Clintonville really does buy into the local producer idea.  Not only were all of their farmers local, but the seller has to be the farmer, or from the farm.  No brokers or auction buys, which I really like; we had to be really careful because we did buy from some brokers earlier in the summer who we thought were farmers, but they not only weren’t farmers, they bought at an auction and didn’t know the farmer at all.  Clintonville Farm Market makes sure you get it straight from the farm without a middle man.

Clintonville also has a nice diversity.  I can find my Ohio Bison there, and since they were having their roast sale I bought enough to get one free.  Cheese, eggs, milk, grains, bread, fruit, veggies – they had it all.  Some of the farmers that were at my all time favorite Athens farm market were in Clintonville.  I was able to pick up spelt berries and my husband found his tortilla chips made with locally grown corn.

I have paid with cash, check and credit card at different vendors, though they don’t all take credit card or check, sometimes one or the other, but not always both.  Clintonville Farmer’s Market has a solution if you find yourself in a bind.  They sell tokens and can take EBT/Debit cards as payment.  These tokens can be used for purchasing from the vendors.

My only issue with Clintonville Farmer’s Market was the parking.  We couldn’t tell where we were welcome to park the car.  A couple of places looked blocked off to prevent shoppers from using their lots so we ended up on a side street.  I’m sure the neighbors get a little tired, we kept to the street so as not to impose, but even then when we were walking back to the car an exasperated driver barreled down the street past me.  On their website is a list of places you are welcome to park.  I should have researched it better before I started out.

October 29th’s market is the last one for the regular Clintonville Farmer’s Market.  Stock up the freezer, buy some winter squash and store it in your basement.  You have just a couple more chances buy your fall fruit and veggies and don’t forget those spelt berries!

What’s a paw paw?

It’s been said to taste like a banana custard, but to me it’s more like a banana mango.  It has a thick skin with kind of banana mush inside and big black seeds.  They grow in the tops of the paw paw trees, just under their long flat leaves.  In the spring they have these kind of interesting but ugly brown flowers.  One tree of ours is male and another a female – or so we were told.  Only one of our trees actually ever has fruit, but they both have flowers.  It’s amazing though we have quite a few flowers, not much fruit materializes.

Where can you find a paw paw?

You can plant your own trees, ordering by mail like we did, though it takes a while before paw paw fruit shows up.  There is a paw paw festival at Lake Snowden in Albany, 5 miles away from Athens, Ohio.  If it’s made with paw paw pulp, it will probably be there, watch out for flying seeds. Kentucky State University has a land grant program where they are serving as the USDA National Clonal Germplasm Repository.  They have over 2000 trees with 17 species on 12 acres.  Where do you find them naturally – look along creek banks for their big flat oval shaped leaves.  My husband and I found a couple of nice stands of trees in a nearby metro park .  We went off trail and found a large grouping of trees.  Many of the trees were about 30 feet tall.  If you want to find the paw paw fruit look straight up the trunk and under the big leaves hanging from the top canopy.

How do you get the paw paw fruit out of the tree?

You could shake and shake and shake.  My husband perfected his shake to knock out the paw paws.  He grabs the tree, plants his feet and gives a nice jerk, instead of a rattling shake.  You need to watch the top of the tree while you do this because they don’t always fall right at your feet.  You also may get hit with flying paw paws.  A wild stand of paw paw trees is not well lit, so while you jerk the tree, and are ducking from flying stuff, you have to keep an eye out and see where they land.  Hopefully they will be nice and fat and ripe, but won’t split too bad when they land. This is why it’s nice to have two people – the shaker and the watcher.  It’s difficult to shake and keep an eye out for flying fruit.

I have to say – we had fun gathering paw paws.  It’s a lot of fun, but it was worth it.

Next time – my method of preserving paw paws.

A couple of nice links to video -

NPR – The Paw Paw Foraging for America’s Forgotten Fruit

From the Ohio Department of Natural Resources:

KSU – Paw Paw facebook page

1.  Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food – Recently I’ve felt duped by some of the vendors, and even the local market stores.  Not every vendor grows their own food or knows the farmer who grows the food.  We have found boxes that list an auction site as the place the vegetables have come from instead of a single farmer.  I have started asking for the source of the tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.  When I go to the stand, I will ask the farmer where they get the vegetables from.  They have to be the farmer, or know the farmer.  They have to know whether the farmer uses pesticides or fertilizers and how long before the market, the vegetables are picked.  If they don’t know the farmer, you don’t know the farmer – or your food.

