The weather is heating back up and I am so glad to have air-conditioning in the Markets new truck. Today Meghan Buum and I are headed to Manhattan, Kansas which is the home of K-State and located in the beautiful Flint Hills. K- State is where Meghan attended school; she was surprised to see so much farm land just outside the city.

The City Market has had many families who have sold at the Market for many generations; the Flores family is one of these families. Barbra Flores has raised her children at the farmers market who are now bringing their own children each weekend. This family is truly a farming family and operates one of the biggest farms currently selling at the City Market consisting of approximately 300 acres. For those of you who frequent the Market on a regular basis you might have noticed that Barbra has not been in her stalls lately. She was in a terrible car accident about six months ago and has been hospitalized ever since. She has continued to make good progress but will be in the hospital for at least four more months and then will have to continue with physical therapy. Andrea, Barbra's daughter, and her husband have taken over running her farm along with their own. When we arrived Andrea was just leaving to be with her mom so she had one of her employees show us the farm. The fields which were planted in vegetables last year are now all used to grow field corn, sweet corn and green beans. Not too far down the road and down a lane is one of their second fields which has more varieties of peppers than I have ever seen, I am just guessing but I think about fifteen different kinds. They ranged in color, size and heat. Meghan was very brave and tasted the very hot variety, I passed. We walked through row after row of eggplant, cucumbers, watermelons, cantaloupe, pickles, tomatoes, potatoes waiting to be dug, sweet onions and okra. They had five varieties of watermelon and were having the same issue as the other farms I have visited this summer, the coyotes and raccoons have been playing havoc in the melon patch. Silly me I forgot to close up the truck while we were walking through the fields and came back to a truck full of mosquitoes, and not the city variety, these were huge! About three miles away Barbra has another field which consists mainly of more watermelons, pumpkins and a variety of squash.  You might be wondering where all this produce ends up. Flores Farm sells at the Manhattan and Topeka farmers’ markets and provides vegetables to Liberty Produce in Kansas City and a few Manhattan grocery stores. Flores Farm is at the Market every Saturday for most of the year in stalls 72-74 and at the exit to the Market they sale live goats (ordered in advance) chickens and ducks. In years past they have always been at the Market on Sundays but due to Barbra’s accident have not been able to do this much this year.

As always I visit the farthest farm first and catch a few other vendors on the way back. In addition to checking the farmers I also check on the artist/crafters. Lisa and Jeff Kanantzer are from Topeka, Kansas and are known around the Market as the alphabet vendor. They photograph various architectural items which resemble letters, have them printed with a secret technique (which I promised not to divulge) which gives their photos a unique color. Lisa and her Father Larry scour old neighborhoods around the City and when they travel looking for the perfect letters. Lisa said that “R” is the hardest letter to find. They sell the letters separately so you can pick which ones you like the most; they have a few choices for each letter. Customers then take the photos home and display them in frames or the Kanantzer’s can take a special order and have them framed. Six months ago Lisa and Jeff opened up a new shop in Topeka called Uniquely Yours where they sell their alphabet art, jewelry (which is $2.50 for each piece) and unique purses. Just in case you want to pay them a visit when you are in Topeka the store address is 2900 SW Oakley. Make sure and stop by their booth, located on the east side of the Market, it is really interesting to hear the story behind each letter. Uniquely Yours is at the Market year round, every Saturday and Sunday.

 

As we were leaving Uniquely Yours we saw the smallest McDonald's ever. I think it is the real deal, what do you think?

We were making really good time today so are able to make one more stop before getting back to the Market. Right off I-70 and 78^th street is the location of Hmong Vaj Farm which is owned by Chiong Vang. When Chiong became a vendor in 2006 he was farming a different location but a few years ago needed more space to expand his farm. No one was home when I arrived so Meghan and I walked through the fields on our own. What a difference from what I saw last year, the drought had really slowed down production. This summer everything is thriving and looks wonderful. He had an abundance of purple hull peas, okra, and assorted peppers. I could see where they had replanted lettuce and a few other items for their fall crop, crop rotation is key if farmers want to continue coming to the market into October and November. In addition to vegetables such as long beans, squash, eggplant and bitter melon Chiong and his family also sell cut flower arrangements. I will be visiting an additional location Chiong farms in a few weeks when I visit more vendors in that area. Hmong Vaj Farm is at the Market every Saturday stalls 99, 91, 108 & 109 and Sunday in stalls 85 & 86.

I am still up in the air where I will be heading next week since I still have a lot of vendors I have not yet visited this season. I got a pretty slow start due to the cold April and the snow in May, I feel like I have been playing catch-up all summer.

The following recipe is from the University of California and is also available each weekend at the yellow information tent.

Oriental Eggplant

Season: June through November

Storage: Refrigerate in a zip lock bag for up to 4 days

Health Properties: Immune system, blood pressure and heart health

Marinated Eggplant

5 oriental eggplants

1 T. sesame oil

1 tsp. grated ginger

1 T. rice vinegar

1 ½ T reduced sodium soy sauce

1 tsp. each sugar and mirin (a kind of rice wine)

Wash and trim eggplant ends: steam eggplant 10 minutes until barley soft. Cut into bit size strips. Combine oil, ginger, vinegar, soy sauce, mirin and sugar. Mix well until sugar dissolves. Pour over eggplants: chill and marinate overnight. Serves 4