Market to Menu 2014: Breakfast with the Farmers

Market to Menu 2014: connecting consumers directly to local food!

Learn how to transform fresh locally grown vegetables, fruit, and eggs into a meal your whole family will enjoy, Saturday, June 21.

Brazos Valley Farmers' Market is partnering with Village Downtown for the fourth annual Market to Menu event. GoTexan will be on board with recipe cards, shopping bags, and nutritional information. Come to see chefs from Village Downtown demonstrate preparation of vegetables and eggs, with omelet and scramble samples between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m.
Some images from last year's Market to Menu:

Peppers and onions awaiting the saute pan

Event is sponsored by GoTexan, Texas Department of Agriculture

Chef Jayne from Village Downtown prepares omelets

2 Brothers Salsa

Refreshment station

GoTexan booth with basil plants

Okra: the versatile crop

by Jan Gerston

A member of the mallow family, okra, inspires a perhaps muted allegiance from vegetable lovers, and usually general disdain from vegetable nonlovers. Jokingly, it has been said:okra: a vegetable so slimy you don’t notice how hairy it is. Okra however, redeems itself in its potential for an astonishing array of uses beyond soups and stews: from its seeds can be extracted to an oil comparable to olive oil or be processed into a protein source, and the stems and leaves could be animal feed.

But its uses don’t stop with edible products: the mucilage offers benefits of laxatives (owing to the soluble fat, and ranking with psyllium and flaxseed); the gums and pectin can lower serum cholesterol, and can be used as a substitute for aloe vera. Like its relative, kenaf, fibers from okra can be fashioned into high-quality paper. Indeed, the Lost Crops of Africa: Volume II: Vegetables leads off its surprisingly entertaining chapter  on okra on a 1974 survey of least-liked vegetables.

In African dialects, the word for okra sounds similar to gumbo, and indeed, it is regarded with reference in New Orleans, where it forms the basis of signature dishes, such as…gumbo.

Published by the National Academies Press, Lost Crops of Africa: Volume II: Vegetables, offers a transcendent literary homage to okra. The sheer delightfulness of the language in this scientific volume will bring a smile to even the most mucilage-averse persons. For instance—

“In reality okra could have a future that will make people puzzle over why earlier generations failed to seize the opportunity before their eyes. In the Botanical Kingdom it may actually be a Cinderella, though still living on the hearth of neglect amid the ashes of scorn.” (National Research Council (2006-10-27).

And later—

“In America, where it appears almost exclusively in stews and soups, okra is usually seen in cross section, cut into disks that look like little cartwheels with a seed nestled between each pair of spokes. Okra is also the key ingredient in gumbo, the famous dish of the American South.”

A study in robustness, okra grows easily in tropical, subtropical, and temperate climates, but can adapt to dry climates also.

Brazos Valley Farmers' Market, April 19, 2014

Just a few of the wonderful, flavorful, vitamin- and antioxidant-packed producevarieties available this time of year from Brazos Valley Farmers' Market.

Array of colorful peppers, including jalapeños from Millican Farms.

Elephant garlic from David's Dog Run Farm: try grilling this mild garlic.

Tomatoes from Millican Farms: these colorful beauties are a sure way to get your kids interested in vegetables.

Fall Harvest Fest - This Saturday

Hello everyone,

I hope you are excited about the upcoming Fall Harvest Fest this weekend! Stock up on an assortment of winter squash for your own fall feast or just come to soak up the atmosphere! Don't forget to stop by the Friends' booth and sign up to volunteer at the market :)

Can't wait to see you all at the market this weekend!

Fall Harvest Festival

Come out to the BVFM on Saturday 1st October to celebrate the last month of the summer bounty. This will be a celebration of abundance. You'll find fresh young winter squash, sweet pumpkins perfect for baking into pies and an assortment of jams and jellies.

The celebration goes even further with activities for the little ones, craft tables, a chef demonstration and everyone's favourite... the petting zoo! Need I remind you of the piglet who graced the market back in spring?

Festival hours are 8am to noon. Local Churches and non-profits are invited to participate by hosting children's games or harvest crafts. Please contact the Friends of the BVFM for more details friends.bvfm@gmail.com

BVFM Review

Check out this review of the BVFM in July's issue of AbouTown Press!

http://www.aboutownpress.com/article.php?id=37&author=37&issue=46

See you at the market tomorrow morning!

Market to Menu Event

Hello everyone!

Here are some pictures from the recent Market to Menu event 'Breakfast with the Farmers'.


Getting some gardening tips from the experts!


"Which book do I choose?? I'll just have to take all three!"


Mmmm! Everything looks so delicious :]



What an amazing variety of locally grown goodness!

Thanks to the chefs, authors and everyone else who came out to support our local farmers!