Here’s a hint about the Farmer’s Market in Marion. Get there early. Like before 8:00 am. When they open. A lot of the really good stuff, such as the organic vegetables from Omega Lane Farm, go fast.

Anne and I got there around 9:45 am, which was pretty good for us since Marion is almost an hour from Our Humble Little Cottage. We would have been there earlier, but it took us nearly a half hour once we got into town to find the place. We asked several people for directions. One started with, “It’s right across from Macado’s, only back a few streets…..sorta…..”  If Ken Heath, the market director reads this, I suggest you put a sign that says “TURN LEFT” at the appropriate spot for those of us coming in from exit 45 on I-81, who are unfamiliar with your charming little town, and are directionally challenged.

And it is a charming town with an excellent  market. The vendors we had a chance to talk to were very knowledgeable and informative about their products.  At 10 am there were still enough choice products left that we spent all our cash, and there were still things we wanted to buy.

Farmer’s Markets of one form or another have been around for over a thousand years in Europe and Asia. Here in the USA, they date back to Colonial Days. Contemporary markets are a growing trend in this country. In 1994, the first year that the US Department of Agriculture collected data, there were 1,755 active markets across the country. In 2009, the number had more than tripled to 5,274.

Markets allow producers to cut out the middleman and sell directly to consumers. For  many farmers, they are an important source of income since wholesale prices are often the same or less than the cost of production. Consumers have the opportunity to purchase high quality goods like organic vegetables, free-range meats, homestead cheeses, local honey and jams at reasonable prices. Markets also feature local art and crafts, home baked goods, and flowers and produce from home gardens.

Aimee Dickenson's "Koi Fish" cupcakes

Shelly Sells' handcrafted goat milk soap

The real highlight for me was the opportunity to meet two small producers of grassfed meats: Charlie Clark of Rich Valley Grazers, and Antoinette Goodrich of Laughing Water Farms. Charlie produces beef and pork, and Antoinette offers lamb and veal. I’ve already used products from both farms and can tell you their offerings are superior, some of the best I’ve had in a number of years. While I was a chef, my signature dish was Osso Bucco, an Italian preparation of braised veal shank. Saturday was the first time that I’ve seen veal shank offered in this area. That night I was inspired to fix Osso Bucco braised in white wine and chicken stock with a lemon gremolata, served with a wild mushroom ragout, and polenta garnished with fresh thyme and wild asparagus. Not to pat myself on the back, (which I do every chance I get) dinner was delicious.

Antoinette Goodrich offers a customer a taste of her garlic sprouts

For Sunday lunch, we had cheeseburgers made from Charlie’s ground beef.  Jimmy Buffett doesn’t have a clue what a real “Cheeseburger in Paradise” tastes like unless he’s had a “Charlie Burger” as I now call them.

Charlie Clark, cattle farmer and Chairman of the Smyth County Board of Supervisors

Time ran out before we had a chance visit with every vendor, so we plan to go back soon. This time we’ll get there early.  And bring more cash. The Marion Farmer’s Market is open every Saturday from May thru October, 8:00 am-12:00 pm. It is located at the corner of Cherry and Iron Streets in the Town Square parking lot (across from Macado’s, only back a few streets…sorta.)

Market Shots

Aimee Dickenson of "Baby Cakes" and daughter Piper

Martha Holder (left) of Lazy Bee Farm and Shelly Sells of Country Milk "N" Gifts

Seth Taylor and Larrissa Powers

Budding Artist Eleanor Goodrich

Suzanne Capone (on the left) of Omega Lane Farm

There appears to be a gas war going on in Wytheville lately. For the last month or so, gas prices have steadily decreased by a little over 22% at three places in town. A spot check this morning found regular gas priced at $2.599 at the Sheetz and Kangaroo off exit 70 on I-81 near Walmart, and Go Mart on E. Main St. downtown. Other stations around town offered regular in the mid-$2.60 range.

For most of the last 6 years that I’ve been here, the Flying J Truck Stop in Ft. Chiswell has not only had the best price in the area, they’ve had one of the best prices in the whole state. But the Flying J chain has been sold to the Pilot Oil Corporation and for some reason there has been no customary price fluctuation. At both the Ft. Chiswell and the Flying J and Hess truck stops at exit 77, the price has been holding steady around $2.739 for weeks.

For any of you folks up north reading this who plan on passing thru the area, I suggest you take exit 73 off I-81 and gas up at the Go Mart. Skip the fast food joints and the national chains and head down the street to Smokey’s BBQ. As a former chef, who grew up outside Fayetteville, NC, I make the best damn cue anywhere, but his North Carolina-style chopped pork barbecue sandwich is pretty good. With cole slaw on top, of course.

Blog Roll Change

Speaking of the cheapest gas, I’ve changed the link that supplies the cheapest gas info for the Max Meadows/Ft. Chiswell area. The previous link required active participation by the suppliers, and Flying J was the only one participating. The new link gives much wider coverage. For instance, a Barren Springs independent station lists regular gas at $2.449 today. You can also check prices in Wytheville, Speedwell, and Rural Retreat. Check it out!

