Market Closed Next Week!!

Place your orders while you can – we’ll be closed next week, just for one week!!

Pickup this Tuesday, July 21st, will run as normal – yet we will not reopen that night for orders!!

We’ll open the following Tuesday, July 28th, and remain open with no closures the month of August :-)

Last call for orders is Saturday night at 9pm!! Hope to see you at Pickup Tuesday – stay cool, kind, and safe!!

Garlic, green beans, tomatoes, squash... and Honey!!

How exciting when the new produce starts to arrive, while essential Honey also returns after a one week hiatus!!

Fresh green beans and Dragon Tongue beans

Heirloom tomatoes

Yellow summer squash and zucchini

Plus plenty of fresh garlic, herbs and greens!!

Ah, summer, we love you (and I’ll remember I said that during the heat set to come this week!!)

The beginning of our summer produce offerings!

Does this heat slow everyone else down, too? A slower, safer work pace, more checks on animals to ensure they’re watered and as cool as possible, more shade and drink breaks for us… And yet the site of beautiful, colorful produce keeps me going (nothing like a cool cucumber or melon on a hot day!)! Or the antics of my funny babies, whether human, bovine, hog, feline, or poultry, that bring a smile despite the gallons of sweat running off my nose. That all the young life on the farm can still take pleasure in simple things, despite the heat, helps me slow down and keep my glass overflowing with goodness.

Here’s hoping you all have something that helps you find a cozy, restful place no matter how uncomfortable life may be!

Beets, sweets and punch to beat the heat!!

New on the Market – tender, sweet Beets from Marrs Produce in Piqua!!

Freshly dug just in time for Market Tuesday, these earthy beauties are sold with their tops on – perfect to include in a summer salad or stir fry!

And who wants to heat up their oven right now? With these nice warm days let our bakers serve you up a sweet treat to enjoy without heating up your kitchen!

Be sure to check out all our Brats – whether beef, pork, or chicken, plain or stuffed with cheesy or sweet goodness, you can’t go wrong!

And nothing is simpler than patties on the grill – savory sausage or beef, plus more ground chicken available from King’s!

Best way to top off a cool summer meal? McGuffey’s Herbal Drink Mixer – refreshing Hibiscus Punch!!

I feel cooler already, after a sunny morning in the garden :-)

This month's Refer - A - Friend Winner is...

I’m pleased to announce our latest winner of the monthly Refer-A-Friend drawing…

Julie Sabourin!

Here’s how it works – you tell someone about the Virtual Market. When they come to pick-up, they drop your name as the person who told them about the Virtual Market. Then you’re entered in our monthly drawing for a $10 Market Gift Certificate!

No expiration date – good on any purchase :-)

We had so many referrals lately! Keep them coming – you never know who will win next month!!

Thank you for your continued support of our local market – stay cool and safe in this heat wave! Thank you to all our farmers and workers who must be outdoors no matter how uncomfortable or ugly it gets outside – we can’t appreciate you enough :-)

Get your Fixings for the Fourth!

Bulk Bargain!! King’s Poultry offers their boneless skinless chicken breasts 15% off when you purchase a case!!

Need herbs? Spice up your sweet tea, grilled veggies and more with some of the eleven fresh herbs currently on the Market!!

And Doc Allen has two different raw Honey varieties for us -
the lightest, early Honey mainly from Locust or Acacia tree nectar, and a golden spring Honey, mainly from Clover!! One of these varietal Honeys is considered THE premier Midwest honey, and the other is considered the most traditional tasting – but they’re both raw, unfiltered, unheated, and produced right in Troy!! Time to stock up, whether you like it slathered on some fresh sourdough bread, as part of a perfect salad dressing, or a great glaze for grilled pork chops!!

And next week we’ll see the return of Tin Roof Mobile Food!! You’ve wondered when we’d have those stew cubes and soup bones back – the wait is (almost!) over!!

