The DeKalb County Farmers Market behind Ace Hardware in Smithville is hopping with all your favorite summer produce. From fruit, like peaches and watermelon, to sweet corn, tomatoes, okra, squash, peas, and beans. Delight your eyes with locally grown and gathered flower arrangements or artisan crafts. Treat yourself to baked goods or canned goods, or maybe some barbecue for a sultry late summer afternoon spent at the river or creek.
The market is open by 6 a.m. Use your credit, debit, or SNAP card from 8 a.m. -noon.
Next Saturday, September 6th, the market is teaming up with Justin Potter Library and the DeKalb County Children's Service Council for a Health, Wellness, and Resource Fair. From 8-11 a.m. – Art and Food Demos at the Farmers Market
• End of the Summer Garden Papermaking by Claudia Lee of Liberty Paper.
• Commission a pair of custom earrings by Kathe Reed-Nelson. Kathe, a member of the Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour, will be making sterling earrings. For $10.00 per pair, you choose the pearl or natural stone and Kathe will design and fabricate the earrings while you watch. Half of the proceeds will go to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
• 'Art at the Market' by Helen Sefsik of Foxglove Farm. Children can make their own work of art at Helen's mixed media art table. No charge for materials.
• Spaghetti Squash Demo by Connie Tjarks of Knot Enough Thyme at 9:30 a.m.
• Vegetable Salad Demo by Karley Thompson of Purple Maize Farm at 10 a.m.
10:00 am – 2:00 pm – Resource Fair in the County Complex sponsored by the DeKalb County Children's Service Council
Now is the time for lots of fresh eating, putting up for the winter, and planting your fall garden!
Whether it's pressure canning, water bath canning, freezing, drying, or pickling, the practice of putting up your own food to enjoy in colder weather provides a sense of accomplishment and security that an aluminum can from a supermarket shelf just can't provide.
Make the most of this bout of hot weather; try drying some vegetables. Native Americans dried squash by slicing it thin and hanging on a thin dowel. I've dried sliced tomatoes by lying the slices on a stainless steel cookie sheet and placing it in the direct sun in our greenhouse. You could use your car's dashboard if you don't have a greenhouse. Air circulation is important, so if the humidity is outrageous, it is a good idea to use a fan to move air around your drying produce.
You could also just use a food dehydrator. They show up frequently at yard sales, a favorite past time in this area, so you can acquire one inexpensively. However, there's something very satisfying about utilizing the sun's blazing energy to preserve, cook, or even just make sun tea.
As delightful as preserved summer produce is in the winter, it's even more delightful to stuff your face when it's season. We have such profusion and variety, the possible combinations are endless.
Grill it, bake it, blend it up, nibble it raw, or put it up for winter. These glittering gems of summer produce are sunshine transmutated by the plants quietly carrying out their task of photosynthesis. Take advantage of their labor and as Walt Whitman put it, fill yourself with "so much sunshine to the square inch."
