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Sherwood Market District Launches to Success

June 7, 2012 by arfoodie

Bob Barnhill from Barnhill Farms at the Sherwood Market District event.

The City of Sherwood launched its new Market District concept Thursday evening, instituting a farmers’ market in the empty lot formerly occupied by the Sherwood Lanes bowling alley at Country Club Road and North Hills Boulevard. The event is scheduled to take place every Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m. through August 30.

The city’s volunteer Keep Sherwood Beautiful committee spearheaded the event, partnering with surrounding businesses such as BJ Plants and Produce, which recently moved from its East McCain location in North Little Rock to the vacant grocery store across Country Club from the market. The committee hopes to create a walking community event in the area surrounding the intersection.

“[The event] exceeded our expectations, especially for a first-time event,” said Don Hughes, chairman of the Keep Sherwood Beautiful committee. “We’re learning from  today to hopefully make it even better each week.”

Hughes’ cautious expectations may be valid, considering the mixed success of similar farmers’ market events in central Arkansas. One farmer confided he was also pleasantly surprised at the solid turnout at the event, considering his involvement in some others that were poorly marketed or simply not well attended.

Another farmer, Bob Barnhill of Barnhill Farms in Lonoke, was encouraged by the turnout. He also sells at other community markets in Little Rock, such as Bernice Garden on Sundays and Hillcrest Farmers Market at Pulaski Heights Baptist Church on Saturdays.

“There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for a first-time market,” Barnhill said, as the crowd looked over his table of blackberries, peaches, squash, corn and other produce.

The Keep Sherwood Beautiful committee has coordinated specials and events at surrounding businesses during market hours. For example, BJ Plants and Produce had samples of Arkansas watermelon, Kent Walker Artisan Cheese and local-made salsa, as well as purchase specials. Nearby Jo-Jo’s BBQ offered a “buy one, get one half price” meal deal for market visitors, using a coupon distributed at the event.

________________

Snapshots:

Geneti Nemera of Sherwood talks with a customer about his honey, harvested from hives in his backyard.

Geneti Nemera, who hails from Ethiopia but has lived in Sherwood since coming to work for Heifer International in 2005, was at the market selling honey. He has sold the honey to support his hobby for the past two years.

“My wife studied beekeeping in Ethiopia and always wanted to do it,” Nemera said. “When I came to Arkansas, I found out that you don’t need land; you can have two hives in your backyard.”

The Sherwood Parking Lot Irregulars, as they called themselves, was less of an organized band and more of a jam session among friends — very talented ones. A mixture of young and old played together at the Market District event, just as I remember some of these same guys doing on Saturday mornings 20+ years ago in front of the nearby building that now houses Gadwall’s Grill.

K-Bee Honey by Larry Kichler of Sherwood.
Geneti Nemera and Larry Kitchler team up to sell honey from their own Sherwood backyards.


Squash and beans from North Pulaski Farms

Ripe red tomatoes from North Pulaski Farms
Kelley Carney of North Pulaski Farms.

Bob Barnhill from Barnhill Farms.
Customers at the Barnhill Farms tent

Berries and peaches from Barnhill Farms.
Specials and samples at BJ Plants and Produce



Geneti Nemera of Sherwood talks with a customer about his honey, harvested from hives in his backyard.

Filed Under: Destinations, Resources Tagged With: BJ Plants and Produce, BJ's Produce, farmers market, market district, Sherwood

Seasonal Eating at the Farmers’ Market

April 20, 2012 by arfoodie

A market customer visits a booth with flowers and lots of yummy greens.

Last Saturday, a friend and I visited the Argenta Certified Arkansas Farmers’ Market (CAFM). She is young, newly married, and wanting to learn more about fresh, local foods. It was the first official day of the market for the season, although they did a kickoff the week before.

We arrived around 9, and the crowd was just starting to buzz. (Oh, heck, what do I know…I can’t see straight before that time, anyways.) We looked over booths of produce that were nothing short of spectacular, especially considering that much of it is grown organically. Not many bug munches to be seen on those greens.

At first, I was a bit bothered by the fact there wasn’t a huge variety of items available. There were gobs of early strawberries, lots of leafy greens, flowers, some herbs and the like, but I found myself wanting more.

Soon, however, I came to myself realizing that this isn’t Kroger, and eating in season means waiting for some stuff to make its way out of the ground.

I was specifically looking for asparagus. It is early spring, after all. My guest was coming back to my house for a quick cooking lesson, and I planned to help her make asparagus risotto. One booth said they had a little, but sold out early. Some others said they won’t have any.

I did have a good conversation with Kelley Carney, owner of North Pulaski Farms. He said his booth had better selection earlier in the morning, and much of it had already sold. (Note to self.) He also told me about his plans for the future to offer even more varieties, such as my coveted asparagus, even during cooler months.