A couple of days ago, before the rain arrived, I took a stroll around Our Little Piece of Paradise to see what I could see. It amazes me how fast a piece of fallow land can go from “manageable” to “well, maybe next year.” Seemingly over night, the earth explodes with growth. The slope in front of Our Humble Little Cottage went from accessible to a tangled snarl of honeysuckle, Virginia creeper, blackberries, and wild roses in less than a week.

On the plus side, the wild flowers are starting to bloom and the creek banks are fragrant with mint. Also, we’re still finding new patches of wild asparagus.

ox-eye daisy

For the last two years, I’ve been moving the asparagus from the tangled slope to a more manageable bed next to the house. However, once that is done, it will take three years before the transplants will again produce those fat tasty stalks. This year, I’m leaving the wild stuff where it’s growing and just cultivating around it. I guess the big story flower-wise are the iris. We’ve got them coming up all over the place…wild, cultivated and a lot that are somewhere in between. The familiar wild yellow irises are dotting Galena Creek from its headwaters to the New River. The previous owner planted iris bulbs all over the hillsides in hopes that they would grow as densely as the day lilies do, choking out weeds and preventing soil erosion. Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case. As a result, we’re constantly digging and transplanting the delicate-looking flowers into areas that are more hospitable.

We’re almost through planting the vegetable garden, and I’m headed out later today to purchase some apple trees. Last night, we had an arugula salad from the garden and fresh strawberries. If you haven’t planted arugula before, I highly recommend it. It has nutty flavor with a slight peppery aftertaste. I tossed it with my own Caesar dressing, some homemade garlic croutons, freshly ground black pepper, and shaved, imported parmesan-reggiano cheese.

Iris Photographs

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Palin Watch

America’s leading retard is at it again. Sarah Palin declared yesterday, “It’s time for Americans across this great country to stand up and say, ‘We’re all Arizonans now!”  She’s thrown her support behind Arizona’s appalling immigration law that is so flawed that even the Arizona Association of Police Chiefs doesn’t support it.  Palin seems determined to become the Al Sharpton of the Nut Case Right.  My 2012 Republican dream ticket would be Palin and Virginia Attorney General Ken “The Coochie” Cuccinelli. That would gives us voters the opportunity to tell both of them, “Shut up and go away!“

Actor Jack Nicholson says that the worst thing about growing old is that you can never trust a fart. Any farmer or serious gardener will tell you that the worst thing about the next 10 days is that you can’t trust Mother Nature. The question of the day: is it safe to plant? The beds are waiting.

This is the first year since we purchased our Humble Little Cottage that Anne and I are attempting a serious garden. It’s also the first year that one or both of us hasn’t had to spend the planting period cruising up and down I-81 to the DC area for family or professional reasons. Add to that fact that practically everything we’re attempting from remodeling the house to managing the land, we’re having to learn as we do it.

Last night taught us the importance of understanding microclimates. We live in a “holler” which is defined as a small valley between mountains. Because of the topography, we have a half dozen or more microclimates. Last night we experienced what I hope was our last frost of the growing season. In some parts of our 3.25 acre mini-farm the frost was heavier than others. One part received no frost at all. After consulting the various weather services, which can only give general information, a few long term residents, and our weejee board, we covered what we could and hoped for the best. We’ll know in a day or two the effect the frost had on things like the tender iris blooms and our strawberry patch.

With rain predicted off and on for the rest of the week, the question we face today is whether or not it’s safe to start planting the dozens of vegetable and flower seedlings we’ve got stacked around inside the house and on the front porch. We’ve decided to cross our fingers and go for it. If we’re wrong, expect another profanity-laced post on the benefits a good cussin’ can have on stress relief.

strawberry blooms

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Elena Kagan, British Petroleum, and the Gulf Coast. What do these have to do with today’s post? Nothing except they’re 3 of the most popular google searches today. Big city folks aren’t the only ones who know how to manipulate the media.

Y’all have a good one.

So I’m a lot calmer today. (Sorry for the last couple of posts Aunt Hilda.) The colonoscopy I had yesterday has a way of focusing one’s concentration. I’m so calm I can ignore the fact that one of the things I had to do in preparation for the procedure was fill a one gallon plastic jug, containing an electrolyte powder, full of water, drink half of it, and throw the other half away. After getting rotor-rootered, the minor screwing I got from Braintree Laboratories (Pharmaceuticals for Brain Dead Consumers), the manufacturer of said powder, doesn’t bother me half as much today as it did two days ago. I’m trying to get back in touch with my inner Wytheness. Who knows? Maybe one day I too will be content, roaring down the road in my F-150 on my way to McDonald’s, beer in one hand, cell phone in the other, radio blasting so loud I can ignore the trash flying off the bed in back. The ambulance behind me with a dying patient on board trying to get around will just have to wait. I’m texting my sweetie about the free-roaming cat I just ran over.

Sarcasm aside, I really do want to talk about the Healthy Foods Foundation Conference last Saturday sponsored by The Mansion at Fort Chiswell and Key Ingredients for Life.

