Backyard Chicken Workshop this Saturday!!!

If you've ever had a farm fresh egg, you'll know what a wholly different thing it is compared to a standard grocery store egg. The flavor is richer, the yolk more yellow and full, and they are better for you. According to a 2007 study performed by a  Mother Earth News  that compared pasture raised eggs from flocks across the country to USDA nutrient data for commercial eggs they found that eggs from hens allowed to graze on fresh pastures contain as much as

• 1/3 less cholesterol 
• 1/4 less saturated fat 
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids 
• 3 times more vitamin E 
• 7 times more beta carotene

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-10-01/Tests-Reveal-Healthier-Eggs.aspx#ixzz1a7VLSUf

In the Market we carry eggs from Austin based Vital Farms who raise their hens on "plenty of salad and exercise."

Or you can raise hens yourself and only have to go to your backyard to find a superior egg! This Saturday at 10:30am in the Market, Pattie Meyers will share her 16 years of backyard chicken raising with us. She'll also have information about the current Georgetown codes pertaining to chicken raising. If you've ever thought about raising your own chickens, you don't want to miss this, but if you can't make it on Saturday, I'll be repeating what I learn in the class Wednesday, October12th at 1pm. Hope to see you there! I'm so eggcited! (Sorry - I couldn't bear to make it all the way through this blog post without some sort of egg-pun)

Notes from the Garden: Yard Long Beans & Armenian Cucumbers

If you are looking for new veggies to grow in your garden and wondering what is suitable to grow in our unique climate, especially through the hot part of the year, start looking through seed catalogues for varieties from the Middle East or South East Asia. Plants bred in these parts of the world can handle some heat. Mid East veggies have also been bred to survive on less water.

This immature Armenian Cucumber should be ready to harvest later this week!

We've got two such worldly veggies just getting ready to harvest in the Monument Garden. You may have seen Armenian Cucumbers earlier in the season from Fruitful Hill Farm. They developed quite following for thier sweet, juicy, and tender flesh. Also called Serpent Melons, these slightly fuzzy coiling fruits are actually melons, but resemble cucumbers more in taste. Unlike true cucumbers that can sometimes get bitter, I have never met a snake melon that bit back!

Yard Long Beans growing on the same trellis as the Armenian Cucmbers

The other exotic variety that will be appearing in the market later this week from our garden is the Yard Long Bean. I was inspired to grow these by some urban farmer friends in Austin as well as Windy Hill Farm, who brought us a steady supply of these superb green and purple beans this summer. Also called noodle bean, or snake bean, they are a variety of cowpea native to Southeast Asia, grown extensively in Southern China and Thailand. Quick growing, heat loving, delicious and good for you, yard long beans are a good source of protein, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, iron, phosphorus, and potassium, and a very good source for vitamin C, folate, magnesium, and manganese. You can cook them anyway you would cook a regular green bean!
It is too late to plant either of these heat loving veggies now, but keep them in mind when you start to plan your garden for next spring! Meanwhile, you can visit the Monument Market to try them. If anyone else has experimented with exotic vegetable varieties and found them suited for the Texas Heat, I'd love to hear about them!

October is a great time to start a garden!

Fall is a lovely time to garden here in Central Texas. The cooler weather is perfect for being outside and perfect for getting young plants growing, even in the midst of drought. Come out to the market on Saturday, October 1st at 10:30am or Wednesday, October 5th at 1pm to learn what garden activities should take place throughout the month, including what veggies and herbs flourish in this time of year and how to divide irises and other perennials.

Fall is also one of the most delicious time of year! For the next couple months we get to enjoy both warm season fruiting crops like cucumbers, beans & squash and the beginning of cool weather leafy greens and roots, like kale, radishes, and bok choy.

We just got in some Japanese salad turnips from Johnson's Backyard Garden, which is one of my favorite cool season roots. They are meant to be eaten raw in salads or with a dip and are sweet and tender. I encourage you to try them. They might become your favorite too! I've got some growing in the Monument Garden that will be ready near the end of the month....

One of my favorite fall recipes is this one for Butternut & Sage pizza. You can substitute any winter squash for the butternut. Consider adding roasted peppers, sauteed kale or mushrooms for added variety!

Butternut Squash and Sage Pizza

½ tsp active dry yeast
pinch of sugar
4 cups white bread flour
1 tsp salt
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed, about 1 pound prepared weight
16 sage leaves
2 x 14-ounce cans chunky tomato sauce
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, sliced
4 ounces goat cheese
salt & freshly ground black pepper



1. Put ½ cups warm water in a measuring cup. Add the yeast & sugar and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes, until the mixture is frothy.

2. Sift the flour & salt into a large bowl and make a well in the center. Gradually pour in the yeast mixture and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Mix to make a smooth dough. Knead on a lightly floured surface for about 10 minutes, until smooth, springy & elastic. Place the dough in a floured bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 ½ hours.

3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Oil four baking sheets. Put butter and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a roasting pan and heat in the oven for a few minutes. Add the shallots, squash and half the sage leaves. Toss to coat. Roast for 15 to 20 minutes, until tender.

4. Raise the oven temperature to 425 degrees F. Divide the dough into four equal pieces and roll out each piece on a floured surface to a 10-inch round

5. Transfer each round to a baking sheet and spread with tomato sauce, leaving a ½ inch border all around. Spoon the squash & shallot mixture over the top.

