WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE — A friend of mine and I were lamenting recently that we just are not seeing many insects in our gardens and yards, and very little diversity of insects/moths/butterflies/pollinators this summer. I don’t know how often I’ve heard people say that they don’t want to plant flowers in their yards because they don’t want insects or bees around them. But insects play a critical role in food production, and they most definitely need protection and the plants they need to for their life cycles.
It is all too easy for both gardeners and non-gardeners to take their food for granted, to assume (if they even think about it) that all is needed is a grower, a bit of land, a seed, sun and water. But many flowering plants – vegetable, fruit, nut – rely on bees, wasps, moths, flies, beetles, and butterflies as pollinators. And very few humans are aware of the differing pollination needs of each plant or willing (yet!) to hand pollinate every flower that needs pollination.
The Chicago Botanic Garden reminds us that “zucchini, pumpkins, cucumbers [and] melons need pollinators if you want the plants to produce fruit. That’s because those plants produce separate male and female flowers. For example, the first flowers that appear on cucumber plants are typically males. You can tell them apart because male flowers have long stems, while female flowers have a short stem. Bees must go to both male and female flowers on the plant so that the pollen from the male reaches the female flower’s reproductive part. When pollinated, the female flower begins growing the fruit. It’s that simple.”
A few plants need no insects for pollination, including green beans, peas, and sweet corn. We wouldn’t want to live on these! Our world and our options gets smaller as the insect diversity shrinks.
While we consider what we can each do to support insect diversity, make a trip to the market to take advantage of the green beans abundance! Join us for beans, a wealth of other produce, and vendors sharing their talents through baking and crafts.
This week, local musician Kristy Hadden will be joining us with her guitar to play some chill acoustic rock, and “Art On The Square” will be our community guest.
Please accept Mrs. Debra’s apology for not publishing the Scavenger Hunt backup craft last week since rain was forecast. So this Saturday we are planning the Farmers Market Scavenger Hunt with a set of marbles as the prize for those elementary age visitors who complete the hunt. If it rains we will have a veggie matching game under the tent with a set of marbles as the prize!
The Market is open Saturday morning from 8:30 to noon. It is located in the municipal parking lot on the corner of South Main and East East streets. SNAP EBT food benefit cards and credit/debit cards are accepted. Those using the SNAP EBT card for food purchases receive matching dollar “Produce Perks” tokens ($1 for $1) good only for fruits, vegetables, and food producing plants. So,”buy one, get one” for up to $25 every market day. Five dollar coupons will be available again for Fayette County Farm Bureau members at each Saturday market; these can be spent at both the Wednesday and Saturday markets.
The following list contains the names and products of the vendors that expect to set up this Saturday. Other vendors may participate as well.
Wood Designs by DW (Debbie Welch): One of a kind handcrafted wood items— birdhouses, signs, tables, gnomes. Crocheted items including kitchen towels, pot scrubs, pot holders, baby booties, and afghans. Will take custom and special orders.
Your Other Mother’s Kitchen (Don & Sara Creamer): Bread, other baked goods, sewing crafts.
Bridge View Gardens (Hunter & Lorelle Rohrer): Fresh spring produce including zucchini, tomatoes, green beans, candy onions, cucumbers, new potatoes, red beets and peppers.
Cozy Baby Blessings (Nancy Cutter): Handmade baby essentials including crochet baby blankets and hats, flannel burp cloths, teethers and pacifier clips. Also crochet dishcloths and pot scrubbers, beaded pens, key chains and wax melts.
DSC Produce Farm (Darren Cox): 10 flavors of salsa and 4 flavors of salad dressings. Sampling blueberry vinaigrette dressing.
Edlynns Attic (Robin Dement): Fingerless gloves, hackey sacks, baking mixes (sugar cookie is restocked), popsicle holders, animal baskets and more.
Fiddle Dee Pet Sets (Ellie Wait): Over the collar dog bandanas, scrunchie and headbands for humans.
Gerhardt/King Farms (Kevin Gerhardt & Jeff King): home grown green beans, new red and Yukon Gold potatoes, cucumbers, and summer squash.
Greens & Greenery (Katrina Bush): Produce (and plants) grown using organic practices: Native perennial and annual flowering plants. Raw unpasteurized local honey, strawberry jam, sourdough crackers.
Hostetter Kitchen (Melody Martin): White bread, rolls, cinnamon and swirl buns, zucchini, pumpkin and banana (tea) breads, whoopie pies, cheese and bread, pizza buns, cakes, , pies (including fresh peach).
Jim’s Premium Ground Beef (Jim Hobbs): Premium ground beef in assorted packages (patties, bulk tubes).
Julie G’s Cookies (Julie Greenslade): Chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, ginger, snickerdoodle, sugar, pineapple, macadamia nut, peanut butter cookies, peanut butter jumbos, peanut butter fudge, lemon bars and salted caramel bars.
Rural Beans Roastery LLC (Kameron Rinehart): Assorted freshly roasted coffee (beans and ground).
The Casual Gourmet (Jason Gilmore): Variety of baked goods.
The Jam Man (David Persinger): Many assorted jams/jellies (BLACK RASPBERRY JAM is back! & new this is week is PLUM JAM), also no added sugar cherry jam and seedless blackberry jam. Samples available. Zucchini bread, oatmeal cake and assorted Texas chocolate sheet cakes.
Katrina Bush is a vendor with the Fayette County Farmers Market.