2. Don’t buy more than you can use.  This year we did more canning than we’ve ever done before, and maybe more than we needed to do.  I don’t think I will end up with a lot of left over though.  You need to make sure you are going to use it all.  Throwing food away that you have worked to can or put up is just as bad as letting it rot in the fridge.  Having too much that it goes bad is wasteful whether it goes into the composter or not.  Water, gas, fertilizers, etc all go into that food, and will be wasted as well.

3. In most cases, if you buy it at the market you need to use it, or preserve it quickly.  Have a plan and a process in place.  Plan your meals around what you’ve bought.  If you are going to can, or freeze, take care of it right away so that you don’t lose anything to rot.  I hate having to cull through and find that I should have processed it right away.  We did much better at that this year, which made me very happy.  We also learned to stop buying when we thought we had enough.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask for a deal, but be reasonable.  I have asked my favorite farmers for a deal on quantity, or if the basket looks to be low or picked over.  I’ve even not asked and gotten it because I am a good customer.   When I am making salsa or sauce, something I need quantity for I will ask for canners ahead of time and let them know that I will be ready the next weekend to buy.  I also ask what they’ve got that’s a good deal.  They don’t want leftovers so prices change when the quanity is high or if it is scarce that year.

5.  Go back to your favorites, and introduce yourself.  If you give them time, they will give you time back.  I bought string beans – I was going to buy just a small basket, but my husband wanted to buy the big basket.  Tony the farmer said, “Hey – Okay these are redneck beans, snap this end, this end and peel the string down both sides.”  He wanted to make sure I knew how to start the prep on the beans.  I parboiled them and froze them but I was glad he showed me the first steps.  This week my husband said he wanted another watermelon, so I asked Tony if he had something nice and sweet.  He picked up a watermelon he had sliced already, gave my husband a taste and asked if that was good.  Of course we bought one.

Do you have any suggestions for getting the best out of your farm market?

Without smell would you care about cooking?

We were discussing Cookerati and cooking in general – though my mother admits she really doesn’t have an interest in cooking and preparing.  She goes through the big preparations for family gatherings when we are together and the food is delicious, but cooking for fun is not her thing.  When my husband and I decided to put up batches of peaches, she stood firm and said she would do laundry and cleaning, but the peaches were for us to tackle.  Actually our tackling went easier because she cleaned up around us.

Can you fathom not tasting?

There are things my mother loves – crunchy nuts, scallops, ice cream (her favorite).  I wonder sometimes if it’s the taste or the texture along with sweet and salty.  It’s difficult to understand not smelling and not tasting.  I came upon this excerpt in CNN about an author -Molly Birnbaum who was in cooking school until she lost her sense of smell.  She wrote a book titled – Season to Taste How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way which describes how she deals with her loss and re-learns to smell almost everything.  I read her descriptions and it helped me understand a little more of my mother’s nasal disability.  I haven’t read the book, but I hope to.  Unlike Molly, my mom won’t be able to smell almost everything, or maybe anything ever again, but that’s okay for her, I think she’s used to it.

What about you, can you fathom not smelling or tasting?  What would you miss most?

• Eye – Protection – maybe, but if I had my sunglasses on that probably would have worked.  Besides protection from poking, it will keep your eyes in good shape and from being damaged by the sun.  Sunglasses may help prevent cataracts, another good reason to wear them.  They’ll also protect against bugs and flying dirt.

• Gloves -  I never wore them until this year, I finally caved.  Not only did it save me from dirts, cuts, and broken nails, but I was able to grip the weeds a lot better when pulling them out.

• Sunscreen – I don’t like sunburns or cancer, so I use it.  Some sunscreens can actually be toxic in the long run, so look take a look a EcoKaren’s Post - scroll down to see the list.

• Hat – My balding husband always uses sunscreen and then puts on a hat or bandana, but he’s not the only one.  I have plenty of hair, but I too wear a hat to keep the sun off.  A burned scalp isn’t a pleasant thing to deal with.

