Downtown Cary Farmers Market

Welcome to Merry Oaks Coffee, a small-batch roaster from Chatham County! We’ve needed a coffee vendor for awhile now, since we lost our last one to another market. So good news for all you folks who bolt out the door – or mosey, to the farmers’ market without sufficient java to make it through the first few hours of the day.

Needless to say, that means you can buy it by the cup to go along with Miwako’s great sweet breads and buns and cookies.

And they sell it by the pound in environmentally friendly jars (that you can just bring back for a refill when you’ve used up all the coffee). You can place special orders at their website, www.merryoakscoffee.com, and then pick it up at the Saturday market, or just pick from what they’ve brought with them.

.

Piedmont Pottery Returns

Piedmont Pottery will be here tomorrow as well. They tour the other markets, as well as craft fairs, so look on our calendar to see when they’ll be here again.

.

.

Rogers Beef Company will be ready for cookouts

Visit the market to get the best and freshest Angus beef cuts from the Rogers Family Farm, responsibly raised and cared for. Visit them at their website and Facebook page (check out their vendor page), or just look through all the goodies they’ve brought with them. Here are some of the featured items:

Specialty Packs
Mini Pack = $60
2 steaks, 1 roast, 5 pounds ground beef, and 1 pound stew beef

Family Pack = $150
6 steaks, 3 roasts, 9 pounds ground beef, 1 pound stew beef  and 1 pound cube steak

Grilling Pack = $35
2 sirloin or sirloin tip steaks and 3 pounds ground beef

stew beef $6/pound

Visit our blueberry people for the last of the season’s berries. The hot weather has brought the fruit on hard and fast, and they’re ripening faster than you can pick!

They’re the easiest possible fruit to freeze too, for winter cooked berry desserts and pies, as well as smoothies. So whip out those zippy freezer bags and pile them in. No need to even wash until you use, and the are in those nice neat little packages, no juice everywhere, no cutting or pitting needed!

.

.

Ratatouille, Caponata, or Anyway you spell it

The summer tomatoes, peppers and okra are in now, and that spells . . . well, whichever great Mediterranean food you can put together that uses all those as well as olive oil, onions, garlic and capers. Great on top of slices of hearty toasted bread, couscous, bulgur wheat (tabouli), whatever. Hot or Cold, the best way to use the summer veggies.

And by the way, try all those varieties of tomatoes that Scott Spahr and the Norrises grow. My personal favorite for just making tomato and mayo sandwiches are the Pink Girls by Barbara Norris. Meaty, sweet and verrry flavorful, a little less bright red and a little mottled, but really good out of hand. The German Johnsons are also low-acid, also good for salads. Some of the others are great for tomato sauce to use right away or to freeze, and I’ve used Scott’s for that last week.

.

News Flash for Coffee Lovers, at the market next Saturday the 14th of August

We’ve been trying for awhile to replace our previous coffee vendor who took off for greener pastures, and had a few nibbles, but this time it looks like we’ve hooked a great group.  Merry Oaks coffee roasters is a small-batch coffee roaster in Raleigh who will be offering  freshly roasted coffee beans and brewed coffee by the cup, and if it seems like a good fit, they’ll also add espresso drinks and maybe a couple of other coffee-related items, like reusable drink cozies or chocolate-covered espresso beans, all  made by us Eli and Dawn Ruhl of Merry Oaks.

See them online as well as at our market come next Saturday, www.merryoakscoffee.com

Community Health Day

Cary’s brand new Maximized Living Health Center will be doing Free Health Check ups and Computerized Nerve Scans for the public on Saturday July 24th from 8am until 12 noon. A doctor and a nurse will be doing the NASA developed testing for all ages at no charge as part of a community outreach on behalf of Downtown Cary Farmers Market. Find out more at their link http://www.maximizedliving.com/

.

TerraSoul Farm – new produce vendor appears at Market

Clark and Jessica of TerraSoul Farm are featuring yellow pear tomatoes and golden chard, sustainably grown locally, without pesticides. They’ll be bringing in more vegetables as the season progresses, so look for them to be here regularly.

.

Salem Gardens

Michele at Salem Gardens also has sometimes hard to find flat leaf parsley, as well as Thai and Genovese Italian Basil. As Michele will not be here next weekend, get all this today!

.

Rogers Cattle Company at Market on Saturday

• Premium Angus Beef

• No added hormones or antibiotics

• Grass Fed, Grain Finished for Superior Quality and Flavor

We will be at the Cary Downtown Farmers Market on Saturday with a variety of Angus beef cuts including steaks, hamburger patties, stew beef, short ribs and soup bones.  Our specialty packs are available (see below for details).  We are also taking orders for quarters and halves of beef that will be ready for delivery in a couple of weeks.   Please send any special requests to rccbeef@gmail.com

.

Cary Scavenger Hunt today Celebrating Koka Booth Anniversary along with Cary Citizen

The Cary Scavenger Hunt is a celebration of 10 seasons of world-class entertainment at Koka Booth Amphitheatre. Awesome prizes include 10 VIP tickets to the REO Speedwagon/Pat Benatar show or a Private Party Tent for 20 at “Movies by Moonlight.”

Participants will all gather at Booth Amphitheatre at 9 AM on Saturday, July 24. Teams will receive their clue packets and have until 3 PM to solve the clues and get back to the starting point.

10% of the proceeds from the Cary Scavenger Hunt will be donated to the Cary Community Foundation to fund cultural arts programs in Cary.

Get more info at Cary Citizen, our online news service, at this link: http://www.carycitizen.com/cary-scavenger-hunt/

It’s Tuesday, come to Market

Remember, produce, eggs and honey are available Tuesday afternoons from 3-6pm at the Market. We are one of the few local markets who do have a second market day, so take advantage of this!

.

Conrad Farms now at Market

We have a new vendor of Flowers, locally-made honey and coming soon, late summer fruits. The Conrad Farms folks had wonderful blackberries and now have blueberries, and will have more as the season progresses.

.

Westwood Back Porch String Band back this Saturday – enjoy lively bluegrass

The Back Porch folks will return this Saturday, so if you missed them last week, this is your chance to enjoy some foot-tapping music. Look at our Musicians page to read their story, see all the places they’ve performed, starting at the Westwood Baptist Church, where they are members. Instead of paying them a fee, we’ve made a donation to their community fund. If there are any other groups in the community who would like to perform at the market, give us a call – it adds so much festivity to the market.

Tomatoes are one of the few fruits – or veggies – that reallllly love this hot weather. Or that mostly love this hot weather. If they don’t self-saute in the fields. Which means that this is the time to whip out the pans and the freezer containers and preserve some of that summer freshness and rich flavor for the rest of the year. So don’t be shy – buy a few more than what will take you through a week’s worth of tomato sandwiches and make a little sauce. By the end of the summer, you’ll have enough of the best to last until tomato season 2011.

One hint about skinning tomatoes if boiling up water feels like too much heat, energy and trouble; cut them in half and grate them into a bowl . It takes only a few seconds and reduces the steps of skinning and pureeing into one easy one.

.

Piedmont Pottery is back Today

The folks at Piedmont Pottery are back in the market today, with everything from bowls and vases to garden plaques and ceramic jewelry. Check them out, and check our Calendar page to see when they’ll return.

.

Westwood Back Porch String Band plays Today

The Westwood Back Porch String Band is back and they really play up a storm. Very fine music and lots of fun to watch. They’ll be here next Saturday as well, and they’re free to watch – although I’m sure they love donations, too!