CLAYTON, N.C.

Clayton Farm and Community Market Newsletter for June 27, 2009

Written by Amber Southerland Polk and edited by the CFCM Board

Clayton Town Square, Corner of O'Neil and Main, downtown Clayton.

Google Map: http://tinyurl.com/m65p66

Email claytonmarket@earthlink.net with any questions, comments, article contributions or to get your own weekly copy delivered to your inbox. We love to hear from you!

Produce Spotlight: Smith's Nursery will bring blueberries, blackberries, squash, zucchini & cucumbers. They will also bring fresh cut basil, arugula, chives and parsley ready to go in dinner tonight. Seasonal Selections will have cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, zucchini and red potatoes. They will also be adding a limited number of okra and corn fresh off the farm.

Calling All Home Tomato Gardeners for the 1st Annual Top Tomato Contest July 25th. We will have several categories including biggest tomato, tasty tomato, ugliest tomato and best tomato presented by a youth gardener. No application necessary, judging will begin at 10am sharp. Prizes will be awarded, however irresistible tomatoes eaten by our guest judges can not be returned. If you or your local business is interested in sponsoring this event please contact claytonmarket@earthlink.net.

Market the Market: The Clayton Farm and Community Market is a grassroots effort started and perpetuated by Clayton area residents who love fresh and local products and want a farmers market in Clayton. If that sounds like you, we are going to be offering several ways for you to get involved through our Market the Market section of the newsletter.

This week's Market the Market tip is: sign up a friend for the e-newsletter. Email you friend a copy of this newsletter and ask if you can sign them up to receive a weekly copy. When they say yes, email the market account (claytonmarket@earthlink.net) with their address and I'll add them to the list. The person who sends me the most names will receive recognition in an upcoming edition of the newsletter.

Let Me Tell You About this Cake I Had: In my 27 years on this earth I have never had a cake as good as the one I ate two Saturdays ago. It is called a Lemon Blueberry Cake and it was made by Jerri of the Flying Fork BakeHouse. This baking masterpiece has beautiful butter cream frosting, lemon curd filling and actual whole blueberries. Not blueberry flavoring or artificial blueberry goo. Whole blueberries.

I also must admit I ate two banana-chocolate chip muffins that day...one for breakfast and one for lunch. For the record, I am not alone in this overindulgence of sugar... I saw Milo, who helps David the Mushroom Man, buy a whole bag of those things! When the people who work at the market are buying from a certain vendor, you know it's good stuff.

Love your Farmers Market Contest: Vote for the Clayton Market online at www.care2.com/farmersmarket/ Top prize is $5000 for the market and they even have prizes for the top recruiters. Right now the Durham Market is winning. So go out there and show your love for Clayton!

We never get tired of hearing about how much you love us, so send an email telling us why you love the Clayton Market and we will include it in an upcoming edition of the newsletter.

Save a Little Bit of Market for Later: Debbie Stroud with the Johnston County Cooperative Extension has offered up her knowledge again. As you will remember, she has already educated us on healthy snacks and now she has written the following article for Market visitors on how to preserve the food at the Clayton Market.

The easiest thing to do is to freeze. Produce such as squash, tomatoes, red potatoes, and green beans freeze well. You want to blanch some products before you put them in the freezer. Blanching inactivates the enzymes that continue to break down produce even when in the freezer. The key to blanching is to cool down the food for the equal amount of time you blanched it. For example, if you blanch for two minutes you immediately cool down in ice water for two minutes, then drain, package and freeze. If you would like a brochure that has the time-tables and directions for freezing fruits and vegetables call the J.C. Cooperative Extension office at 989-5380 or email Debra_Stroud@ncsu.edu and we will send you one. You may prefer another preservation method because you either don't have the space to hold a lot of frozen produce or you have produce that does not freeze well, such as cucumbers. This is where canning comes in. Canning is an easy and excellent method to preserve produce. There are two canning methods; Hot water bath canning, for all of your high acid foods (fruit, pickles, acidified tomatoes and acidified figs) and Pressure canning for all of your low acid products (all vegetables-unless they have been acidified, meats, poultry and fish). If you are interested in canning information or lessons again contact J.C. Cooperative Extension. Don't let your garden produce go to waste, now is a good time to start stocking up for the winter. Even if you don't have a garden, you can take advantage of excellent prices at Farmer's Markets and produce stands. You have control over exactly what is going into your food when you preserve it yourself. By learning and following good food preservation methods you can safely "put up" high quality food and get it for a lower price. Music at the Market: Brightleaf At the Clayton Market we are all about preserving heritage for the next generation. We encourage young and start up vendors, teach children about agriculture and thanks to this week's upcoming event, Brightleaf, we can now say we are encouraging youth to pick up a fiddle and play some music from days gone by. Brightleaf is composed of Kathi Nixon and her two children Hinton (13) and Georgia Kate (10). Kathi on guitar and Hinton on fiddle play bluegrass/old time tunes while Georgia Kate sings. Hinton and Georgia Kate will be our first youth performers so please be sure to give them a warm Clayton Market welcome.

Special Thanks to Tracy Wiebeck for entertaining us the last two Saturdays. If you are interested in having Tracy play your event please contact him at tswiebeck@yahoo.com.

Upcoming Events: Contact claytonmarket@earthlink.net if you have an event or activity you would like to bring to the Market.

July 4: Bruce Naegelen, musician. www.myspace.com/brucenaegelen July 18: John Spencer, musician.

Vendors 6-27-2009:

Baked goods

Cleveland Cake & Coffee Co., Inc.Flying Fork Bakehouse

Produce, Plants, ect.

Riverman's MushroomsSeasonal SelectionsSmith's NurserySunday Morning FarmsOmega Farms

Coming July 4thDD & J's Old Fashioned Kettle Corn