• Boots or shoes – I’m guilty of wearing sandals in the garden and having rocks or bugs get to my feet, but I hate the most when a snake slithers over it.  You also don’t want a dropped tool, like a shovel to hit your foot and tear it up.

• Sleeves and Legs -  This depends.  If I am working in my bed and there isn’t much heavy work, I will wear short sleeves and shorts or capris.  However, if I am hacking bushes, or pulling poison ivy I wear sleeves and legs.

• A kneeling pad – or even a bucket – this is a way to help protect your knees from wear and tear.  It may seem like such an old person thing, but believe me being an old person is something to aspire to.  The alternative is not so nice.

What about you?  What do you do to protect yourself in the garden?

@DebNg – you asked this week what people would bring to a potluck.  We had some pretty good responses from our Cookerati readers.

I want to thank Airplanes and Dragons for the linky set up allowing Cookerati to link up with people looking for a contest.

If you have time to look at the comments, Julie L posted a strawberry jello layered dessert that brought back memories.  My husband’s grandmother brought it to my home one day for dinner.  It really is delicious and I’m thankful for it.

Last weekend at the farmer’s market we bought sweet italian bison sausage links.  When I asked for the sausage, they ask me if I wanted links or bulk.  I wanted bulk – and they asked what we did with the links – why links instead of bulk.  I said that we use the links for spaghetti.  We cook the sausage, let it rest and then slice it and simmer it in the sauce.  We don’ t want the ground up into tiny pieces, we wanted bites of delicious chunks in our spaghetti with the sauce.  They mentioned that another guy they talked to used it in his pizza and said pretty much the same thing.   I use ground sausage in meatballs, or meatloaf, lasagna, etc.. but some days gotta have my links.

Last weekend I found a nice big basket of blueberries.  I froze some, gave some to my mother in law to take home with her and kept some in the fridge to munch on.   What about you, did you find something good this week to experiment with?  I also have some lemon jewel quark from Blue Jacket Dairy.  Yum!

Here’s why:

1.  We would need stuff.  Just like raising fish, hamsters, guinea pigs, cats and dogs, you need the equipment.  It doesn’t have to be store bought, it can be hand made, but you need it.  Watering equipment, pens, fences and food darn it.  Eating bugs would be nice, and they especially love the summer of cicadia’s that show up once every 17 years, but sometimes you need other food, like in winter time.   I have enough stuff.

2.  They don’t just eat bugs. They eat bugs, and herbs, and vegetables and fruit and whatever else that’s yummy in the garden.  They may not fly high, but they can fly high enough to get into raised beds even with a little fence.  So, more stuff will be needed to keep them out because I’m not sharing my garden bounty.

3.  I like my vacations and family visits, but I’d need a chicken sitter.  I have a couple of pets now, and it’s difficult to leave town.  The dog always comes with us, but I’m not taking chickens.  This means figuring out who is going to have the honor of feeding, watering,  letting out of their house in the morning and putting them back in the evening.  Count your chickens before you go away, my brother came home to all of his chickens gone and no remains. He suspects the neighbor’s dog because all the remains were cleaned up with not a feather left behind.

4.  I don’t want any more chores, and by the looks of the litter pan, neither do the kids.  Every time  my husband mentions chickens, I tell him he would be in charge of them, and he backs down.  He doesn’t want any more chores either.  I don’t want to feed any more animals, or water them, or clean up poop or collect eggs .  I’m especially done with poop. Poop is good for composting, but really I’m done with poop- which happens to be all over freshly laid eggs.

5.  I don’t want anything that will draw coyotes, or raccoons, or foxes, or skunks closer to my house.  I don’t want middle of the night reconnaissance going on while I’m sleeping – or while I’m awake.  I don’t wish to wake up to the screams of other animals murdering chickens in the middle of the night.  I don’t want my inside dog walking around waking me up in the middle of the night because she hears the other animals outside.  My kids are grown and I want to sleep through the night without waking my husband to grab a shotgun and head outside half asleep.

