Earth Day festivities continue with a celebration at the Bisbee Farmers Market this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Vista Park in the Warren section of Bisbee. (Also the opening of the farmers market’s six month season, the market portion of the event starts at 8 a.m.) This will be Bisbee’s 19th annual Earth Day festival. For several of those years I joined in the fun with solar cooking demonstrations at City Park.
 Photo by Valerie McCaffrey Earth Day at the Sierra Vista Farmers Market last Saturday was powered by sunshine that ran the sound sytem and cooked food, packed with 40 farmers market vendors, 27 ecological and educational organizations and lots of local talent including six bands, six authors and a menagerie of desert critters, all of which kept the large crowd well entertained. Here farmer Stewart Loew of Agua Linda Farm helps a young visitor pick out just the right gourd. Loew will return to the farmers market this Thursday (now open noon to 5 p.m.) with fresh spinach, baby stir fry greens, snow peas, sweet peas, beets, lettuce mix, cilantro, arugala and fava beans. |
In spite of overcast skies last Saturday at the packed Earth Day Celebration in Sierra Vista, we cooked a pot roast and a pear apple crumble in our solar ovens and feasted on them after the event. The sun also ran the sound system and was hot enough to bake cookies.
Earth Day in Bisbee will feature live music, drumming, entertainment and activities all day. Highlights include performances by favorite market musicians Amy Ross, Vince Robel and Friends and Mitch and Jenny Druckman as well as La Luna Tunes, Ja-wow and others sure to keep folks dancing. The Maypole Dance, which anyone can join, will be held mid day.
Vendors of earth friendly products and a variety of educational booths including Water Wise, the Arizona Yoga association (with handout of all Bisbee’s yoga classes) and the City of Bisbee recycling project will participate. Rod Baird has volunteered to collect batteries (the rechargeable smaller ones & cell phone) to keep them out of the landfill. He will have a booth with information and will recycle your batteries.
For the seventh year, Margie Scott will hold a free clothing exchange. Bring clothing to share with others and take what you like. No need to bring to take. Herbalist Mimi Kamp will lead two herb walks at 9 and 11 a.m. Long time yoga teacher and Earth Day organizer, Marcia Galleher will give a free yoga class.
All day children’s activities about the Elements will be led by Hosanna Farrar, who taught preschool at Los Amigos Pre School in Bisbee for six years. Activities will include making pinwheels for a wind activity, solar cookies for fire, water play, planting in the soil for earth, a story corner and other projects. Hosanna needs volunteers so call 234-6564 if you can help.
Earth Day will also offer two facilitated roundtable discussions on ways people can co-create projects to help the community “go green.” These will be at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Bring your ideas. A construction material recycling/reusing plan and a community garden are two suggestions already brought forward.
Food: La Carretta of Douglas will offer Mexican food including great shrimp tacos and burritos, chile verde and rojo, chicken fajitas and carne asada tacos, caramelos, quesadillas and breakfast burritos. Yogi’s Café in Douglas will also have a food cart offering hamburgers and curly fries as well as green chile and carne asada burritos, its own homemade salsa and drinks. The café is named after its owner Carlos Ortiz’s nickname, “Yogi Bear.”
Lots of favorite arts and crafts vendors will return to the market including the tie-dye lady and artisans with pottery, ceramic ornaments, gem stones, jewelry, hand made soaps, sand paintings and wooden cutting boards.
It’s not too late to get involved. Please call Caryl Marie at 432-7692 for more information or to have an educational booth. Call Laura Smith, farmer’s market manager for vendor or food booths at 227-5060.
Entertainment & Event Schedule:
All Day – farmers market, live music, dancing & drumming, clothing exchange & kid’s activities
9 a.m. and 11 a.m.– Herb Walks with Mimi Kamp
10 & 11 a.m. & noon – Solar Cooking demonstrations by Baja AZ
10 a.m. and 2 p.m. – Roundtable go-green discussions at the Earth Day Committee Booth
1 p.m. – Traditional Maypole Dance
1:30 p.m. - Free yoga class with Marcia Galleher
This Week at the Sierra Vista Farmers Market
(Due to space restrictions not every vendor can be included each week. Vendors listed under one market who will also participate in the other will be noted with the abbreviations BFM for Bisbee Farmers Market and SVFM etc.)
New Hours: The market is now open from noon to 5 p.m.
New crops: Several of growers will bring freshly harvested garlic to market this week including George Wyckoff of Grammy’s Garden and Jim Woodruff of Woody’s Organic Garden. Jim will also offer sweet onions home-grown in his backyard in Sierra Vista.
RPMS Jams makes home-style jams, syrups, rubs, BBQ & chipotle sauces, mesquite and prickly pear jellies as well as refreshing prickly pear lemonade. The family harvests prickly pear and mesquite from their farm west of Tucson.
Simmons Honey will have cut honeycomb this week. The honey is very light and mostly very early spring wildflowers. Look for all the family’s home-style pickles, jams and butters, beeswax candles and honey and hive products. (BFM)
Dragoon Marketplace will bring yellow, orange and red tomatoes from the Sunizona Family Farm greenhouses along with their baby heirloom lettuce, red chile powder and chile pastes, pistachios, and chutneys with agave nectar. (BFM)
San Ysidro Farm now offers ground chicken (as well as chicken breasts and whole chickens from Josh’s Foraging Fowls) which makes great chicken tacos says farmer Nathan Watkins. Grass-fed lamb, free- range eggs and natural pork products. (BFM)
The Next Door Kitchen will be back with Bar-B-Q chicken, traditional potato salad, German Hot potato salad, kidney bean w/egg salad and baked great northern beans as well as fresh banana, pumpkin and zucchini breads and Amish double chocolate, lemon and original cinnamon breads.