Hope everyone who’s garden needed a pick me up received some of this glorious rain today!! Have a beautiful weekend – We’re open til 9pm tonight :-)

Trade: Tried and true Buttermilk Recipe for fresh Buttermilk!!

With the cows enjoying the summer pasture, and us enjoying the ample milk they provide, I’m making butter so regularly that I find myself with an overabundance of buttermilk!!

And where would I turn to seek new ways to use it? The same folks who come to pickup each week with awesome ideas, tips, and recipes! Because sure, if time allowed I could search for new recipes, but I’d prefer to try one you’d suggest – because I know I’m only going to share recipes that are winners at our table!!

Of course the kids thought they could use a lot up if we gave all the new piglets a buttermilk bath like Wilbur, but I’m confident someone out there has a tastier, less messy option!

So here’s my thought – if you have a recipe that I could try using fresh buttermilk, please email and share it! And in exchange, if you’re interested, I would love to bring you a pint of fresh buttermilk to pickup on Tuesday! This lets me share our bounty, and discover something new :-)

Thus far, we’ve (successfully!) attempted everything from Chocolate Buttermilk Brownies and Corn Bread to Fried Chicken and Coffee Cake… and of course Biscuits are a staple!

Be sure if you email to let me know whether you’d really like some fresh buttermilk, so I know how much to try to bring! Thanks, everyone!

And just so you know, the cows are only eating our organic pastures, and are 100% grass-fed – no grain at any time! Even our beef is 100% grass-fed and grass-finished – it’s amazing what balanced soil and protein-rich alfalfa fields can do for your production and your end results, whether in butterfat or marbling!

And our Winners are...

Congratulations to the Winner of our Father’s Day Giveaway Drawings!!

Keith Hoopes

John Bozick

Denny Myers

The family of Norb Frantz

Thanks to everyone for entering – watch for our annual Gift Basket Giveaway next month!!

Happy Summer! And maybe some much needed rain to go along with the great haying weather!! Always hoping for that balance ;-)

The great news – all our produce growers have checked in, and we can expect more variety and quantity this summer than ever – everything from fruit, garlic and potatoes to squash, eggplant and sweet corn! And of course summer staples such as tomatoes, peppers and zucchini ;-) Coming soon!

I blame the potato bugs

Market would’ve been open on time if I hadn’t gotten distracted when I got home. We’d spent a good portion of the evening last night in the garden picking, squishing, and generally attempting to obliterate our potato bug population.

I thought, when I pulled up the drive and passed our garden tonight, oh it’s so lovely out and it’ll be so nice to see clean, bug-free plants – I’ll just stop for a minute to look. And of course a minute turned into thirty as I kept finding new hatchlings from all the eggs we apparently missed last night, and it was so light out I didn’t dream 9 o’clock had snuck up on me so quickly!!

But better late than never, we’re back for another delicious week of local food, warm weather, and all the little joys of life.

I hope you enjoy something that satisfies you this week!! We sure will, with a quality-family-time-potato-bug collecting contest while we dream of homemade french fries, potato pancakes, real hash browns, and pierogis! Mmmm!

Plus fresh tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers are on the way?! Yum!!

Seasonal favorite - Garlic Scapes!!

If you love garlic, and have never utilized the green stems from the flower of any hardneck garlic variety, you’re in for a real treat!! So easy to chop and use as you would garlic – you can even freeze for later or enjoy fresh with your favorite greens, or in a potato or pasta salad!

Our family favorite is added to stir fry and soups – we’ll freeze both the pesto and chopped scapes to toss in almost any dish, because so many things are better with that incomparable garlic flavor!

Try an amazing garlic scape pesto, and be sure to freeze some to enjoy when this short-lived seasonal favorite is done for the year!!

Chemical free and organically grown from seed we’ve saved for years, after attending Jandy’s Farm’s Garlic Festival in Bellefontaine and trying as many of their varieties as possible!!

Get them while you can – the scapes must be removed so the plant’s energy goes to producing a large, quality garlic bulb… Won’t be long now :-)