6. I don’t want to deal with extra eggs. Of course, this might be the least of my worries.  My brother gets a dozen and a half eggs every single day.  His kids don’t care for eggs that much anymore and though they will eat eggs, it’s not their first choice, or their second. I don’t want to sell them or set up a stand (though I encouraged my brother to put up a sign).  I appreciate the eggs I received from my brother and my brother in law and right now due to my brother’s generousity I have 4 dozen eggs in my fridge.  Yay for me!  but I still don’t want to deal with my own chickens.

7.  When the chickens are old and no longer producing – I don’t want to kill them myself to have in a soup or stew.  I am not a vegetarian, I eat animals, but I don’t want to have to kill them.  I’ll pay the extra money to get some organic free range, fresh killed chickens from the farmer’s market or local farm because I really don’t want to deal with the mess.  I don’t want to have to figure out what to do with the feet and the heads, and where to hang them to bleed out.  It’s messy and attracts coyotes (see #5), they come close enough as it is.

I am not anti-homesteading or chicken raising – this is a personal opinion for me. When I was a teen in high school and volunteered at the humane society I had a first hand view of what happened to neglected, abused,  and abandoned animals.  I always take on an animal with the full knowledge of what it entails, knowing what is expected to have a happy, healthy pet.  When I hear about everyone who enthusiastically wants to start homesteading with chickens, I always hope it’s well thought out and not like the bunny rabbits that are abandoned after Easter every year.  Cute for a little while, but disposable to some people .  For those of you successfully raising chickens and eating those lovely eggs – I salute you for making a good choice, and if you have any eggs to spare, let me know.  I love eggs -I just don’t want to raise my own chickens.

Uncle Merle's Zucchini Relish

Pam's Stuffed Peppers

Beet, Feta, Spelt Salad with a Strawberry Vinaigrette

Pasta, Fresh Peas and Lamb Mint Sausage in a Dill Mint Pesto

Patriot Cakes Decorated by the youngest generation

Good Food, Wonderful Family, Great Conversation and a fun day.  Plus the best fireworks show ever!

These photos don’t do justice to the vendors.  My camera phone was on video, and so I have half second videos but not photos, drat.  There were lots of nice vendors at North Market though some had packed up by the time we arrived – maybe because of the rain.  Athens Market beats them in the grain department, and variety, but still North Market has plenty of veggies, Oink Moo Cluck brought the home grown meat (we bought chicken).  There were a couple of cheese places – I got feta for my salads, and my husband wanted the chipotle – which my daughter thinks will go well in her mexi-salad (along with the chorizo from Blues Creek inside the market).  My husband found some great looking carrots too.  We visited with Isaac from Honey Run Farm, he has awesome smelling soap – I love, love, love the mint smelling soap.  We picked up soap and honey from him.  Someday my husband wants to start his own beehives, but we’re still in the thinking about it stage.

My husband suggested North Market because he wanted to buy me some chocolates for my anniversary.  Last weekend was comfest and he wasn’t able to get close to North Market.  This weekend was easier and we filled the biggest box with delicious chocolates.  We also bought some really nice rib steaks to share with the kids on Monday from Blues Creek. I asked my son if he would be home for dinner on Monday – when he heard it was steak, it was a definite affirmative.  He said he’ll go to the friend’s after dinner.  I bought more lamb mint sausage, chorizo, bacon, and ribs and brisket from Blues Creek.  There were tons of people coming by, but the wait is short.

Stopped by Jeni’s for flavor tasting – you know they gladly let you have a small sample of any and every flavor.  Gotta say though – we think the sweet corn black raspberry is tasty, but just a little on the weird side; I enjoyed the coriander raspberry the best.  Picked up some wildberry lavendar which is one of my staples, coffee, coriander raspberry and mint.  My husband and I are thinking of making our own ice cream since we have mint, and berries – I need to pick up a copy of Jeni’s book, I’m getting ice cream inspired.

While I was at Blues Creek, my husband hit up the Greener Grocer for Luna Burgers and granola.  We also picked up some more mint plants and a flowering plant from the farm market and one guy had a bunch of different types of cucumbers.  I’ve got dill, so it will go together for a nice salad.  I wish I had better photos for you, but maybe you’ll just need to stop out yourself and see what you can find there.