September 29: Vashon Farmers Market Fresh Sheet

September 28, 2012  

Here’s food for thought from Rebecca, our market Manager. 

Dear Mom,

What you’re seeing this week is a postcard from where I’m NOT – which is at the Vashon Farmer’s Market. I’m playing hooky from my gig as manager to see what’s beautiful at an old boatyard in Sweden. But while I’m away, all these hardworking farmers and artisans will be here, holding down the fort as always, celebrating everything that is beautiful and honorable about their work and their art and our wonderful agrarian community. The farms are crazy abundant with the handsomest crops imaginable, and if everything looks like it was just picked this morning, that’s because for the most part it was. No gassing and cold storage for two weeks for anything here. Vine-ripened tomatoes tumbling forth like quarters from a three-cherries-in-a-row slot machine. Perfect stacks of Romano beans warming the cockles of my Germanic compulsive heart; the cabbages voluptuous in ways that would make even you blush. The garlic and shallot braids – holy fashion moment, Robin! They should be used as hair extensions!

What I really have to gush about, though, are the stunning arts and crafts on offer this and every week. Farmers typically get all the glory in this space (which I will say, in Dad’s honor, is probably as it should be – and it is, after all called the FARMERS market…) but I ask you, what would the emperor be without his fancy duds and custom tableware? Naked, and licking his fingers!

Hand painted silk scarves that look like a kinetic art gallery. The absolutely ingenious paper automata – Orcas breaching right there in your hands! The breathtaking woodworking – from exotic hardwood letter openers, to medieval hand carved spoons, to too-pretty-to-cut-on, tic-tac-toe chopping blocks! But if you do decide you want to cut on them, the Michelangelo of knife sharpening artists is right there, too. The stained glass feathers should be in the Sistine Chapel! And there are real feathers of all exotic stripes and tones, taken from their original owners only as a final act of respect. The acid flashback tie-dye clothes – I can relive the 60′s! The beachglass jewelry, that evokes salty air and sand in the toes just looking at it! The pine needle baskets, woven to impossible precision. Too-smart-for-the-room bags and bibs and doggie raincoats, whipped up from discarded feed sacks! Soaps yummy enough to eat, and bubbles that make me giddy for a bath. And for after that bath, the most decadent skin care products, hand made with love and organic ingredients.

If you’re a dog, you can’t come into the Village Green, but one pouty little cock of the head and Rosie Bones is right there at the sidewalk to spoil you with gourmet dog treats! If you’re a kid (age 2-102) you live for the Saturday visit with the empress of caramels. If you’re a serious chocoholic (that vice I inherited from you) you have every delectable thing you need at the chocolatier’s booth. And if you’re trying to eat like a saint, flourless cookies that make me question all my other vices.

It’s a tough job, this market managing. Tearing myself away from one stunning booth after another is hard work. I have to take a little break, so I can lose a few pounds from all that chocolate. And these poor vendors need to be rid of me for a while so they can clean the drool off their wares.

Wish you were here. Even though I’m away, I hope this postcard gives you a little taste of the good life I live when I’m home – and on the job at the Vashon Farmers Market.

Here’s what on offer this week at YOUR ever-bountiful Vashon Farmers Market:

