Sitting in the summer heat isn’t everyone’s idea of fun but a few committed vendors a◊liated with the Back to Basics organization do just that every Tuesday on the Pineville Square and Thursday in Anderson across from the city barn.
You can find a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as, fresh baked goodies made from scratch. Upon arriving at the local market you will be warmly greeted by any number of folks offering produce grown near any one of McDonald County communities.
Jackie Gilliand bakes a generous selection of items for those craving homemade bread, pies or cookies.
“I get up at 2 a.m. to start baking and usually finish around 7 a.m.to have baked goods for the three farmer’s markets a week that I attend,” Gilliand said.
She will purchase most of her fresh produce from her fellow vendors or local stores. For her chocolate chip cookies - the crowd favorite in her cookie selection- she buys five pounds of chocolate chips. Other top sellers are her lemon icebox pie and blueberry bread. She makes sizes that accommodate families or those living alone. Among her items are breads, pies, cookies and mu◊ns.
Some folks come to bring produce from their own home gardens, including Ed Wilber from Goodman and Wayne Burk of rural Anderson. Wilber runs a totally organic garden, meaning he doesn’t use any herbicides or pesticides on his produce. One item noticed on the table was a box of large blackberries fromhis tame blackberry patch. When commented that they were large berries, Wilber grinned and said, “These are small compared to howbig they normally would be if we hadn’t had so much rain duringtheir growing stage. The best time to have rain for berries is during the blossom stage not the berry growth stage.”
Wilber said he expects to still have blackberries for another three weeks or so.
Burk, who also owns a landscaping business, is a wealth of information for organic planting practices and while he isn’t certified organic, he does grow his vegetables organically. According to the USDA, the specific requirements state that produce must be verified by a USDA-accredited certifying agent before products can be labeled USDA organic. Overall, organic operations must demonstrate that they are protecting natural resources, conserving biodiversity and using only approved substances. For organic crops the USDA organic seal verifies that irradiation, sewage sludge, synthetic fertilizers, prohibited pesticides and genetically modified organisms were not used.
Another vendor at the Anderson Farmer’s Market, Walter Emery, sells produce for Troy Henson Farms located at Brush Creek. The table was loaded with large red tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers. Emery pointed out that most people don’t realize that tomatoes should never be refrigerated and if you feel it necessary to put them in the refrigerator, then do so after you have sliced them. Most store bought tomatoes are gassed to force ripening and then put in cold storage prior to being displayed in the store. This is why they generally are pinkish red and spoil quicker than fresh vine ripened tomatoes.
For some of the vendors represented at the local farmer’s market, it is a family affair and has become not only a hobby but a career choice. One of those making that choice is Karl Hurley, who owns Klondike Farmsnear Buffalo Creek at Tiff City.
“I was in construction for years and when you get closer to 50 years old, you start to re-think what you’re going to do with your life,” Hurley said.
Even though Hurley has been building his garden for over four years now, this is his first year being a full-time producer. While he tries to garden as natural as possible, he does use commercial fertilizers on his 1.5 acre garden.
“To compost for a large operation would be very time consuming in order to keep the compost turned,” Hurley said.
He offers a broad selection of the usual everyday vegetables and seven di◊erent varieties of tomatoes for slicing and canning. He has planted a small orchard of apple and peach trees but it will be a couple more years before they start to produce. He does grow a couple varieties of watermelons and the claim is that the Sugar Baby melons are as sweet as candy.
This career decision is a team effort with his wife, Belinda, preparing homemade canned delicacies such as jams, relishes and pickles. Among the pickle favorites are bread and butter, as well as dill.
When asked how he keeps himself busy, Hurley replied, “It takes a year to raise a garden. You prepare the ground long before you decide what to plant.”
In keeping with the family business operation was a young man named Tommy Her, the youngest of the family, who will be heading off to college this fall. The family runs Hilltop Farm near Noel, which also includes six chicken houses. Tommy said that they moved to southwest Missouri when he was nine years old from Wisconsin where the growing was great, but the growing season was short because the winter came too soon.
While they practiceorganic methods, they are not certified organic. The soil must be certifi ed organic for three years before they can make that claim on their sales. He noted that the busiest days are the weekends, with Friday being the day that they pick and then Saturday when the family splits up to sell their produce at farmer’s markets in Grove, Okla., Neosho and Bentonville, Ark.
They grow more than 15 di◊erent types of vegetables, among which are the Long Bean, an Asian favorite and Japanese eggplant. They try to grow some of the favorites to meet the needs of some of the ethnic groups living in the area.
Tommy highlighted a vegetable called Bitter Melon, which is similar to a cross between a cucumber and a squash. The vegetable gets bitter the older it gets but the seeds actually turn red and get sweeter. Most people want to eat the seeds, but he did note thatanother use for the vegetable is to use the flesh and make a tea, similar to juicing. They even offer the blossoms, which many stu◊with cream cheese and dip in tempura batter then fry up similar to crab rangoon. He pointed out that it has been said to have health benefi ts for those suffering from diabetes.
Clearly, farmer’s markets are not only a great place to purchase locally grown produce but also a place to gain some knowledge and have a nice chat with some friendly down-home folk.
News, Pages 1 on 08/08/2013