Tomatoes, Strawberries, Pomellos, and Greens (11/24/2017)

~~Good Morning!  Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and are ready to get back to less fattening foods 🙂 What about Greens (kale, collards, mustards, and more); easy to chop and add to casseroles and stirfries of leftover meals…leftovers are always the best!  We can help you get back on the ‘wagon’ with our luscious Lacinato Kale (maybe a few bags of our other baby kales too), heirloom collards and a few mustard greens (we need to replant more mustards).  We’ll also have a few more bags of young spinach, more good-sized, perfect cucumbers, Sungold Cherry tomatoes (I love ’em in my breakfast wraps) and a few of our now famous, larger, heirloom tomatoes (only a few ready though). To spice everything up, we’ll have our green onions, cilantro, arugula and whatever herbs we can find out there.  Fresh tumeric root is excellent to lightly grate on your food, and oh so healthy! Those darn lettuces are sooooo slow this year; a couple of cloudy days and they stop growing, so I think one more week for the first small harvest of lettuces. We still have a few sweet, pink pomellos–AND–a couple pints of our organic strawberries (well, everything is organic, but I feel that I need to reiterate that sometimes, with all of the resellers at the market)! Something is already after our small row of strawberries and it isn’t raccoons or opossums, it’s a darn armadillo!  It’s digging up some of my herbs in the front bed too; living in a burrow next to the house. Problem is we haven’t had a dog down here full time since we lost the last one to the highway, and you can’t trap armadillos the same way as the other critters….Armadillo: Possum on the Half-shell yuk.
~~We wolfed down a yummy fish dip and mango salsa (both available at vendors near us) while waiting to eat the big meal yesterday. If we snack it’s not going to be junk food, so we’ll have more of Karen’s satisfying Super Nutra-loaf, Seasonal Pestos, and Herbal/Moringa Teas…always good to have on hand during the holiday season. Don’t forget, if you have a SNAP card you will get up to $40 to match in tokens until December 31st (after that I guess it will be back to $20 matching tokens–which is still great). I love seeing customers spend their tokens at the market on healthy stuff instead of grocery store junk food. Most of our items are eligible for the Green tokens that may be harder to spend with other vendors–but we’ll take cash, cards (square) and sometimes trade for our stuff.  See you at the Market (come early for very limited items)!

~This year we will be doing our first sugarcane squeezin’ on the Sunday after Thanksgiving (This Sunday!), so that more friends can attend. It’s also a potluck of sorts, and just a chance to get to observe, visit and also see what’s going on at the farm (and yes, we really do have a herd of water buffalo).  If you’re interested please talk to me at the market or send us an email. Supervised children are definitely welcome too. We are extremely short staffed, so need all the real help we can get. 

~~Raw Water Buffalo Milk & other ‘Pet Consumption’ *;) winking products (ask us if you don’t know what this means):  When milk is plentiful we’ll have good farmers cheeses, Kefir, buttermilk (best for cooking; the fluffiest pancakes ever!), unsalted creamy white butter, Whey  http://dontwastethecrumbs.com/2014/05/36-ways-to-use-whey-and-5-ways-to-make-it/

and of course Raw Milk, which is regularly priced at $9/half gal. or $17/gal. However, we have been eating/drinking all of this ourselves and other than the Raw Milk can only make it for you if you order ahead of time (Please give us a week – ecofarmfl@yahoo.com).

~~For our complete availability list (except for last minute items) check the bottom of this email.
~~Thanks for your support!!  See you at the Market Saturday *:) happy
Check this out from the Lakeland Downtown Farmers Curbmarket Newsletter:Text to Win!

Keep up with Market news via text message!

  • Just to make it fun, we are running a weekly contest. Text Keyword CURB to 51660 to join our text program and enter to win $10 worth of Market Bucks, which can be spent with any Market vendor. Winners will be notified via text each Saturday.
  • What happens if you don’t win the week you joined? No worries! You can try again week after week. Just text CURB to 51660 each week (SundayFriday), and you’ll be entered for that week’s drawing!
 
~~We are always happy to take your used, clean plastic grocery bags (no garbage please) and green pint baskets that strawberries come in…Please remember to bring them to us this week…Thanks!
~~ Italian ischia sourdough starter http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinkadvice/10638629/Pizza-recipes-how-to-make-artisan-pizza-in-your-own-home.html

and Pizza dough, ready to use right away–active and ready to use (please pre-order this a week before so it can be activated) $9. Also, let me know ahead of time and we can have a Kombucha ‘mother’  available for making your own brew (also $9).


