Dawn Troutner

Market Report for August 25, 2017

It was a quite Friday night at the Toledo Farmers’ Market. With the start of school this week and it being the first home football game the vendors knew this would be a slower market. But that didn’t stop the vegetables from growing.

Cindy and Rod brought plenty of tomatoes, potatoes, sweet corn, green beans, peppers, cantaloupe, and cucumbers.

Kristi had cabbage, green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, blue plums, along with her bakery and Devin’s better than anything cupcakes.

Caryn brought her cotton candy machine, snack mixes, caramel corn, jams, jellies, and some pears.

Darold had onions, egg plant, cucumbers, peppers, okra, tomatoes, potatoes, and green tomatoes.

Shirley and Michael were busy baking rolicky, buchty, and kolaches.

Chuck and Ginger had a table full of leeks, peppers, popcorn, summer squash, winter squash, onions, okra, green beans, cabbage, red and green potatoes, pies, kolaches, breads, and hot pepper powder.

Dawn had her tables full of vegetables. She brought heirloom tomatoes, ground cherries, hot peppers, green beans, cucumbers, yellow summer squash, onions, cantaloupe, houseplants, plums, French long beans, and lemon cucumbers.

Lois, Brenda, and Marie had zucchini, yellow summer squash, tomatoes, egg plant, cucumbers, and green peppers. Ethan was selling his Club Scout popcorn.

Janet had eggs, pumpkin poppers, banana poppers, and breads.

Jim was under the pine tree with his hand made leather items, purses, belts, hair barrettes, and coin purses.

Joe and Barb brought breads, granola, pies, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, carrots, and onions.

Pam had her table full of hand made craft items, magnets, hand towels, cake testers, scrubbies, fabric pumpkins, knitted cupcakes, and mop heads.

Karen was able to make it this week with her soy candles, melts, odor eliminator spray, and corn cob sachets.

Fanciful Fiber had embroider pillow cases, and hand towels, llama and alpaca fibers, llama and alpaca bead natural fertilizer, knitted soaks, knitted hats, and loom made rugs.

Gail and Bill from the Bunny Farm had kale, dehydrated tomatoes, apples, a large variety of heirloom tomatoes, and some homemade muffins.

There is a large variety of heirloom vegetables at the Toledo Farmers’ Market. Heirloom vegetables are old time varieties, open-pollinated instead of hybrid and saved and handed down through multiple generations of families. Usually they cost less than hybrid seeds. There are more reasons than just seed prices to choose heirlooms vegetables. Heirloom vegetables deliver diverse colors, bright flavors, rich nutrition, and fascinating history.

Exceptional taste is the number one reason many gardeners choose heirloom varieties. According to George DeVault, executive director of Seed Savers exchange, “A lot of the breeding programs for modern hybrids have sacrificed taste and nutrition.” Most hybrids are bred to be picked green and gas ripened because that’s what was needed for commercial growing and shipping. Many heirloom vegetables have been saved for decades and even centuries because they are the best performers in home and market gardens.

Heirloom vegetables are likely to be more nutritious than newer varieties.

Many gardeners prefer heirloom vegetables because they are open pollinated, which means you can save your own seed to replant from year to year.

Heirloom vegetables are less uniform than hybrids, which mean they often don’t ripen all at once. If you love uniformity, heirloom vegetables are not for you. Myself, I would take an heirloom tomato over a hybrid any day. They are so delicious.

There are still plenty of weeks left of the Toledo Farmers’ Market for you to come on out and make your delicious purchases. See you at market.