Eager to raise some of your own fruits and vegetables?  The month of August is a good time to get started as it’s easy digging due to all the rain which also helps plants take off and flourish.  Several events this month in both Bisbee and Sierra Vista will offer help and inspiration.

On Sunday August 24 the annual Organic Garden Tour in Sierra Vista will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at two backyard gardens on Choctaw off Highway 92.  Visit Elly and Bill Stavarek’s 13-year-old multiple raised bed backyard garden where they grow vegetables year-round and make great compost.  New grower, Jim Woodruff, will show off his many concrete block raised veggie beds, fruit trees watered by harvested rainwater, berries, grapes, onion and garlic patch and greenhouse in the works.  Experts from WaterWise will be on hand with information about rain water harvesting, drip irrigation and drought tolerant landscaping.  Call or contact me via e-mail for tour addresses.

At the Bisbee Farmers Market on Saturday, August 16, Compost Queen, Marcia Gibbons, will be sharing her wealth of experience making compost.  She will have compost samples at various stages as well as information on composting systems. 

On Sunday August 17 the Bisbee Community Gardens Group will have its first annual Organic Garden Tour from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. including several gardens in the Warren district.  Call Keith Bogue (236-9816) for garden addresses. There will also be demonstrations of rain water harvesting, composting, solar cooking and solar drying.

The hot pepper season is starting.  Jane Wyatt of San Simon Chile Company will return with her green chiles and chile roaster to the Sierra Vista Farmers Market beginning on August 14.  Her meaty green chiles are tasty and easy to peel.   

Celebrate chile season at the annual Chile Festival at the Bisbee Farmers Market on Saturday, August 23 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.  Jane will bring two large roasters and a trailer loaded with sacks of her green chiles and jalapenos as well as red chile pods. Enter the Salsa Contest with your favorite recipe and watch a salsa making demo followed by salsa sampling under the special events tree.   

This week is National Farmers Market week and in his proclamation the US Secretary of Agriculture “encourages the people of the United  States to celebrate the benefits of the 4,400 farmers markets across the nation that offer affordable and healthful, farm-fresh products.”  Mr. Schafer goes on to say that “the United States Department of Agriculture strongly supports and promotes the development, operation and expansion of farmers market and other direct to consumer marketing activities for agricultural producers.”

Bisbee Farmers Market

Hoop it Up at the Market in support of World Hoop Day (8-8-08.) Bring hula hoops and your children to the Hoop Day Celebration when Master Hooper, Melissa Gethin, will lead everyone in this healthy and fun practice, part dance, part exercise. The mission of World Hoop Day is to promote an active lifestyle for children around the world. Try out or buy one of her decorated sturdy hoops. Vince Robel & Friends will provide just the right music to hoop by.

Mexican food by Elvia Villa and her family includes steak tacos, vegetable soup, breakfast burritos, and quesadillas with or without green chiles.

Locally roasted, fair-trade Just Coffee is available from Roy Goodman under the music tree where you can also pick up a cup of hot coffee, whole wheat donuts and mesquite bread and lavash made with mesquite meal roasted by the Seri Indians of Sonora.  Other goodies at the market include Rocky Road Chocolate Confection by Bonne de Blas.

Get baby veggies (patty pan, crook neck, yellow and green zucchini)and baby green onions great for grilling fresh from the Elfrida Community Garden along with arugala, chard, okra galore, green chile, fresh parsley and other herbs, the first acorn and butternut winter squash and rainbow, pullet and duck eggs from Mother Goose.

St. David grower, James Gillham will bring fresh eggs as well as zucchini (green, gray, golden), summer squash (yellow crookneck, yellow straight neck, vegetable marrow), winter squash (butternut, buttercup, Lakota, delicata, pink banana, and Turk’s cap), beans (green, wax, and purple), cantaloupes, cucumbers (pickling and Middle Eastern), okra, new potatoes and tomatoes.   

Susie  Culp has great green beans and all sorts of hot chile peppers (poblano, Anaheim, cayenne, jalapeno), summer squash, eggplant, bell peppers, tomatoes and lots of recipes for cooking with them.  La Buena Vida will have an enticing display of carrots, green onions, leeks, summer squash, and new potatoes.

Lots of small growers bring produce to market: the Mobleys (elephant garlic, onions, grapes and summer squash), Jim Montoya (green beans, shallots, onions, garlic, carrots, squash), Keith Johnson (hot chile plants, leeks, squash, tomatoes, onions), Bob Berry (honey, cherry and slicing tomatoes, squash, onions, elephant garlic).

Burda Farm will offer organic apples and peaches from Briggs & Eggers Orchard near Willcox, as well as sweet corn, watermelons, sweet and green onions, lettuce, tomatoes, lots of other produce, flower bouquets and breads and pastries from La Baguette Bakery.

New Product: Circle T Emu Ranch will offer ground yak meat from Tibetan cattle in addition to emu meat (steaks and ground) and health promoting emu oil products and body care. Yak tastes like beef and is 97% fat-free.

Spadefoot Nursery brings its diverse selection of homegrown native trees and shrubs. This week’s featured 15 gallon tree is an Arizona white oak. It will also have two more oaks to its seedling selection: Scrub oak and Arizona white oak along side the Emory and Toumey oak seedlings.   These native oak seedlings in 9” cones are a great and inexpensive way to plant in the summer monsoon. Pick up an informative and entertaining “The Best of Growing Native” CD with Petey Mesquitey and meet the artist himself.

Recipes

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

(adapted from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver)

Combine in a large bowl:

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup honey

1 tblsp vanilla

Combine in a separate, small bowl and blend into liquid mixture:

1 cup white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 cup shredded zucchini

12 ounces chocolate chips

Stir zucchini and chips into other ingredients and mix well.  Drop by spoonful onto greased baking sheet and flatten with back of a spoon.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.   

 

Basil-Blackberry Crumble

2-3 apples, chopped

2 pints blackberries

2 tblsp balsamic vinegar

1 large handful of basil leaves, chopped

1/4 cup honey or more, depending upon berry tartness

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine above ingredients in an oven proof casserole dish, mix and set aside.

5 tblsp flour

3 heaping tblsp brown sugar

1 stick cold butter

Cut butter into flour and sugar, then rub with fingers to make a crumbly mixture.  Sprinkle it over top of fruit and bake 30 minutes until golden and bubbly.