Rain or Shine - May 20 the Byrd House Market goes on!




Rain or Shine

The market is a natural place to be!



Yikes, it looks like rain and thunderstorms on Tuesday! We will be here, rain or shine…if it is raining hard we will set up in our big blue gym on Linden Street. We did it for our Appalachian Spring Festival and were pleasantly pleased that it worked out so well.
We are getting into the rhythm of nature here at the market. Our students look forward to our Tuesday market. We celebrate our seasons with the produce brought in by the vendors. If you take a moment and stroll through the Grace Arents Community Garden, you can actually see strawberries, onions, and greens growing. Paolo, our veteran child gardener, from last year pointed out his strawberries, and the mulberry tree laden with berries. I think it seems more abundant than last year. I keep thinking we should probably harvest the berries and make a Byrd House Market Mulberry Jam. Anyone have a good recipe?

We look forward to seeing you again this week. Remind a friend to meet you at the market, or maybe ask that older neighbor who may not be able to get out as often. The market, the garden, the people, the conversations and bountiful produce and crafts makes coming to the BHM a perfect outing for everyone – there truly is something for everyone!.

Remember the new parking places, you can park on both sides of Idlewood – there are “no parking” signs, but these are reserved for you, our market shoppers. Also along the alley adjacent to the market; and across the street from the market next to the alley along the cemetery –Todd has generously given us permission to park there. The parking lot for WBCH is also available after 5:30.

We are happy that you are making WBCH/BHM a weekly Tuesday tradition. Your support helps the vendors make a better-than-living wage and it helps WBCH develop better programs fro gardening, nutrition, and the environment for our students and community. We are all working for a healthier, greener and better Richmond for the future.

Vendors at the BHM this week
FARMERS
  • Amy's Garden: Certified Organic strawberries, greens, lettuce, flowers, and plants
  • CCL: all natural, free range , no additives pasture raised pork, chicken and brown eggs. And a few handmade crafts
  • Faith Farm: Anti-biotic Free Grass-Fed Beef, Pastured Pork Pastured Chicken. Goat Cheese, Amish Roll Butter, Farm Fresh Eggs, Local Honey, Farm Fresh Eggs. Fresh Squeezed Limeades
  • Bill Heath: Cauliflower, broccoli, June peas, radishes, cabbage, Herbs, vegetable and flower plants
  • Mike's: Herb plants, curly endive, lettuce, spinach, arugula with onions and radishes
  • Perennial Pleasures Plant Pharm: Peonies, Baptista, snapdragons and mixed bouquets
  • Pleasant Fields Farm: perennials, annuals, hanging baskets, strawberries, onions, herbs
  • Pleitez Produce: Strawberries, asparagus and greens
  • Roxbury Nursery: perennials, annuals, herbs and hanging baskets
  • Rural Virginia Market: spinach, turnips, carrots, spring onions, sugar snap peas, lettuce, beets, pac choi, eggs, goat cheese and tea
  • Victory Farms: Lettuce, salad mix, kale, swiss chard, beets, turnips, radishes, kohlrabi, cabbage, escarole, beet greens
  • John Wise: Woody ornamental plants, perennials half hardy annuals and such

BAKED GOODS AND SNACKS

  • Back to Earth Foods: Vegetable soup, limeade, water, lemonade, carrot cake, and banana walnut bread
  • Bernie's Baked Goods: Sweet potato rolls, cakes and pies
  • Bread for the People: whole wheat bread, multi-grain bread and plain bread, plain, garlic and Romano cheese baguettes, cinnamon brioche loaves, and chocolate cheese schneck
  • Espress-a-go-go & Relish: Smoothies and vegetarian prepared snacks
  • Koralee Coffee House: Indonesian Coffee Beans, Organic loose tea from China, hot and iced coffee, iced tea; bottled water; coke, and pre-packaged snacks
  • Simply Delicious: Cookies and world famous lemon pound cake, brownies, cookies and pies

CRAFTS

  • Hanaan's Essential Oils: Aromatherapy Sets, spring floral scents, exotic musk, essential balms
  • Wild Heaven Farm: Handmade goat soaps and skin care
  • Kizmet’s Klozet: Handcrafted jewelry, inspired from lyrical Romany Gypsy roots incorporating sterling and semi-precious stones
ACTIVITIES
  • 3:30-7 Waldorf School with Children's tent and WBCH/BHM birdhouses
  • 4:30-4:50 Story Time in the Garden with Jane Harrison

RAIN or SHINE



For more information, call 804-643-2717, visit http://byrdhousemarket.blogspot.com or email
byrdhousemarket@gmail.com

Visit the Laptop Librarian Each Market Day



Contact Patty at laptoplibrarian@gmail.com







Interesting News Stories:
Dining & Wine
Urban Farmers’ Crops Go From Vacant Lot to Market
By TRACIE McMILLAN
Published: May 7, 2008
For years, city dwellers have raised fruits and vegetables to feed their families, but now more and more of them are growing food to sell to a wider market.
Dining & Wine
To Save a Species, Serve It for Dinner
By KIM SEVERSON
Published: NYT April 30, 2008
Saving plants and animals that were once fairly commonplace in America and are now threatened or endangered often involves urging people to eat them. Review of Gary Nabhan’s new book“Renewing America’s Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent’s Most Endangered Foods”.
Flowers' Fragrance Diminished By Air Pollution, Study Indicates

ScienceDaily (2008-04-11) -- Air pollution from power plants and automobiles is destroying the fragrance of flowers and thereby inhibiting the ability of pollinating insects to follow scent trails to their source, a new study indicates. This could partially explain why wild populations of some pollinators, particularly bees -- which need nectar for food -- are declining in several areas of the world, including California and the Netherlands. ... > read full article

Laptop Librarian's Favorite Site of the week: May 19

Center for Urban & Structural Entomology
http://urbanentomology.tamu.edu/index.cfm

One of our fascinating Urban Gardening Gurus classes focuses on insects. I am enticed and repulsed by them equally. My sister from Texas, who loves to feed my free floating anxieties, sent me an article about a very pernicious and hard to eradicate ant, commonly known as the Caribbean Crazy Ant, or uncommonly known(?) as Paratrechina sp. near pubens; of course I thought I had to read more. The article linked me to this site from Texas A & M University Department of Entomology, I read more here than I need to know about our various urban pests!

Hope to see you at the BHM next week. Stop by and give me one of your favorite sites.
Patty

Meet Up With Friends At the Market!


Take time to hang out with friends (furry ones too!)while you shop! Sit and chat in a shady spot- we've got cafe tables with umbrellas. If you're hungry or thirsty, many of our market vendors sell refreshing drinks and prepared foods.