike)'s cobalt blue and jade green pottery, hand built with 100 year old lace. Caron's bowls and platters are dishwasher and food safe as well as being lovely conversation pieces.

Find us at the Horn in the West in Boone, turn next to First Citizens Bank on Highway 105 Extension and go to the top of the hill. Call WCFM manager Karen Bauman at 1-828-355-4918 or send an send an email for more information. We will be there rain or shine!

One of the most exciting aspects of being at the Watauga County Farmers' Market is meeting young people who have chosen the often difficult path of farming and marketing fresh produce. The market offers a great opportunity to support farmers young and old as they work to improve our food system and preserve open spaces. The opportunity to show your support and indulge in some of the freshest food available will begin on this Saturday, May 4. We have been enjoying a very pleasant spring with nice warm work days followed by some nice soaking rains. Conditions are favorable for some superior crops.

Those of us who appreciate the finest spring salad greens will not be disappointed this Saturday as quite a few of the vendors will be harvesting their best leafy greens. Sally Thiel and Joe Martin of Zydeco Moon Farm will have organic asparagus as well as lettuce and spinach harvested just for the occasion. The main course for your meal is also provided for as several vendors will be providing local beef, pork and poultry at the market this year.

Several vendors have taken note of the demand for farm fresh eggs at the market and have increased their flocks. Jeff Thomas of Creeksong Farm is among those who will be bringing free-range chicken eggs this Saturday. Jeff will also be harvesting bunches of spring onions, and will have a wide variety of garden transplants to offer including culinary herbs, tomato and lettuce plants and lots of other types of vegetable seedlings. Jeff also offers the often difficult to locate and wonderfully fragrant pineapple sage transplants. Larry Denny also has an outstanding selection of vegetable transplants including cucumbers and summer squash. Larry also offers 15 different varieties of tomato plants, including Better Boy, Big Boy, Beefsteak and German Johnson, and also has some fine looking peonies in full bloom.

James Wilkes of Faith Mountain Farm will also have happy chicken eggs to offer along with the home baked breads, muffins, and scones that have become so popular at the market. Shoppers can also look forward to a fresh cup of morning coffee, as Rebecca Kaenzig and the Bald Guy Brew's Don Cox will be returning to the market this year.

Shoppers can also look forward to the return of the fine hand crafts that decorate the market so well. Several crafters including Mary Prewett and Jeff Martin Designs have expanded their inventory. Rumors have been spreading that Kim Miller has been working on some hand carved walking sticks. Let's all hope that this is indeed fact.

Find us at the Horn in the West in Boone, turn next to First Citizens Bank on Highway 105 Extension and go to the top of the hill. Call WCFM manager Karen Bauman at 1-828-355-4918, send an send an email for more information. We will be there rain or shine!

Watauga County Farmers' Market will be participating in the Seniors and WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program again this year. This is an excellent program through which the state provides Seniors, Women, Infants and Children with fresh fruits and vegetables free of charge.

Participants are issued coupons which they can redeem with participating farmers at the market. This benefits both parties and exposes our market to a number of people who might not otherwise attend.

The redemption rates for coupons were higher in 2007 than they have been for quite a few years. The statewide redemption rate for seniors was 83% and for WIC FMNP was 50%. I do not have any local data for the seniors program, but the WIC FMNP redemption rate for the Watauga County division of Appalachian Health District was 55.3% with a dollar amount of $2,524 in redemptions. WCFM had 11 farmers participating, with a total number of 405 farmers participating statewide.

If you are interested in the figures for other counties and markets, let me know and I will provide a copy for you. I will also keep a few copies on hand while I am at the market.

The folks at Watauga County Farmers' Market have been talking about mobile updates over the winter. I experimented with some different options like voice postings to the website. That worked well, but it is not free and I don't know if anybody wants to hear me talk anyway. If you do, just call me at 1-828-355-4918 and tell me so. Maybe we can work it in.

It is looking like we will be trying out a little thing called Twitter for live updates. You can follow the market on Twitter if you have an account. I can also feed the info back on this website. Time plays heavily into this; sometimes things can get downright hectic at the market. This is true especially early in the morning. Nevertheless, I get a kick out of this sort of thing and I think I will give it a try.

In other news, I am always thinking about how this website could serve your needs better. I get lots of phone calls, and that is a good thing, and I often use the info on the site to answer the questions. The problem is, I have no way of knowing how many of you visit the website, don't find what you need, and then don't call. I am always open to suggestions on this. I am open to allowing people to ask questions on the website, but I have to prepare for the countless miscreants who ruin the experience for everyone. We call them spammers. I am trying out a new solution that may make this less of a problem,

To sum things up, I want to create a dialog between farmers and customers. Get in touch with me and tell me your ideas.

Hello everyone,

I have made a small change to the way this site works. This involves the way people sign up for accounts on this website. It will not affect those of you who have already joined. Previously anyone could join the website, and I would then grant permissions to your account to allow you to add stuffs. Problem was that the spammers outnumbered the real folks by about 10 to 1 in new accounts. There was no real harm in this as I have this thing locked down pretty well, but it is just kinda icky. Nowadays, I will be approving each new account. It works out just about the same in the end.

Anyone can join the website. If you are a vendor at the farmers' market I will fix it so you can add photos or edit your page, and you can have a blog just like this one. If you are a customer and wish to add a comment you must set up an account first. There are other ways of doing this but any other method I have tried so far might still let the nasties in.

I will be glad to discuss how this website works with anyone that is interested. Get up with me and we can meet at Boone's finest coffee and WIFI establishment just about any time.

Alanna Kellogg over at A Veggie Venture has made this nice tomato graphic and offered it up for folks to use on their websites. I first discovered this while visiting the Blue Ridge Blog where it is used to link to this website (Thanks Marie). True to the name, A Veggie Venture offers up recipes for enjoying your farmers' market finds, and even publishes a newsletter delivering fresh recipes to your inbox. Everything looks so yummy!

The market has planned special events to be held throughout the summer. I will be announcing the details on the website and the newsletter as more info becomes available, but for now I offer a list:

Special Events for 2007

• May 12th Plant and Herb Day with a Band
• June 9th Spring Greens Day with a Band
• July 7th, Red White and Blue Day with Band
• August 11th, Garlic and Tomato Day with Band
• September 1, Cooking Demonstration
• September 15th, Customer Appreciation Day with Band
• October 13th, Appalachian Crafts Day with Band

The details are all coming together, the loose ends are being wrapped and tied, and the Watauga County Farmers' Market will be beginning it's season this weekend. It is such an honor for me to work with such a dedicated and diverse group of people who are the vendors at the market. We are truly fortunate in Boone to have an established market. Land conservation, eating with the seasons, and healthy practices in general are all hot topics at the moment, and it is impressive that this community has been supporting these very ideals for over thirty years.

It is also exciting that technology has enabled the farmers and craftspeople in our area to communicate directly with the public through this website. I have attempted to tell the stories of the individuals who make up the market through the pages here on the website and also the weekly email newsletter. It has all been a wonderful learning experience.

Until 2007, this website reflected the voice of one person, namely me. I do miss those days of the Vendor of the Week, when I was able to devote much more time to the individual. Mundane details are getting in the way, and steps are being taken to correct that.

Meanwhile, just as the people become more accustomed to the web, the technology is expanding to give each person a voice in what is broadcast. Ease of use meets recognition of value leaving only finding time in the already busy day to get the word out about what is available.

This website is limited only by the imagination. I welcome any feedback about how this thing should work. Communication is easy these days, let's use it.