 
~~Raw Water Buffalo Milk sales: We normally sell milk in plastic half gallon containers @$9 and a convenient quart size plastic container for $5. If you would prefer quart or half gallon wide mouth glass containers there will be a $1& $2 deposit to cover the cost of the jars and you will need to let us know ahead of time by email. Kefir only comes in quart sized jars ($8 or $7 with a wide-mouth quart jar to trade). Butter comes in 8 oz. plastic containers for $8. Remember, this is for ‘Pet Consumption Only’ by Florida law. Your ‘Pet’ will be eating like royalty 🙂 


~~We grow everything organically; all ‘chemicals’ are OMRI approved for Organic growers and our fertilizers consist of composted manures (buffalo and more) and fish emulsion. We are not Certified Organic as the cost and ongoing paperwork is prohibitive for ‘real’ farmers–and there are too many variances allowed for Corporate Organic farms–and now they are certifying hydroponics so many original Organically Certified dirt farmers are speaking out and/or dropping their certifications, which are now meaningless. Remember: Ecofarmers do it in the Dirt!

 
Ecofarm is currently able to participate in only one market with super fresh, organically grown produce (not Certified) and other farm products for your convenience:


Lakeland Downtown Farmers Curbmarket Saturday8AM-2PM all year except August. We are located on Kentucky Avenue in front of Crispers restaurant. Check out the market website at www.ldda.org/home/farmerscurbmarket.aspx

 and sign-up for the market e-newsletter. Dogs, children and fun galore!

Temple Terrace Farmers Market – Saturdays 9AM-1:00PM – A true Farmers Market – For more information check it out at:http://www.ttfarmersmarket.com/

or https://www.facebook.com/ttfarmersmarket 


Note: We have been providing some of our produce to this market and will continue to increase our support whenever possible. 


~~The Lakeland Downtown Farmers Curbmarket is now taking your EBT/SNAP cards; and you can double your dollars by purchasing Florida grown produce & honey!! There are about 25 of us selling honey, cane syrup, cottage industry foods, produce, breads, seeds, edible plants and more that qualifies for SNAP; and about six of us that can double your money with our produce, thanks to the Fresh from Florida program. The Market booth is set up at the south end of the market and they can explain the process and you can purchase tokens. Vendors participating in the program will have a sign in front of their booths. In addition, you can ride the bus free in Polk County to come to our market and participate in this program. Please pass the word!


Following are some of the products we may be bringing to the market this week:


Super-Nutra Loaf – Fresh weekly; full of seeds & nuts. 
Pesto! Various Seasonal ingredients – great for seafood, pasta, potatoes and more!
Florida Red-Bay leaves – use like other dried bay leaves in soups, beans, etc. 
Fresh Rosemary – We may bring a couple of small bags
Sweet potatoes – not available for a few weeks until new batch ready to dig
Dino kale! – The most heat tolerant kale; more varieties coming soon
Sungold Cherry tomatoes – Finally, a good supply
Heirloom Tomatoes – just starting to ripen! No comparison in flavor!
Pink Pomellos – good supply this week
Green onions – beautiful bundles this week!
Heirloom collards – nice bundles
Mustard greens – only a few nice bundles of broadleaf green/Red Giant mix
Arugula – good supply, nice large leaves
Red radishes – decent supply this week
Cilantro!
Cucumbers!
Strawberries – a few pints now available
Semi-savoy (crinkled leaves) Spinach – Just starting to get big enough
Lambs-quarters – Wild greens that are super nutritious and tasty
Wild purslane – another wild plant that is more nutritious that what we try to grow–and tasty too!
Israeli basil – very heat & rain tolerant; tastes and smells wonderful!
Lemongrass culms/leaves – may be available some weeks
Powdered Moringa – just a teaspoon in your breakfast or other meals does wonders
Okra – small supply, we may be taking them out soon
Starfruit – Not this week
Homemade jams made with very little sugar (organic)   strawberry, strawberry/basil, peach and Cranberry Hibiscus

Pure Cane syrup – Yes!  Give our own local, sustainable sweetness a try; not just for pancakes.
Luffa seed packets – not currently available
Luffa sponges – Check out the real thing–and no, they don’t come from the ocean!
Java Planet Coffees (whole bean, Organic, Fair Trade, Shade Grown & Bird Friendly!) Good Selection of single, blends, dark & medium roasts

Thanks for supporting local farmers, artists, musicians and craftspeople!

Debbie, Jon & Billy plus C.J. & Hayley–the kiddies that inspire us
Ecofarmers do it in the dirt!