(Also at the market: wild fish, Dr. Hummus, veggie and herb starts, emmer baked goods (BFM), fair-trade coffee, desert health foods, pecans, Azmira dog food and remedies (BFM), hand made soap, lotions, balms, and sprays.)
This Week at the Bisbee Farmers Market
Burda Farm is back at the market this year with Cecilia Burda’s delightful cut flowers for bouquets to decorate your home. Look for lettuce, spring mix, sugar snap peas, onions, and bell peppers as well as fresh herbs: cilantro, lemon thyme, lime mint, Greek oregano and dill. The Burdas will also have Willcox tomatoes and cucumbers from Eurofresh Farms, local pecans, pistachios and walnuts, beans and soup mix.
The farm will also offer three new lines of products. Baked goods by La Baguette Bakery in Tucson, gourmet oils and vinegars for cooking and dressing salads and Mrs. Miller’s Organic Pasta Products. The baked goods will include seven different European style breads including whole wheat and multi-grain, (no sugars or oils or preservatives, just sea salt), as well as ciabatta, fruit bread, pies, turnovers, pecan/caramel pull aparts, coffee cakes, and cinnamon rolls.
Pick up a re-useable non-polypropylene shopping bag with the Burda Farm logo for $1. Anyone who spends $20 or more will get a free bag. Also new are Bubba Burda’s biscuits which are all organic, no preservatives added, dog biscuits made with flea bane, cheddar cheese treats, plaque busters etc. that Cecilia makes for her pack of dogs who love them.
Elfrida Community Garden will bring strawberries raised in their huge greenhouse, greens, broccoli, green onions, starts for the garden (tomatoes, pepper and strawberry), fresh and dried herbs and indoor and outdoor lavendar.
47 Ranch will sell local hormone and antibiotic-free, grass-fed goat and beef and cowboy flavor jerky.
Spice of the Desert will bring fresh produce, herbs, plants, herbal remedies and desert honey. Bonne de Blas will offer her signature rocky road fudge.
Backyard growers will include Keith Parker with beets, peas, lettuce and greens and Keith Johnson with chard, onions and bedding plants.
Circle T Emu Ranch in Huachuca City will be at the market with all natural emu products from Arizona-grown emus. Emu oil is ideal for rejuvenation of the skin and promotes healing. Emu Sports and Muscle Rub does wonders for aching muscles and arthritis sufferers. Pure Emu Gel Caps assist in lowering cholesterol and maintaining a healthy immune system. Try some emu meat, the “other red meat”, which is 97% fat free or a fresh emu egg for a rich and fluffy omelet. One emu egg is equivalent to 6 chicken eggs.
Mike McConnell will be back with upgraded versions of his High Grade Rubs & Seasonings.
“Everything we grow is organic”, say Marlene and Bob from Desert Blossom in Tombstone. In the fresh cut dept there will be lettuce, chard, Siberian kale, and parsley. The couple also sell plants: lettuce, tomatoes, fennel bulb, feverfew, pomegranate trees and a wide selection of herbs. Great desert wreaths of manzanita and other dried desert ornamentals.
In the Garden Nursery will debut this week. It offers a full line of culinary herbs (including unusual chocolate mint, curry, African basil, lemon thyme, pineapple sage) and medicinal herbs (Echinacea, yerba manzo, calendula, valerian, feverfew, chamomile, epazote, rue.) Also look for agave, aloe vera and shamrocks. Bedding plants include jalapeno peppers, butter lettuce, lettuce salad bowls, tomatillos, spinach, cilantro, Tom Thumb peas, as well as Campbells, Marmande, yellow pear, and cherry tomato varieties.
Gary Foss of Oaks of the Wild West Nursery in Hereford will bring oak trees he raises (Emory, Mexican Blue, Silver Leaf, Bur, Texas Red, and Escarpment Live Oaks.) He will also have fruiting plants such as Jujube, Red Flame seedless grape and Brown Turkey Fig. Native trees will include Desert Willow, Arizona Ash, and Arizona Cypress as well as variety of conifer plants that grow well in Arizona, penstemons and salvias.
Look for a variety of yard and food plants by Brandts Plants and Yvonne Jingle.
Zucchini Spinach Casserol
(from the Solar Chef, a Southwestern Recipe Book by Rose Marie Kern)
2 cups fresh chopped spinach
2 tblsp butter
1 medium zucchini, grated
1 small onion, grated
1 tblsp lemon or lime juice
1 medium russet potato, grated
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 large eggs
1/2 cup jack or pepper jack cheese, optional
Preheat solar oven to between 300 and 350 degrees. While heating, place spinach and butter in casserole dish and melt together. Combine rest of ingredients, except parmesan and stir together. Remove spinach from sun oven and add combined misture. Return to oven and bake for about an hour. Take out and sprinkle with parmesan, return to oven for 15 more minutes.
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