The Mansion at Fort Chiswell

The Conference was the brainchild of Chris Disibbio, founder and president of Key Ingredients For Life, Inc. and owner of The Mansion. Key Ingredients’ website is still under construction, but if you register on The Mansion’s site, you’ll be notified when it’s up and running. Chris, like me, believes you really are what you eat. We share the same concerns that we are in danger of losing 300 years of food history in one generation because not only do a lot of younger folks not know how to cook from scratch, they don’t know how to eat. Processed and fast foods have made us one of the most obese nations on earth.

I wish we had been able to spend the whole day there, but Anne had a previous commitment and by the time she dropped me off and I was able to get back, I had missed a lot. I was very pleased with some of the networking I was able to do though. It was a real pleasure to meet Debi Anderson of Anderson Grass Fed Beef in Bland, and Suzanne Capone (276-686-5843) of Omega Lane Farm in Rural Retreat. I visited both farms earlier this week, and I highly recommend both. Debi and her husband RB, and Suzanne and her husband Bill Perry, are hard working small producers who care enough to go the extra mile.

Debi Anderson with a display of the maple syrup they also produce

Thanks to a package of the Andersons’ ground beef, I was able to enjoy a cheeseburger last night for the first time in a very long time.

Suzanne Capone

I plan to do a more in depth article about the organic produce from Omega Lane Farm a little later in the growing season, but I have to show you a couple of shots of the solar powered greenhouse (the first in the state) that Bill designed and had built, much of it using recycled materials.

Bill Perry, hard at it inside the greenhouse

Though we only had a few minutes to chat, I’m looking forward to visiting with Gary Mitchell of Grayson Natural Foods in Independence. Gary provided the ground beef for the burgers at the conference.

If you value your health and those of your loved ones, you need to listen to what these folks are preaching. This morning CNN reported a 23 state recall of romaine lettuce contaminated with e coli, sold in Virginia by Kroger’s. Please take the time to read the article on meat processing from Sustainable Table.
Your life could depend on it.

I’ve thought about this and who knows, it might work. Help me start a national campaign and maybe we can laugh this jackass Cuccinelli out of office.

Send a Pic of Your Left Tit to The Coochie
www.oag.state.va.us

Male or female, it doesn’t matter. A boob for a boob is still a boob. Help save the Commonwealth!! Send yours today!!

My Left Tit

Here’s a little Rodney Carrington to get you in the mood.

Post Edit Note: Apparently I violated someone’s term of service. YouTube’s I guess. You can try searching “Show Them to Me” at YouTube.com. It has been made unavailable to me.

Sorry folks, Ron

Warning: This post contains language that may be offensive to some people.

Today’s post was supposed to be about the wonderful time that Anne and I had at the Healthy Foods Foundations Conference at The Ft. Chiswell Mansion this past Saturday. And I promise the next one will deal with that. But right now I’m really pissed off, and I have to get some of this stuff off my chest before my head explodes. I’m a rather profane person and when I’m angry my language tends to reflect it. I apologize to anyone I may offend. I’ve decided to establish the KISS MY ASS awards for the individuals and institutions who are either fucking us outright or are just too stupid to live.

The KIMME (KMA)

In no particular order, the winners are:

Ken Cuccinelli, the esteemed Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Virginia. This guy is a fucking moron and one of the main reasons I left the Republican Party. He was our State Senator when we lived in Fairfax County. It was bad enough when he directed colleges NOT to protect the rights of homosexuals (even our dumbass governor backed away from that one), or that he was the first AG to file suit over recently passsed health care reform, now this dildo wants to change the state seal to cover Lady Virtus’ left tit. Virginia is becoming a national laughing stock  because of this clown.

Ken Cuccinelli: KISS MY ASS

British Petroleum. Before it’s all over, this company is going to be on everyone’s shit list. This disaster may be the death knell for New Orleans and a lot of the Gulf Coast. 69% of the WORLD’S shellfish come from this area. Under the worst case scenario the oil could eventually affect the East Coast shoreline. This company knew the dangers and failed to properly outline them when they were first granted drilling rights. And they continued to hide the facts. I hope you enjoyed your last meal of shrimp and oysters and blue crabs (just to name a few) because shortly, what little product left will be so expensive that only oil company executives and the banking and Wall Street thieves will  be able to afford them. The next asshole who says to me “Drill Baby Drill” in regard to offshore drilling along Virginia’s coastline is going to need major dental work.

British Petroleum: KISS MY ASS

I purchased these two bags of charcoal Saturday at the same time for the same price. The larger bag on the left contains LESS charcoal than the smaller bag on the right. Kingsford, like a lot of our “trusted” corporations like Kellogg and General Mills, pull this bait and switch bullshit all the time. They know that most shoppers are in too much of a hurry to read the fine print. In many, many cases the larger the container, the more expensive the per unit cost. So to Kingsford and all the other greedy corporations: KISS MY ASS.

And finally, to the President, Congress, State Governments, the Democrat and Republican parties, the banks, Wall Street, the insurance companies, the unions,the lawyers (geezus don’t get me started on them),  the churches, the teabaggers, and all the other worthless, bigoted, low-down, cheating asshole cocksuckers who have sold this once great country down the river:

KISS MY ASS

Thank You.