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he Oriental Farmers’ Market happens just about every Saturday of the year. The next one is on Saturday, May 19 from 8-11a. You’ll find us in our usual place, on Hodges Street between South Water and the harbor. Every week we have a listing here of what you’ll find for sale on Saturday.

On most weeks in the spring and summer, we also have a midweek Farmers’ Market from 4-6p on Wednesdays in the same place. (see more below…)

What You’ll Find At This Saturday’s Market

Bob of Old Cypress Farm will have eggs from the hens he raises locally. These are pastured eggs.

Mel of Blue Bottle Gardens is back with arugula, gobs of Russian red kale, some Toscano kale and Swiss chard, beet greens and beets, and scads of Russian red kale. (Really, there’s a lot of it.) Also, some fresh Mexican tarragon, bronze fennel, pineapple and regular mint and cutting celery for your salad mix, and jars of dried bay leaves from Blue Bottle Gardens. All of it is grown right around the corner, with highly caffeinated compost and no chemicals.

Sandie of Academy Street Gardens will be there with fresh produce – snow peas, lettuces — butterhead, romaine,and loose leaf. Also, Swiss chard, radishes, sugar snap peas, salad mix,and greens. All grown on Academy St. without chemicals. Also, sweet potatoes. From the kitchen, fresh strawberry jam, sweet pepper and garlic jelly, jalapeno pepper jelly, freshly baked bagels, muffins, pies, foccacia, and other baked goods.

Pat of BeeBee’s Best will be selling breads: garlic/rosemary, peasant (a mixture of rye, wheat & white) as well as onion bread made with fresh caramelized onions, and a plain boule. Also available will be pepperoni & cheese, sun-dried tomato & cheese, and black olive breads. Something new are baguettes along with pepperoni/cheese sticks. You can pick up homemade croutons for your fresh summer salads. Oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip raisin, and chocolate chip cookies are available by the dozen, as well as in bags. Snickerdoodles are in bags also. Homemade pound cake and lemon flax seed loaf will be on hand as well. Pat says that she may also have a surprise cookie this week.

Kip’s Kitchen will be back with 6 kinds of biscotti, 3 kinds of breads, pecan pies and tarts and pumpkin rolls.

John of Third Day Products will have assorted shrubs, perennials and herbs. He says that the hanging baskets are really full now and the hanging tomatoes are full of ripe fruit. He’ll also have a selection of wood products on hand.

Red Robin Soaps is new to the farmer’s market. Mary Kathryn Christiansen makes homemade soaps with natural products — olive oil, coconut oil, essential oils, and natural colorants. This week she has lavender flower soap, lemon poppyseed soap, lavender poppyseed soap, and cocoa jasmine soap. She’ll also be selling crocheted dish cloths in various colors and pattern.

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A friendly request or two…

1) If you have small bills, it makes life easier for the vendors, especially early in the market.

2) You should find plenty of parking available on Hodges – from the harbor to Academy Street and on South Water Street. Unless you’re planning to be shopping inside the Provision Company, please do not park in the spaces directly in front of or beside that building. Those spaces are needed for their customers and everyone wants to be a good neighbor.

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A Word About Our New Mid-Week Oriental Farmers’ Market:

There’s now a Mid-Week Oriental Farmers’ Market and the next one is on Wednesday May 16. It’s from 4-6p at the same place – Hodges Street. This has worked out great for those who can’t get to the Saturday morning market or who need to re-provision with fresh produce mid-week.

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What’s Coming Up At The Oriental Farmers’ Market In Coming Weeks.

A preview of some of the food you’ll find….

Bob Lyon of Old Cypress Farm says that he “just bought another beef cow and hopes to buy more in the near future. My goal is to have at least four cows for breeding and raising the calves for beef. The next phase will be starting a herd of meat goats along with a few dairy goats. I have had success in making cheese from the fresh cows milk and want to try goat cheese.”

