My sister in law, of Fine As Frog’s Hair – makes home made soap to sell, and she also sells cut flower arrangements.  She’s been doing this for years, and has a pretty good following.  She told me that because of the economy, things started out slow this year, but are starting to pick up.  She explained that the Fruit and Veggies always have a long line and sell pretty well . This year, my culinary school graduated, chef by profession niece is joining with her own table.  Holly & Todd have call themselves– Basic Kneads and they sell home made breads and rolls.  Though this is their first year, they are selling really well.  Holly & Todd are building an outside oven to bake their bread in so they have some big plans.  It may not be done in time for the farm market this year but it’s coming along.  I wanted to go to visit Pam at her market, but I really wanted to stop by my niece’s booth and buy some of her home made bread.  I bought a loaf of rye, and one rosemary potato bread along with 4 mixed grains rolls.  It was well worth the trip, the bread is absolutely delicious. 

As I said, the Ohio Valley Farmer’s Market was starting to close up shop when we got there.  Their hours are from 9 – 12 on Saturdays.  What’s interesting is that when the little booths are closing up the sellers run around to see if they can score something from someone else.  The sellers don’t have time to visit each other’s booth because they need to be at their own. If you want to see where the best stuff is, ask the sellers or maybe just follow them around.  As I said we got there as they were closing, though we called and Pam told Holly not to pack up her table because I was almost there.  Besides buying bread, Pam gave us some soap, because my husband repaired her computer (and because we’re in-laws).  As we were getting ready to close up her booth, she said – I gotta see if Eric has any lamb.  I repeated – Lamb – he has lamb.  I love lamb.  So we went over and he said he had two chops  and 4 lbs of ground lamb.  My quick on her feet sister in law said – the chops are mine and I’ll split the ground lamb with you.  Now, that’s not as generous as it sounds since she already had some chops in her freezer – but hey I didn’t know that.  He opened his freezer, I saw all the nice packages, and asked what else he had.  He had a nice chicken, and some chorizo sausage – which I’ve been dying to try, but was out of bacon.  Eric from CrossRoads Farm has pasture raised poultry, and grass fed beef and lamb. 

The Ohio Valley Farmer’s Market likes to emphasize that if you know your farmer, you’ll know your food.  Instead of getting lamb from Australia, shipped from far away, you could get something from your farm market and ask your farmer how his food is raised.  I suggest though, that you don’t just visit the fruits and veggie stands, visit some of the others (especially bread by Basic Kneads, and Soap and Flowers by Fine As Frog’s Hair), my husband did score some pecan stuff from Aunt Carrie’s Bakery before they closed up – I think it was a peace offering. We drove two hours to visit this farm market in order to spend some time with family and be supportive of them, but we do go to the local farm market to see what we can get, and it’s not all veggies there either.  It is difficult to get up on your weekend morning, but well worth it.

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