Watauga County Farmers' Market

The folks at Watauga County Farmers' Market would like to thank everybody who came out this past Saturday, especially those who braved the light rain later in the morning. It was a good day to find everything from home ripened tomatoes to fresh picked berries, and selections should only increase in the coming weeks.

There have been increasing selections at the Wednesday market as well. Wednesday morning markets are a bit calmer; they don't get started much before 8am and there is plenty of parking. Bring the young ones along, they will enjoy Melissa Jaroszewski's Kids’ Craft Table while you choose from the freshest produce available.

Saturday's market features an abundance of veggies including Ed Winebarger's Chioggia beets, Red Russian kale, spring lettuce mix, cut herbs, Swiss chard, squash and zucchini. Shiloh Avery and Jason Roehrig of Tumbling Shoals Farm will have homegrown tomatoes, pickling and slicing cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash, okra, and red and white sweet onions. Mildred green will be harvesting more of her green peppers, cucumbers, squash, and will also have fresh blueberries and blackberries. Jerry Harvey will have plenty more blackberries and maybe some blueberries too.

Richard Boylan plans on having plenty of kale, fresh basil, mint and chives, and perhaps the first of the fresh cilantro and oregano. Richard will be harvesting fingerling and new potatoes for this weekend, and will offer some nice looking Speckled trout Romaine for your salads.

Shady Grove Gardens will have a fine selection of cut flowers throughout the summer including Zinnias and Dahlias in every color. Show off your arrangements with great looking blacksmith made planter items by Tom Wooten.

Dorene Jankowsky will be at the market with chipotle salsa, smoked habanero and serrano sauce, and BBQ sauce from fire From the Mountain. All sauces are made with homegrown applewood smoked peppers. Dorene will also have happy chicken eggs, blueberries, and romaine and red leaf lettuce.

Watauga County Farmers' Market is continuing to work on the parking problem. We will be having assistants to help you find a parking spot. We also ask that everyone enter the parking lot through the entrance closest to the native gardens, and exit the lot near the stop sign. The entrance is just too narrow for cars to pass in both directions. We do hope to provide parking for everyone, and we are also looking into the Appalcart routes for possible relief.

Watauga County Farmers' Market will be open on Wednesday mornings through September 10 at the same location as on Saturday mornings, 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 visit http://wcfm.info for more information. We will be there rain or shine!