6. Arrange to mozzarella over the squash mixture and crumble the goat cheese on top. Sprinkle with teh remaining sage leaves and season with plenty of salt & pepper. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until the cheese has melted and the crusts are golden.

Learn how to grow STRAWBERRIES! YUM!

It may be true that if all the strawberries produced in California in one year, were laid berry to berry, they'd wrap around the world 15 times, but they would never rival the flavor of the berries grown in your backyard.

Come out to the Market Saturday, September 24th at 10:30am or Wednesday, September 28th at 1pm to learn how to grow this spring delight.

Medieval stonemasons carved strawberry designs on altars and around the tops of pillars in sacred places such as churches, as a symbol of perfection. Plant some strawberries and you can acheive perfection in your garden!

Garden Visitor & RIGHT 2 KNOW RALLY

I spent longer than I probably should have chasing this Monarch Butterfly around the garden. She was gathering nectar for the long journey ahead. All the monarchs east of the Rocky Mountains migrate to one area in Central Mexico for the winter. There they gather in the forest so thickly that tree branches break under the weight of butterflies. Can you imagine?

The monarchs that make the long journey south (or back north in the spring) live 3 times as long as their family members who live in other times of the year. No one knows how they can do this, let alone how they always find their way back to their winter get-away. Amazing.

Unfortunately, there are signs that the monarch population is in decline, especially in the Midwest. This decrease in population over the last 17 years has been attributed, at least in part by the widespread use of Genetically Modified Roundup Ready crops. Monarch caterpillars can only eat milkweed, and monarchs will only lay their eggs on milkweed. The widespread and liberal use of Monsanto's Roundup on GM crops is killing off a large portion of the milkweed in agricultural areas. One study found that the amount of milkweed on farms in Iowa declined 90 percent from 1999 to 2009. Monarchs are finding fewer places to lay their eggs, thus their population is shrinking. "It [glyphosate] kills everything," said Lincoln P. Brower, an entomologist who is also an author of the paper detailing the loss of monarch population. "It's like absolute Armageddon for biodiversity over a huge area." You can read the New York Times article here.

This is only one of the many reasons to avoid GMO crops, and I think that many of us would if only we could easily distinguish what was made with genetically engineered crops and what was not. Without a law requiring that products containing GMOs be labeled as such, it is very difficult for we as consumers to know what is GMO free. It is estimated that as much as 75% of processed foods in a conventional grocery store contain GMOs. Most people are completely unaware of this because the large corporations who make heaps of money with their GMO seed and herbicide know that if we knew what we were eating, we would make different choices, and their lucrative business model would be in jeopardy. Their millions are made by keeping millions of consumers ignorant about what they are feeding their children. Even China has labels their GMO food. We have a right to know.

You have a voice! It will take a lot of us, but if we shout loud enough for long enough, we can get GMOs labeled, which will be a huge blow to the GMO corporate giants. Come out to the Capitol Sunday, October 2nd and shout with the rest of Central Texas for the right to know what is in our food. fond out more at http://rallyforrealfood.com/.

This is a part of a 2 week nation wide series of anti-GMO actions highlighted by a 313 mile walk from Brooklyn to the White House to demand to know what is in our food. You can learn more about this historic march at http://www.right2knowmarch.org/

New @ The Market

     Organic gazpacho has been well received; and if you haven't had a chance to try some for yourself then you're in luck! We will have a fresh batch ready for this Thursday. Did you know that all the ingredients come right off the very tables you pick from?

      Delicata squash!!! This delicious squash was in earlier in the season but suffered from heat exhaustion. Lucky for us it's back! With a sweet nutty flavor and smooth creamy texture, it is as easy as cut, roast, butter and herbs.

      Another well received addition has been Serious Sourdough's gluten-free breads. We will continue to offer Buttermilk Sourdough, Jalapeño Cheddar, Blue Corn and have added Mega-Seed. Serious Sourdough also offers a selection of sweets, quick breads, and other breads that we will take special orders for. Have your order in by Sunday and you can pick up your fresh gluten-free products on Wednesday.
     Also on the special order front is fresh seafood from the coast. Having a special get together, football party, or maybe it's just fish Friday? Have your order to by Wednesday evening and Scott from K & S Seafood will have your tuna, amberjack, blacktip shark, grouper, snapper, oysters, shrimp or crab here at The Market fresh on Friday!

Water Your Trees!

Many trees in our area are suffering under drought stress. It is not to late to save our trees, but they will need some TLC to get them through until the next good rain. The Texas Forest Service has released a helpful video to teach us how to properly water our trees. http://www.youtube.com/TexasForestService

Another tree watering guide can be found at: http://www.austinheritagetreefoundation.com/

The highlights I have gleaned from these two sources are that you can know that your tree is getting enough water if the soil is moist down to at least 5 inches, and the most important area to water is from the drip line (the edge of the canopy) to about halfway to the trunk. This is where a mature tree absorbs most of its water. Trees planted less than 3 years ago will need water right at the trunk.

Aside from watering, a 3inch layer of organic mulch starting about 3 inches from the trunk and going all the way to the drip line can help hold water, keep the soil cooler and feed the microbial life in the soil around your tree. Now is a great time to apply or reapply mulch around all of your trees. If you are a Georgetown Utility Customer, you can get free mulch. Find out more here: recycle.georgetowen.org/mulch