• Sun Island Farm (shown at right) will bring sweet corn, melons, sweet peppers, tomatoes -
  salad, sandwich and cherry. Basil, beautiful new beets, both red and gold, Spaghetti Squash, greens, some kale and chard, cucumbers, strawberries and their beautiful salad mixes. And likely more, too, when they check the harvest, so visit your Sun Island to see what they find!
• Greenman Farm will be bringing FRESH PICKED SWEET CORN! Also heirloom and beefsteak tomatoes, tri-color mixed pole beans, outrageous romano beans, Asian cucumbers, Indian cucumbers, heirloom cabbage, delicata squash, summer squash, french fingerling potatoes, hot and sweet peppers, rainbow chard, beets, leeks, sweet onions, farm fresh eggs, and plenty of recipes to go with them all. For farm crafts, they’ll have upcycled “feed” tote bags, adorable organic cotton produce bags, and beautiful veggie watercolour greeting cards. For those who want to enliven their walls with gorgeous art, check out Will’s gorgeous original veggie watercolour portraits as well as gorgeous little framed prints of the same.
• Hilltop Garden will have, under that bright yellow umbrella this week, lots of tomatoes, potatoes and kale, some beets, carrots, peppers, eggplants, and Spartan apples.
• Calypso Garden (shown at right) is here for their final week of the market season, with elegant
  Garlic and Shallot Braids, Broccoli, Kale, Potatoes – Desiree and Yellow Finn – Orient Express Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Salad Mix, Chard, Red Cabbage, Fresh Onions, and Fresh Sprout Mixture. Holding court over all that will be Zilla’s Mini and Large Fall Bouquets and those exquisite Pine Needle Baskets, with some elegant new additions!
• Pacific Crest Farm is coming with lots of summer favorites, including tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, squash, sweet onions, cucumbers, berries and more! They will have plenty of everyone’s year round staples like salad, kale, chard, beets, carrots, cabbage and head lettuce. Don’t miss their great fruit selection with apples, Asian pears, strawberries, raspberries, figs and plums!
• Plum Forest Farm is proud to announce they are now Certified Organic, and will have: Many varieties of incredible organic heirloom tomatoes – including: tomato tasting winner Blush – plus Brandywine and Pink Brandywine, Black Prince, Cherokee Purple, Prudens Purple, Stupice, Amish Paste, Opalka, Orange Banana, Black Cherry, Jaune Flammée; Indigo Rose and Sungold tomatoes, luscious Raspberries, Gourmet Salad Mix, Plums, Basil, Green and Yellow Beans, Purslane, Carrots, Desireé and German Butterball Potatoes, Swiss Chard, Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Eggplant, Peppers, Bodacious Sweet Corn and Beets.
• Hogsback (shown at right) comes bearing Cherry Tomatoes, Red Slicing Tomatoes, and various Heirlooms as well. Multiple types of string beans, onions, early wonder beets with stellar greens, carrots, two types of heirloom radishes, red and green cabbage, and a few peppers.
• Quality Seafood will be there with tasty Columbia River salmon, Spot Prawns from nearby waters, Red Snapper and Alaska halibut, and delicious Smoked King Salmon for the best imaginable hors d’oeuvre.
• Midlife Crisis Farm will be bringing USDA lamb, grass fed ground beef, lean and healthful bison plus Swedish potato sausages for the grill, more of that delectable ginger pear pork sausage as well as brats and German sausages.
• Vashon Winery (which for all intents and purposes is also a FARMER, growing their own apples for cider and harvesting several acres of grapes for their wine) is sampling their newly released 2010 Semillon, a dry white wine with crisp citrus notes perfect for celebrating the end of summertime. Plus 3 reds from their reliable stable… And a HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS to Ron Irvine, named by Seattle Weekly as the best Winemaker of 2012 in their Best of Seattle awards!
• The Farm Coop Booth is always a place to find lots of surprises. This week, get your fix of cabbage, eggs, strawberries, purple potatoes, baby broccoli and green beans, along with
  lots of other delicious Vashon Grown produce.
• King Caramels (shown at right) redefines the candymaker’s art with Hedy’s latest connoisseur caramels. Choose from Sea Salt, Licorice, Ginger, Classic, Brown Rice and Agave. All amazing, all made on Vashon!
• Anu Rana’s Healthy Kitchen is a big hit with their delicious healthful treats, now presenting their products in new biodegradable packaging – including their Flourless COOKIES: Almond Brownies, Almond Dates Coconut, Almond Mango Cashew, Almond Fig, Almond Basil Pine nut, Almond Ginger Molasses, Almond Oatmeal Raisin, Almond Sesame seed, Almond Peanut butter, and Flourless HALTH BAR: Coconut Pistachio Brazil Nut. Try a sample. You’ll want a week’s supply!
• Cliff’s Beer is the coolest brew in town. Delicious handmade beers that always sell out early. Choose from equally popular Alder Smoked Porter and Bitter Ale. And Cliff has launched his American Pale Ale – think American Bitter, but hoppier. Hop off with a bottle of that!
• The VIGA Lavender Lemonade Stand is your “rejuvenation station” after all that VIGArous market shopping.
• La Biondo Wood Fired Pizza returns with the Taj Mahal of mosaic-tiled pizza ovens,
  featuring this week’s special Fresh Pesto Pizza, along with Pizza Fresca, made with freshly harvested tomatoes and basil from island farms, and sausage pizza made with locally grown Italian sausage.
• Rosie Bones (shown at right) will have many scrumptious treats for man’s best friend, including grass fed beef liver, organic sweet potato, and chicken feet, along with their regular bags of Rosie’s Choice and Chicken Livers and Gizzards.
• Rex Morris will be happy to put a razor sharp edge on your knives, clippers, a treasured machete’ – and anything you might have left out rusting over the summer… And if you’re lucky, he’ll also have some of his smokin’ hot “Face On Fire” hotsauce to share.
• Mik Kulman, aka The Ball Girl, creturns to work out those kinks that have knotted up your body lately.

