Sep. 23, 2008 at 10:35am

The Bounty of Fall

Yes, it is truly Tuesday again! The 6th Ave Farmers Market is winding down; just today and next Tuesday left in the season! Today looks like it will be a crisp and beautiful day for the market!

This week, Hayton Farms is returning to the market with fall berries. I think it will be raspberries, by my co-worker heard strawberries -- so it will be a surprise for all of us. For sure, Terry's Berries will have strawberries. I tasted a few last week and, wow, they are good. Also returning to the market this week will be YMCA Friends and Servants program with fall plants and some veggies. Fall is a great time to plant; check out the wonderful plants that L'Arche and Cottage Gardens bring to market each week. I'm hoping to buy a load of plants next week, since I should (hopefully) have time to put them in the ground after next Tuesday!

Also, for fall, check out those pumpkins! I saw some amazingly beautiful quirky specimens on the table at Prana Farms. Eric is a great guy and would be happy to chat with you if you stop by just to admire the pumpkins!

Another of our newest vendors, JLC Farms, won top prize at the Puyallup State Fair for their tomatoes and herbs. Pretty cool, especially since their "farm" is located in their back yard on Pine, just a few blocks from the market! Their booth is right next to Stokesberry Sustainable Farms, close to Terry's Berries.  Don't be shy; they love to chat!

Music today will be performed by Josh Hegg and Jesse Turcotte. They will be playing acoustic latin gypsy jazz starting right after the chef demo, probably around 5:40. The chef demo today will be by David of Jonz Catering, beginning at 5:30.

See you there!
(Just in case you're new around here... 6th & N. Pine, 3:30 - 7:30, Tuesdays)

If you need further inspiration, enjoy this poem, written by Daniel Blue for the Tacoma Harvest Feast. Just subsitute the 6th Ave neighborhood for downtown in the first line :) Thank you, Daniel!

I step outside into the mellow downtown Tacoma sun

the homeless and the lawyers who park in my alley greet me as one

and i am with them in this

and we are all responsible

 

i push myself with purpose past my automobile

for where I’m going I won’t need wheels

cause it’s so far in the future

that we have abandoned our old habits

 

these smoky loud cumbersome wads of metal

chained to the pavement as money seeps out their tanks

 

where I’m going I’ll have only my foot wear to thank

when I arrive in one piece and a handful healthier for the exercise

 

the people I pass on my path carry smiles and cloth bags

stuffed with mysteries I will soon describe to myself by consuming them raw

 

and yes as I pierce the veil of the market banners and enter the crowds

I am proud of free enterprise; I delight in my consumeristic tendencies

I am happy to participate in this glorious reciprocal economy

 

here we are not recessed, we are abundant

as the neat rows of color bleed from the stalls into the dinners of my neighborhood kitchens

the fresh smell of the earth’s gift mixes in my mind with the din of voices raised

this happy connection at the knowledge that we are one

 

and I am with them in this

we are all responsible

the earth for her secret magic

the sun for his light and warmth

the rain for its kisses of life

the farmer for the hope and the weathered hand

and the urban dwellers who have chosen to find their food close

 

my circle is simultaneously wider and more compact

as i hand the hands that picked my produce

money that was handed to me for the labor of mine

i am drawing the people who pay me into the circle

 

is my boss responsible

for what I spend my check on

does he know the true fruit of my labor?

 

I return home and find myself on the phone

calling the ones i love

hoping to share my bounty

to tighten my circle

 

tonight we feast on what has grown here beneath us

“this needed no distribution center”

I will say at the table

this needed no packaging plant

no vitamin fortification

no preservatives

it did not need to be frozen

tucked, trucked and #$*%@ed up before it found its way on our plates

 

HERE HERE!

 

the farms tie us to the land

and the land ties us all together

we are all responsible

because we are all here

 

HERE HERE!

Three cheers!

 

one for the farmers hands!

 

hip hip ?

 

one for the city who lets us use her streets!

 

hip hip

 

and a cheer for you, my fellow conscious consumers, for being here!

 

hip hip