SFM Newsletter April 29, 2015

OUR FIRST WEDNESDAY EVENING!

Tomorrow is the first market Wednesday! And our first evening market in 10 years I'm told. Kabobs will be there! (And again in two weeks). Here's what we've got lined up: Eagle Produce Farm (AM): Kale and mustard greens. Greenhouse tomatoes, squash, zucchini and possibly cucumbers. And tomato plants and more! Lee's Fresh Flowers & Vegetables (AM): Irises, tulips, other fillers. Swiss chards, spring onion, radishes, green garlic Third Creek Cottage Garden (NEW VENDOR, PM): Pork, Eggs, Homemade soaps (made with honey from our honeybees), and possible lettuce, greens and other produce. Two Pigs Farm (PM): Pastured Eggs, Pork and Poultry. A slight change of vegetables! (Their CSA shares get priority while things get going!) Miller Produce (AM & PM): Expect plenty of strawberries, lettuce, onions and plants. Expect more from them on Saturday... How Sweet it Is (AM & PM): Morning muffins, pound cake, coffee cake, pumpkin bread and more! SandyCreek Farm (NEW VENDOR, PM): Fresh Mushrooms, Jellies, Preserves, Chocolate Sauce, Bees wax & Plants. Of all the vendors, they're coming the furthest so they asked me to mention they may hold off if the forecast gets worse... Fundraiser: If you've made it to the bottom this email, I'd wager you're probably a pretty big local food supporter! I'd like to invite you to Riot in the Pasture on May 17th, benefitting both the Farmers' Market and Bread Riot, our partner nonprofit. We're printing tickets tomorrow so hopefully you'll be able to stop in the evening to buy however many you need... Here's a link with info about the dueling pigs, Salty Caper pizza, local beer and more (more info to come!): breadriot.org/riot-in-the-pasture

Thanks so much for supporting small local farms.

Sincerely,

Eric
Manager, salisburyfarmersmarket.com
Executive Director, breadriot.org

 

SFM newsletter April 25, 2015

Hey everyone! Market opens tomorrow at 8AM. There's a chance of rain starting around 9 it seems but that won't discourage our vendors... Show up at 8 and hopefully the rain will hold off! If you'd like text message reminders of market on the day of, sign up for our new "FarmFan" service! Get reminders, check in at the market with your phone and win prizes! (Our first prize is that if you check in 10 times, you can win a cloth tote bag designed by the Lettered Lilly with both the Farmers' Market logo and the Bread Riot logo) Sign up here: http://farmfanapp.com/salisburyfarmersmarket/signup Items available this week: (Including but not limited to!) Bame Farm (new vendor!): Grassfed Beef, Pastured Pork and Eggs Lee's Fresh Flowers & Vegetables: Irises, tulips, other fillers. Swiss chards, spring onion, radishes, green garlic Correll Farm: Red leaf, green leaf, butter head, romaine, and oak leaf lettuces Kale, Collards, Oriental mustard, Bak choi Green garlic, Asparagus, Tomato and basil plants. Country Garden: Plants, transplants, baby plants and more plants. All sorts of vegetable, herb and flowering plants. Gardeners come and see! Two Pigs Farm: Pastured Eggs, Pork and Poultry. A slight change of vegetables! (Their CSA shares get priority while things get going!) Eagle Produce Farm: Kale and mustard greens. Greenhouse tomatoes, squash, zucchini and possibly cucumbers. And tomato plants and more!

Farmer's Market Shopping Tips

As you all know by now WTF is not returning to the Farmers Markets this season.  Although, you can still come out to the farm & buy our products.  Just call/text first to make sure we are around!

Just thought I would share some shopping tips that we have learned throughout our 8 years at the markets.

1- Bring cash.  Although several vendors do have the ability to swipe cards cash is always the easiest for the vendors/farmers.

2-Bring a cooler and/or shopping bags.  Lots of farmers markets have more than fruits & vegetables.  Many have meats, cheeses, seafood & other perishable items so bring a cooler to store those items in. 

