Saturday morning

At today’s Farmers Market:

I saw Flyover Friends. Here’s Doris. And Tom.

Later, Tom was helping put boards in place on the Farmers Market kiosk. They weren’t quite fitting into place as a counter top. He thought someone should climb up and stand on them.

He looked at me, “You’re flexible,” he said, “Aren’t you kind of like a monkey?”

I laughed, “I don’t know how to respond to that, Tom.”

“I’m in trouble, aren’t I?” Tom asked.

Yep, pretty much.

Clareen and Sebastian O’Connor of The European Bakeshop in Hartford sell bread, almond and chocolate croissants, blueberry scones and other pastries. I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I love this place in Hartford. And now, they’re at the Farmers Market. Yay. I bought scones and chocolate croissants today.

Rand Simmons, Esq., shops at the Farmers Market. He mentioned it last week on his blog. Rand and his wife, Tracy, rode their bikes and carried food home in their backpacks. They bought rolls from this booth. And…

… a croissant from Clareen and Sebastian of the European Bakeshop.

This is Jim Wallace of the Heritage Hill Homestead. He and his wife, Marilyn, have a farm near Lebo with all kinds of animals: chickens, ducks, goats, llamas, turkeys, etc. In partnership with someone else, they raise big animals like buffalo and elk and he has that meat for sale here:

Jim Wallace has a Watusi cow – which is an African make of cattle. It’s a friendly animal, he said, named Irving, with large horns -a 1500 pound cow. Irving is fenced in, of course, but hangs out near the road and likes to chase cars. That, I want to see.

I asked him if they were the ones with animals at the Howe House Living History event and he said, yes, that was them. They also do some catering – BBQ meats and the fixings. They have a private graduation party with 250 people that they’re getting ready for now.

I bought a pound of ground buffalo last week and made four buffalo burgers and they were really, really good. Bought some more today. (Guess what we’re having for supper?) Last week I also bought some Apple Pie jam. Yum.

Rand Simmons told me he and Tracy purchased meat and eggs from the Wallace’s last week. The sausage was really good, he said. The egg yolks were orange and his kids loved the scrambled eggs.

Wallace brought 13 dozen eggs to sell this morning and they were snapped up quickly, so I’ll have to get to the eggs earlier next time.

The Farmers Market is brought to us by the fine folks at The Learning Connection: Cheryl Patton and Tracey Graham – and its board members and volunteers. The Learning Connection got a drastic cut in funding from The United Way this year and are trying to regroup and find alternate funding sources. (See Learning Connection Needs Donors.)

I didn’t end up with a photo of Learning Connection Director Cheryl Patton today, but here’s Tracey Graham who also works enthusiastically and tirelessly with TLC…

A couple weeks ago when I saw Tracey and Cheryl at Janet Fish’s Doll Class, I visited with Tracey. She’s a newer friend, don’t know her well yet, so I asked her when it was that she had moved to Emporia and what she liked most about the town. “The Farmers Market!” she said. “I love the Farmers Market.”

And for Wednesday’s Gazette, Tracey Graham wrote an Op-Ed piece, entitled, “I Love the Emporia Farmers Market.”

One of these Saturdays, Tracey will make breakfast burritos to sell at the Farmers Market. That sounds good.

Cheryl Patton said, “The best food in Emporia comes from Tracey’s kitchen.”

Want to know what’s for sale at the Farmers Market each week? Sign up for weekly e-newsletters. Send an e-mail requesting to be added to the list: tlcunitedway@yahoo.com. (PS I don’t know how to make a hyperlink to e-mail addresses on this thing yet.)