This spring, Blue Bottle Gardens is growing hard-neck garlic with a harvest estimated for June. Also, snow peas, beets, chard, eggplant and cherry tomatoes in early summer.

Looking for Organically Raised Chicken and Meat in Oriental?

One more note: organically raised meats and poultry are easier to get in Oriental now. You can have your organic meats and get them delivered, too.

Genell Pridgen and her husband and her parents raise chickens, cows, pigs and lambs at their Rainbow Meadow Farms in Snow Hill. They also make bacon and sausage from the organically raised animals and all of it is in great demand from here to the Triangle. (And for good reason: the meats really do taste better than the mass-produced ones.)

What’s good for us is that Genell and her family come to Oriental every other weekend for some R&R from the hard work on their farm. Genell says that if Oriental Farmers’ Market customers want to order Rainbow Meadow meats on line, she can deliver them when she comes to Oriental. The Rainbow Meadow Farm website is http://www.rmfpasturepuremeats.com

A big “Thank You” for nurturing our grassroots….

The Oriental Market has been a truly grassroots effort since its start in July 2007 and we remain a grassroots effort. We get no funding from any source other than you when you come to the market. Now in to our fifth year, we send a big thanks to you for your support….

If you’re new to us, and if you are looking for locally grown, locally made food, some introductions are in order. Namely, we are as local as you are going to get, unless you grow it yourself. Throughout the year — all 12 months — you’ll find produce grown in gardens in Oriental and Pamlico County. Eggs laid by Pamlico County hens. Breads and other baked goods coming from local ovens. As well as plants and artisans’ work….

Most of our growers raise their produce without chemicals. Find out for yourself. Come on down and talk to the people who grow the food and ask them how they grew it. That’s the beauty of the Oriental Farmers’ Market. You can also ask about the chickens that lay the eggs and the baked goods that come from Oriental and Pamlico County kitchens and the artisans’ work and the plants….

Our Earth Day Celebration

We had a great turnout on Saturday April 21 for the Oriental Farmers’ Market Earth Day Celebration. Lots of customers took part in the Environmental Trivia Quiz and drawing offered by PamlicoGreen. For the record, the answers to the questions were that: 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed yearly, that 1-3% of them are recycled and that 25-30% of plastic bottles are recycled.

Congratulations to: D Wogaman who won a Chico Sling reusable shopping bag, Claire Pittman, winner of a roll of biodegradable garbage bags and Judy O’Brien, who won two sets of bamboo (reusable) utensils.

Thanks to Jayne Stasser of PamlicoGreen who provided the winning gifts and organized the Earth Day Celebration.

The Oriental Farmers’ Market sign floated away in Hurricane Irene from its usual position outside the Wits’ End on Hodges Street. During the storm surge, it floated away and away and away and came to rest in a backyard in the SailLoft subdivision on the other side of the bridge. It’s since been returned to its home.

Our other Oriental Farmers’ Market sign came back home in late September, thanks to Bill Manger who found it while clearing trees near a friend’s home at Otter Creek. After floating 8/10ths of a mile away in Irene, the sign is a little heavier — with all the absorbed water — and needed a wash, but it’s back on Hodges Street to again let passersby know about the market.

Got A Recipe?

Want to share a recipe with the Oriental Farmers’ Market? We’re open to recipes for any thing that’s in season or sold at the market. Drop us a line here and we’ll post your recipe on the recipes page (To send the recipe, just click reply on this email.)

Come On Down And Sell At The Market

We welcome you to sell at the market if you have something that is locally made or locally grown. Basically, if it’s locally made or locally grown, bring it to the market to sell. There are a few more guidelines for selling at the market which you can read here. As guidelines go, these are pretty simple, so come on down and join us as a vendor. (But please, contact us first so we can let our customers know you’re coming.)

We also welcome your ideas of food-plant-craft related demonstrations to happen at the Farmers’ Market. For more info, call Melinda at 675-0180.

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