FROM THE STUDIOS

• Reap-It Products Jill is bringing her new “Market Bags”, inspired by the flared shape of French paniers, as well as car bags for use with kids stuff, pet toys, magazines, trash, you name it! Dog owners, bring your dog’s measurements (around the neck, collar to tailbone and around the widest part of the middle) for a custom-made doggie raincoat. Jill will mail the finished product to you. Bibs, aprons, 2-growler totes, sandwich wraps, placemats, wallets, lunch bags.. she’s got ‘em all!
• Treenware – (shown at right) will be there with a new offering: replicas of 16th century tasting spoons (or, as an alternate name, “lip preservation spoons!) in addition to all his other amazing hand carved spoons and salt bowls.
• Eileen Mackinson aka The Bird Lady joins us, bringing her beautiful collection of plumage from all kinds of feathered friends.
• Tahlequah Woodworks brings a bevy of marvelous new cutting boards and other woodworking magic Ralph conjures in his shop. This week Ralph will feature cutting boards with one of his favorite tropical hardwoods, African bloodwood, which has a lovely red color.
• KB and Paula offer beautifully crafted gifts! Paula got into her coveted wood stash and made a new batch of letter openers and wine stands. Wait till you see the ribboned pink ivory, red heart, and olive woods! She also has a brand new batch of hand-turned rolling pins made from island maple and cherry wood as well as the stand-bys: purpleheart, padouk and teak. And KB brings beautiful new stained glass feathers made from hand blown flat glass – including two stunning eagle feathers. And check out the new dragonfly designs on the bud vases, created from tubes used over 40 years ago from the Bealle Road greenhouses! They have many great classy gifts for any occasion for around $20. Stop by and check them out!
• Bliss Organix (shown at right) brings, in addition to many elegant products for body and skin care, a new Bliss Spritz called Summer of Love with patchouli, orange and lavender. Earthy, spicy and sweet! Spray on body, bedsheets or use as a healthy, fragrant air-freshener. Carol is also featuring her Orange Hemp Mint Lip Balm for $9.
• Mariposa Gardens brings a collection of new journals upcycled from used books. Come by and turn the cranks on the paper automata. Be the first on your block to make your own automata with a Breaching Orca kit! and NEW: Lacy knit scarves.
• In our nonprofit booth this week, we are honored to host Vashon Island Pet Protectors, those wonderful caring folks who find perfect homes for our furry little friends. We also welcome the Vashon Garden Club, with information about their upcoming show at the Heritage Museum, and VARSA will be there conducting their final drug take-back of the year.