October 24 Market Line-up

**Hunter Farms will now be offering individual cuts of beef to order this Saturday!**

Decorate for Fall with Dwight Brown’s one of a kind wood creations, Art from Nature by Cissy Price and Sunflowers from Honey Dew Farm


{PRODUCE}
(Some items may be available organically-grown)

Pears, Muscadines, Hakurei Salad Turnips, Watermelon Radishes, Turnips, Squash, Pumpkins, Radishes, Sweet Potatoes, Cucumbers, Persimmons, Turnip & Mustard Greens, Specialty Snapbeans: Purple Pod, Yellow Wax, Dragon Tongue and Haricots Verts, White Acre, Pink Eye, Purple Hull Peas, Red & Yellow Cherry and Grape Tomatoes, Asian Eggplant, Green Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Hot Peppers, Okra, Butternut Squash, Peppers, Tomatoes, Eggplant


{FOODS}

***PROSSER’S SHRIMP - Bring your cooler and load up on this regional favorite!***

Chewy Cakes, Funnel Cakes, Cinnamon Rolls, Peach Salsa, Pickled Okra and Pickles, Infused Olive Oils, Ciders, Jams, Teas, Cakes, Pies, Local Eggs, Organic Friendship Bread, Stone Fired Hearth Sour Dough Breads, Pecans, Pecan Candies, Breads, Cookies, Cranberry Nut Cakes, Black and White Checker Cookies, Kettle Corn, Cookies, Artisanal Breads, Granola, Fresh Seasonal Fruit Tarts, Fresh and Boiled Peanuts, Locally Roasted Coffee (Grounds and Beans) & Mango Iced Tea

[ENJOY SNOW CONES, LEMONADE AND ICED COFFEES WHILE YOU SHOP]

**Fresh Herbs and Flowers including Sunflowers and Zinnias will also be available**

{Local Recipes and Cookbooks will be on hand for some great cooking suggestions!}

The Garden Table Café will feature Elaine Minick Stone preparing Vegetable Soups and Sandwiches.


{CRAFTS}
Hand-painted China & Glasses, Wood Crafts, Original Folk Art, Natural Fall Decorations including Corn Stalks and Gourds, Jewelry, Hand-made Soaps, Cross Stitch, Painted Boxes and Wombfruit Wraps, Casserole Covers, Aprons, Puzzles and Wind Chimes


{EXHIBITS}
-Jacie’s Canine Academy with Beth Kingsmill: stop by the booth to see dog bandanas available to help raise funds for the Make-A-Wish foundation. For a $5 donation, you can help a child's wish come true. [COMING SOON: Indoor Training Facility with a fenced in area for dogs to stretch their legs]

- Statesboro Regional Library will be entertaining families with books and puppets

- The Wellness Tent is sponsored by the GSU Nursing Program. Come and have your blood pressure taken and get some free advice on keeping healthy

- Keep Bulloch Beautiful will be on hand with educational information on recycling as well as the opportunity to drop off recyclables

- Be on the look out for many of the vendors with recipes to share


{ENTERTAINMENT}
Jared Mckenna takes the Main Stage! Be there to see him from 10 a.m. to Noon.


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September 12 Line-up

Welcome back Prosser’s Seafood featuring local Georgia Shrimp!

This week’s Garden Table Café features the burgers of Hunter Cattle!

**Enjoy All Natural, Grass Fed Beef Grilled to Perfection**

[New crops of corn, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and fall vegetables are on the way]

{PRODUCE}

(Some items may be available organically-grown)

FRUITS

Watermelons, Pears, Muscadines

VEGETABLES

Sadandy, Pink Eye, Purple Hull Peas, Red & Yellow Cherry and Grape Tomatoes, Asian Eggplant, Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Okra, Squash, Peppers, Eggplant, Onions, Hot Peppers

{FOODS}

FRESH AND BOILED PEANUTS, World Famous Scottish Shortbread, Pickled Okra, Pickles, Homemade Cakes & Pies, Peach Salsa, Local Eggs, ORGANIC FRIENDSHIP BREAD, Infused Olive Oils, Ciders, Preserves, Jams, Jellies, Italian Bread, Rolls, Cookies, Cinnamon Rolls, Chewy Bread, Ices, Locally Roasted Coffee (Grounds and Beans), Artisanal Cheeses, Breads, Assorted Artisanal Breads, Cookies, Granola, Fresh Seasonal Fruit Tarts, Raw Honey and Kettle Corn

[ENJOY SNOW CONES, LEMONADE AND ICED COFFEES WHILE YOU SHOP]

Plan to preorder pasture-raised, antibiotic & hormone free broilers from Adcote Farms for the best tasting and most nutritious chicken you have ever eaten!  They will average 4-5 lbs and will be available for pick up from the Main Street Farmers Market in the early Fall.

**Fresh Herbs and Flowers will also be available**

The Garden Table Café will feature grilled burgers from the all natural grass fed beef of Hunter Cattle.

- The Lunch Box Deli will be on hand with all of the sides to complete the meal such as Pasta Salad and Asian Cole Slaw

{CRAFTS}

Hand-painted China & Glasses, Wood Crafts, Original Folk Art, Natural Fall Decorations including Corn Stalks and Gourds, Jewlery, Hand-made Soaps, Cross Stitch, Painted Boxes and Wombfruit Wraps, Casserole Covers, Aprons, Puzzles and Wind Chimes

{COOKING CLASS}

Children’s Ice Cream Making Class – 10 a.m. & 11 a.m.

