The holiday season is approaching and with a focus on healthy and green, market vendor Helen Hayes provides the following “vendor view” of market offerings.

Douglas is buzzing Local beekeeper Ray Simons of Douglas helps Helen Hayes select some beeswax candles made by his family at a recent Sierra Vista Farmers Market. For more information, see Page 4

Three local ranchers have fantastic cuts of grass-fed beef and lamb, natural pork, free range chicken and turkey for your dining enjoyment. Rancher Dennis Moroney from the 47 Ranch has a new product, goat meat, which is getting rave reviews. He says it is a “fine textured meat with a slightly sweet flavor and great grilled or slow roasted in a Dutch oven.”

Moroney will offer his Sky Island Brand beef including ribs, tri-tip and chuck roasts as well as steaks, hamburger and liver. New batches of his summer sausage and jerky are being made right now, great for gifts for family and friends offering a good taste of Arizona beef.

Every week two ranchers will be at the market with Anya Owens from A Bar H coming the first of every month and Sky Island Beef covering the next three weeks.

Nathan Watkins of San Ysidro Farm has fabulous bulk sausage and sausage links made from his lamb and pork that can be used in turkey stuffing and soups. These include his Polish and South African spice blend links and red and green chile chorizo, Italian, breakfast and summer sausage. Place an order now for a pork roast, leg or rack of lamb.

Those that ordered a pastured turkey raised by Mennonite farmer Josh Koehn, be sure to pick it up this week.  San Ysidro Farm also carries Josh’s pastured whole chickens as well as chickens wings with lots of meat, chicken breasts and free-range eggs.

For seafood Max McCarty offers flash frozen Alaskan salmon and halibut as well as smoked salmon.

Dragoon Marketplace (chunky applesauce, tart red plum, apple cranberry and pear ginger), Bounty of the Desert (prickly pear products) and Simmons Honey offer jellies, jams, preserves and chutneys for unique additions to meals to compliment meats or replace standard cranberry sauce.

Kerry Simmons just made a large batch of piccalilli, wonderful for the relish tray along with her bread and butter pickles, pickled asparagus and okra, or garlic-stuffed olives.  Her jalapeno jelly makes a great dip with cream cheese and the red and green pepper jellies accent Christmas meals.  Honey and agave nectar can be used instead of sugar in holiday recipes for health and flavor.

Grammie’s Garden will offer lots of unsprayed greenhouse vegetables, onions and potatoes as well as winter squash for baking and pies, local pinto beans for warming soups and bean dips and seasoned pasta.

Dragoon Marketplace and the Bertys offer pesticide-free greenhouse tomatoes, local pistachios, Swiss chard, lettuce and other vegetables as well as fresh eggs. Remember to pick up some Granny Smith or apples of your choice from the Beattys for pies or baked apples.

To round off all this local holiday fare you can still order fresh pies from Bisbee’s Favorite Pies in all the wonderful flavors to satisfy your sweet tooth.  Although there will be no farmers market on Thanksgiving week, the pie folks will be at the market to deliver pies from 4 to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, November 21st.

Appetizers are covered with the empanadas by Mama LLama, tamales, fresh salsa, tortillas, mesquite cookies and mesquite sweet bread by Esperanza and four kinds of hummus, pita chips, dolmas, salamis, dried fruits, nuts and other goodies offered by Paul Smith.

From our own back yard in Pomerene, comes the prize winning goat cheese from Fiore Di Capra in logs, torts and spreads that delight the taste buds.

Think about using this holiday season to try new and different avenues to taste.  We will be celebrating Thanksgiving and are grateful to these local food producers for contributing to our health and tastes.

In the gift department the market offers many unusual items. Make a custom gift basket by selecting items to fill your choice of hand-woven African baskets and bowls. Desert Oasis Soaps offers a kaleidoscope of colors and fragrances of hand made soaps including special seasonal soaps. (They also make nutritious treats that dogs love.)

Sun Spun Soap, a new vendor, will bring hand made soap using the best plant oils and lotions with a certified organic base which includes aloe vera, chamomile, green tea, echinacea and lavender extracts.

The goat cheese folks make sets of soothing soaps and lotions with goat’s milk. Planet Earth Remedies carried by Dragoon Marketplace include eucalyptus oil and fragrant relaxing and healing balms.  

Pair a bright package of fresh locally roasted fair-trade Just Coffee in Robusto or Arabica or the new Maraga super bean with a bottle of delicious low-glycemic index agave nectar.

 Candles enhance any table, adding to a festive dining experience. Simmons Honey has beeswax candles including hand-dipped tapers as well as hexagon, octagon and spiral tapers. They also make figurine beeswax candles in shapes of angels, praying hands, carved eggs, bee hives, owls, frogs and even an eight-inch T-Rex. Also in season are their popular beeswax Christmas ornaments including old world and new world angels, snowmen, Christmas bells, and a Ginger Bread Man.

Beeswax is a very slow burning wax,  three times slower than paraffin wax. Candles made with beeswax burn cleaner and resist dripping. (Paraffin candles are now considered carcinogenic so we all should be looking for healthy alternatives.)

The market also offers food to eat while you shop or to take and go for dinner.  The Next Door Kitchen has lots of vegetarian and meat choices and desserts.  So join us in the weeks ahead to complete your holiday shopping.

Note from Just Coffee

The coffee harvest in Salvador Urbina (Mexico) has started, but the seasonal rains are lasting significantly longer than in the years past.  Normally the rain falls between noon and 3 p.m., but this year the rain is starting in the morning and lasting all day, making it impossible to dry the coffee on the open-air patios as we have always done

We believe that patio drying is one of the reasons that our coffee is so good. Our cooperative had decided from the beginning not to machine dry our beans for two reasons. One is to maintain the highest quality taste in the bean, and two is to keep costs to you, our valued customer, lower.

 We deeply regret this inconvenience and we promise to ship your coffee as quickly as we can get it dried, shipped and roasted in Agua Prieta.  (I just got word that the farmers have been able to dry their coffee and it has been roasted so Katherine Zellerbach will be bringing this new crop to market.)

 By supporting a small cooperative like Just Coffee you know where your coffee is grown and the farmers who work to bring you this coffee. However we are at the mercy of Mother Nature as we grow and dry our coffee the traditional way.  Your support makes an enormous difference to our community. 

Pilgrim Pumpkin Pie

(as submitted to American Bee Journal 1991)

2 large eggs

2 cups pumpkin (cooked & mashed)

3/4 cups of a light honey (Tip: smear measure cup with butter before pouring honey in.)

1/2 tsp salt

1 2/3 cup evaporated milk or light cream

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp ground cloves

One 9 inch unbaked pie crust

 

Preheat oven to 425 F. Mix dry ingredients well. Add other ingredients. Blend thoroughly. Turn into pie crust.

Bake in oven for 15 minutes at 425 F., then reduce to 350 F. for 40 more minutes. Let cool for 4 hours to set well, then serve.