I’m not knocking anyone else there, though. A good number of them specialize in just one or a handful of things (cheese, meat, peppers, etc.) and do them very well. The others may just have things they like to grow, and that’s what they grow. And others still, like Hardin Farms, grow a bazillion things that just aren’t available yet.

Okay, so I’ll keep coming back and see what crops up. (See what I did there?) And maybe I’ll get there when they open, at (gulp) 7 a.m. Or not.

I still love them. Meet you there!

Argenta Certified Arkansas Farmers’ Market
6th and Main, North Little Rock
7 a.m. – noon, Saturdays during growing season 

P.S. I’m really into P.S.’s now, so I’ll add one. I’m totally not knocking off the Pioneer Woman.

P.P.S. This is where I get really sad the CAFM is no longer doing online ordering. I could pick what I wanted and schlep by there before noon to pick it up!

My friend/student's asparagus risotto. Turned out nice, huh? Great job, Jenna!

P.P.P.S. Whatever happened of the asparagus risotto, you ask? Well, I bought the asparagus elsewhere and helped my awesome student make it. Yummers!

P.P.P.P.S. Consider this another random plug for the Food Blogger Bake Sale next Saturday, April 28, benefiting Share Our Strength. It’s gonna be right next to Argenta CAFM, so you know I still love them!

 

 

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Filed Under: Destinations, Foodie News, Reviews Tagged With: asparagus, farmers market, risotto, spring, variety

A Local Foods Dinner

February 28, 2011 by arfoodie

Final dinner plate for the Arkansas Farmers' Market Association local foods dinner.

On Friday, I had the privilege to hang out much of the day with Chef André Poirot of the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock. He had two events going on at the same time that I wanted to see, one of which was a local foods dinner for the Arkansas Farmers’ Market Association. (The other was a kosher meal for the Jewish Federation of Arkansas, which I’ll post later this week. Truly fascinating.)

Chef André is a hoot. You’ve probably seen him on TV or at the Arkansas Women’s Show, which I covered here. His on-stage interaction with Paula Deen is a story unto itself.

He teaches Culinary French at Pulaski Technical College’s Arkansas Culinary School, which I am taking this semester. J’ai bien mangé! I love the class, but it’s a lecture-style elective that doesn’t show his mastery in the kitchen. Friday, I got to see it firsthand. I’ll write another time about the tour he gave me through the bowels of the Peabody: never-ending kitchen after prep room after kitchen.

The local foods dinner, the highlight of the Arkansas Farmers’ Market Association conference last weekend, was a special challenge for Chef André and his banquet staff. Usually, they have total control over the product, its use and appearance. This time, the customer (local farmers) provided the product, which in some cases was quite different from what they were accustomed to.

As the assigned staff arrived to assemble the dinner plates, the earlier-completed salads were placed on speed racks (huge rolling cases made to hold several metal trays of food) and wheeled toward the banquet location. Word came back from the steward delivering the salads…”These tomatoes are wilted! They won’t do!” In actuality, they were fine, but were softer, purply heirloom tomatoes that had a different texture (and lots more flavor) than the kitchen’s standard fare.

I was allowed to work with the plating staff and assemble the dinner plates. (Let’s not talk about Christian, the executive sous chef for the Peabody’s Capriccio Grill, who tricked me earlier into thinking he’d let me do some prep work for him. I ran to wash hands and grab my knife kit, then…not so much.) As we lined up at the long, stainless steel table, covered with bright, hot lamps, one plater said: “This is it?” The banquet manager clarified: “This is a little more rustic than we usually do.”

Don’t misunderstand: the plate was lovely. Knowing the audience, a group of farmers and others passionate about the farm-to-table movement in all its rustic beauty, I knew it would be well received.

I placed about 170 plates’ worth of diced heirloom tomatoes that night, atop little mounds of delicately sauteed spinach. As each plate worked its way down the line, one of about seven platers would scoop, place or wipe according to his own assigned task: brown rice, poached chicken, mushroom sauce, spinach, tomatoes, clean the edges. The last man covered each dish of Arkansas treasures and placed it in the hot box to be delivered to the banquet hall.

After we completed all the dinner plates, including about 10 vegetarian versions (cheese raviolis with the same spinach, tomatoes and sauce), Chef André sent one more chicken plate down the line. He said it was for me.

I happily ended my evening in the staff cafeteria, savoring the flavors produced by Arkansas farmers, a French chef and his staff. Amazing.

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Filed Under: Foodie News, PTC_ACS Tagged With: arkansas farmers' market association, Certified Arkansas Farmers Market, Chef Andre Poirot, farmers market, local foods, Peabody

Changes at Farm Girl Natural Foods

March 2, 2010 by arfoodie

You’ve heard me rave about the turkey (and other things) I purchased from Farm Girl Natural Foods, a popular staple at the Certified Arkansas Farmer’s Market. Yesterday I got an email announcing some changes, so I thought I’d share:

Warm greetings to all the farm girl fans and family out there,

We’ve spent many months since the close of the 2009 season considering our successes and looking towards the future. In that time there have been some exciting developments in the personal lives of the farm girls that will put a new spin on the 2010 season. MC has decided to go back to school, and Betsy is starting her married life out of state, which leaves Katie with the garden all to her lonesome. While she is excited about gaining more expeience growing vegetables, her skills will limit the output of the garden and exclude the possibility of a CSA. She is planning crops for the market in every season, so keep an eye out at the farmer’s market and online for those.