3-Say Hello to the vendor/farmer & ask questions.  If you don't know what something is ask, if you don't know how to cook something ask. 

4-Remember when you are at the farmers market you are shopping seasonally & locally.  Most farmers markets aren't going to have oranges & bananas & there will not be watermelons in April.

5- Don't buy too much!!  Sounds crazy...right?  When you get to the market walk around & see what everyone has then go back & start your buying.  We really don't want you to waste anything or have to throw anything away.

Salisbury Farmers Market Newsletter

Hey Folks!

Winter was a doozy, but fresh veggies, eggs, meats and more are available starting next weekend across from Rowan Public Library downtown. We'll be open:

Wednesdays and Saturdays 8am-noon

And

INTRODUCING

Wednesday 4-7pm!!

Our first Wednesday evening market will also feature the local Kabob Food Truck!

 

Sadly Wild Turkey Farms has grown to the point where they do the vast majority of their business wholesale and won't be at market this year. It's great to see them be able to move that direction. But not to worry! Bame Farms, Third Creek Cottage Gardens, Sandy Creek Farm and Cherry Hill Farm (Rowan Farm School graduates) are all joining us as new vendors this year!

 

I look forward to meeting so many new people starting next week. Not to mention all the delicious local farm products.

Best,

Eric Bowen

Manager, salisburyfarmersmarket.com

Executive Director, breadriot.org

PCG (Piedmont Culinary Guild) Member Profile

Meet PCG Member – Lee Menius: The Inevitable Farmer

News / Farmer, PCG Member Profile / 0 comments

April 7, 2015

Growing up in Rowan County, farmer Lee Menius was surrounded by his family’s agricultural past. The 50 acres he still calls home have been handed from one generation to the next since at least 1870. Yet as a young man choosing a future path, farming was not on his radar. “I pretty much hated it when I was a kid,” he recalls over pizza at Charlotte’s 7th Street Public Market.
You’d never know it to talk lamb or pork production today with the lean man across the table. Sporting his ubiquitous ball cap combined with a placid, crinkled gaze, he masks a wicked sense of humor. Menius can rattle off processing weights and revenue estimates as easily as urbanites spouting Starbucks orders. The owner of China Grove’s Wild Turkey Farms (WTF) has a harder time figuring out what brought him so literally back to the land after starting college as a textile major.
“Good looking girls in animal science,” jokes his wife Domisty. “He decided to switch majors.”
Whatever it was, Lee ended up leaving NC State with both a future wife and an animal-science degree of his own. He shows no signs of regret as he and Domisty settle ever deeper into the farming life with their two young sons Charlie and Rosty.
It’s been 17 years since WTF came into existence, but only five since Lee left a job with the state’s Cooperative Extension to make the farm his sole source of income. 2015 marks another step in its growth, as WTF moves away from retail sales at local farmers’ markets to focus on wholesaling pork and lamb to area restaurants and food vendors.
As he discusses the business, two words continually crop up in Lee’s vocabulary: consistency and quality. He chose to raise Berkshire-cross pigs because of the breed’s reputation for high-quality marbled flesh, and he carefully manages his breeding program to retain amiable animals that produce reliably good meat.

“My goal is that everything you get from me is going to be high quality, and consistent quality all the way through.”

Lee feels lucky to have moved so quickly to a mostly wholesale business model, and recognizes the role played by Piedmont Culinary Guild.
“I think it’s been a really good networking opportunity for us as farmers to get in front of chefs,” he says, “and for chefs to talk to each other and to run into us.” Today Wild Turkey Farms counts about 15 regular restaurant clients around the city, including Pure Pizza, whose pie that day came topped with WTF chorizo. Through the PCG, Lee says he’s recently gotten another half-dozen inquiries from area chefs.
As unpredictable as his career trajectory has been, Lee has clear goals for the future of his farm. Through his years of hard-working experience and his association with PCG, Lee understands price pressures faced by restaurants, and has developed a reputation for working with chefs to get what they need at a price that makes sense.
“At the end of the year, you made money, I made money, we’re all happy and we’re in it together.”

Profile written by Alison Leininger