Jen Gildea of The Lunch Box Deli offers an opportunity for kids to learn to make their own ice cream with lots of different mix-ins. The class will take 30 to 45 minutes and will include instruction on measuring, the science of liquids to solids to liquids, and a little nutrition. Kids will get physically active while working their ingredients into ice cream to show that exercise can be fun and use their own hard work as a reward. The cost is $10 per child, siblings or friends are $9 each. All ages are welcome, but those under the age of 6 may need some help from a parent. Stop by Lunch Box Deli’s table to sign up or hold your spot by emailing lunchbox.deli@yahoo.com. 

{EXHIBITS}

-Jacie’s Canine Academy with Beth Kingsmill: stop by the booth to see dog bandanas available to help raise funds for the Make-A-Wish foundation.  For a $5 donation, you can help a child's wish come true. [COMING SOON: Indoor Training Facility with a fenced in area for dogs to stretch their legs]

-The Wellness Tent features representatives from The Georgia Southern Nursing Department offering free Blood Pressure Screening

- Keep Bulloch Beautiful will be on hand with educational information on recycling as well as the opportunity to drop off recyclables

- The Georgia Southern Botanical Garden presents a fun children’s activity sharing information about how children may learn to grow vegetables

{ENTERTAINMENT}

Music for all to enjoy while they browse the market


Visit our facebook page for more information! 

It’s Still Okra Season at Statesboro’s Farmers Market

Whenever I’m stuck for a recipe, I go first to my mother’s copy of Good Housekeeping Cookbook. The spine is torn, the pages brown around the edges, and slips of paper mark special recipes. It wasn’t her only cookbook, I’m sure, but this 1962 edition was, judging by its use, one of her favorites. It is one of three things I have of my mother’s. The other two are her Sergeant’s hat from the Marines and her diamond cocktail ring.  The hat is stored safely in a cedar chest and I rarely have occasion to wear the diamond. The cookbook, however, is often out on my kitchen table even when I’m not looking for a specific recipe. I like thumbing through the pages, reading recipes for pleasure, and looking at the illustrations and photographs which seem now as dated and quaint as pictures of the early 1900s probably were for my mother.

 

My mother’s Good Housekeeping Cookbook was – and still is – well loved.

When I noticed Statesboro’s local Main Street Farmers Market again had okra for sale – I always thought of okra as a mid-summer vegetable – I was out of ideas of what to do with it. You can only eat so much okra. Or so I thought.

Okra is one of those vegetables you either love or hate. There’s no in-between. Most southerners grew up eating okra and don’t have the aversion to its characteristic sliminess that turns most of our northern neighbor’s away from  this wonderful vegetable. The truth is that okra is a much maligned vegetable.

My mother was a southerner.  My father was a first-generation Greek born and raised just a little south of the Mason-Dixon line. Their food backgrounds didn’t exactly mesh, but there were a few common denominators, including okra. Okra is a favorite vegetable in Greece and in Middle Eastern countries, and is often served with tomatoes and with lamb.

Typically, we ate our okra fried or in a gumbo, but my favorite way to eat it was in my mother’s famous vegetable soup. Those dishes, along with the few Greek okra recipes, were the extent of my okra experience.

With our continuing okra season and the great selection available at the farmers market, I needed other recipes. When I pulled out my mother’s cookbook and turned to find okra, the page was full of dried splatters and discolorations, always a good sign from a cook’s perspective.

What I found was both interesting and disappointing.  There is only one okra recipe, “Okra Medley” with squash, carrots, and scallions.  The cookbook did recommend sautéing okra with fresh snipped scallions in butter, steaming okra and serving it with lemon juice or herb vinegar, or cooking it in a skillet with one inch of boiling water, draining and tossing it with sour cream. It also recommended lightly steaming and serving the vegetable with various dips such as hollandaise or thousand island dressing.

Sometimes the simplest recipes are the best. Sautee sliced okra and scallions in butter, season with lemon juice and a little salt. Don’t overcook. As the okra cools it looses its “gelatinous” quality and absorbs the butter and lemon juice. The okra should have a slight crunch. 

I was hoping for more but I realized that the recipes in the cookbook were a reflection of the time. In 1962, judging from this cookbook, the trend in American cooking was to de-regionalize cooking and make fixing the evening meal fast and efficient. I noticed, too, that a lot of the recipes began with “zesty,” or “easy,” or “skillet.” This hadn’t been a page of great okra recipes but I did discover the reason why it was such a well-worn page: the last recipe is French Fried Onion Rings. I had finally discovered my mother’s secret for her wonderful onion rings!

With a little computer research, I’ve found many more okra recipes than I can possibly try – 212 in one search!  I’m starting out with okra fritters and will move down the list from there. I haven’t given up on my mother’s cookbook. It still has some of my favorite recipes which have now become my family’s favorites, too.    

   

Fresh, local and ready to eat in just a few minutes. Okra Medley is a great Southern side dish to compliment almost any meal.

Even if your palette doesn’t stray far from the traditional southern fried okra or gumbo, you can still enjoy fresh okra – and lots of other fresh vegetables -- through October up until Thanksgiving week thanks to our local farmers who are sharing their superb produce with us every Saturday at the Main Street Farmers Market in downtown Statesboro at the Sea Island Bank parking lot. Every market features a raffle of a basket filled with samples from the market.

- Story by Stephanie Tames, Photos by Julie Churney