Since Betsy was an integral part of the well recieved but extremely labor intensive poultry portion of Farm Girl, and since Katie is expecting a pint-sized farmer mid-summer, it is beyond our ability to continue producing chickens and turkeys in 2010.

We thank you all so much for helping to make last year our biggest poultry year yet, and apologize that we cannot continue to provide the delicious, tender, pastured poultry we are so proud of.

Thanks to some new additions to the Farm Girl team, we are excited to have more pork and beef on offer in 2010 than ever before. Both will be available by the pound online and at the market, and pork will also be available by the half and whole animal. We will not have combination meat baskets this year.

While we’re sad to say goodbye to Betsy and MC, we’re excited to introduce some new additions to the Farm Girl team. Lindsay, originally from Minnesota, will provide the other half of the pastured meats team, while Will and Ashley plan to pickup the egg production where Betsy leaves off. Also, Amber (with the guidance of MC) plans to provide flowers. They are all excited to meet and greet this season at the stand.

Look for us and all our sustainably raised products at the Certified Arkansas Farmer’s Market May-October, and on three online markets: cafm.locallygrown.net, littlerock.locallygrown.net, and conway.locallygrown.net

Here’s to another great season,

Your Farm Girls

All our best to all the Farm Girls, new and old (and expected) from Fancy Pants Foodie!

Filed Under: Foodie News, Resources Tagged With: Farm Girl Foods, farmers market, turkey

Today’s Market / Morgan’s Ratatouille

September 5, 2009 by arfoodie

I went to the Farmers’ Market this morning and loaded up for the week…I am really enjoying not buying my produce (at least, for the most part) at the grocery. It feels good to know I am supporting Arkansas farmers, and that my family is eating well.

Today, I bought a huge bag of goodies that I’ll have to figure out how to use. One trick of market shopping is not knowing exactly what you’ll find. Maybe as this blog grows, we can learn how to plan meals and cook for a week based on what is available. I bought yellow squash, zucchini, fresh blackeye peas, pepper sauce, roasted Marconi peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, the weirdest yellow-green sweet bell peppers, ground buffalo, a honey-molasses wheat baguette, and more cheese.

Guess I need to visit Recipe Puppy and see what ideas come up. Generally, if I can find the basic idea of a recipe, I can take it from there and make it my own with what is available. I’ll let you know what we make!

The finished productMeanwhile, I’ve been promising a little blurb on Morgan’s Ratatouille. If you’ve never seen the Disney movie, Ratatouille, I can highly recommend it. It’s not the same vibe of movie as other Pixar films, but if you are a foodie, you’ll love it. It’s all about the creation of something great and new from the ingredients you find, whether that be culinary or from life in general.

In the movie, the final dish prepared is an amazing dish of ratatouille, a traditional French tomato-base stew with squash, zucchini, peppers and eggplant. Honestly, in the stew’s original form, I’m not crazy about it. But in the movie’s culinary consultant was the illustrious Thomas Keller of The French Laundry, and his version (technically called Confit Byaldi) was quite different. Instead of chopping all the ingredients into a stew, he spoons a bell pepper and tomato sauce into a flat dish and layers the veggies, cut into thin rounds, on the top. Cover and bake.

But, as most French recipes go, this recipe (although simple for a French cook) is a little bit much for even the Fancy Pants home cook. About a year ago, after a bit of searching, I found this simplified version here on Smitten Kitchen. This is what Morgan and I have made twice now, the second time with wonderful veggies from the farmers’ market.

My only variation from this recipe is that I use my homemade marinara sauce rather than just tomato pureé.

Photos from the first round, made last September:

Our first Ratatouille, before baking

Our first Ratatouille, before baking

The finished, baked product

The finished, baked product

This time, we made it a bit bigger (because it was so yummy) and added the last of the fairy tale eggplants. We had left eggplant out of the first because we really don’t care for it, but the small ones are not so bitter.

Veggies on the sauce

Veggies on the sauce

The final, baked product!

The final, baked product before plating

In the large photo above, you can see the final product. Next time I will take Keller’s advice and cook down all the extra liquid before plating. My sauce looks watery, but it sure was good!

Recipes coming from market foodies besides myself soon, as well as more profiles.

Filed Under: Main Course, Resources Tagged With: eggplants, fairy tale eggplants, farmers market, peppers, produce, ratatouille, squash, Thomas Keller, zucchini

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