Betty Smith of Your Just Desserts offers taste-tempting treats. (CP photo by Greg Glassner)
The 2015 growing season has been somewhat erratic, but the vendors at the Route 639 Farmers Market in Ladysmith offer plenty of fresh vegetables, farm-raised meat and poultry, eggs, mouth-watering baked goods and other temptations like gourmet mushrooms and local honey.
The market, which is in the parking lot in front of the old Ladysmith Elementary/Diversified Learning Center, near the intersection of Ladysmith Road and U.S. 1., is open every Thursday from 4-8 p.m.
A new vendor this year is Joel Boyle, owner/cultivator of Umami Gardener of Milford.
Boyle moved here from New Mexico two years ago and offers some unusual, tasty and quite beautiful varieties of mushrooms, like the golden and pink oyster mushrooms he displayed last week.
“I was tampering with mushrooms for five years but got serious about it for the past two years,” he said.
People picture mushrooms being grown in caves and basements, but most of them are grown outside in shady areas, Boyle noted. “I grow mine in straw.”
Dominic Carpin, owner/operator of delli Carpini Farms in Beaverdam and Montpelier sells natural specialty market heirloom produce. He uses no chemical pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers.
Although he named his business in tribute to his Italian heritage, Carpin specializes in hard-to-find open-pollinated flowers, herbs and vegetables of Italian, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Asian and Meso-American varieties.
Through the course of the season, he will have anise, arugula, Siam queen basil, Sicilian purple cauliflower, cucumber Pugliese, three varieties of eggplant, purple Marconi peppers, more than a dozen varieties of tomatoes, German winter thyme, Greek oregano, Caserta squash, and peppermint menthe piperita.
“No chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides are used. We never use GMO seed, and are very concerned about its presence in the food supply and agriculture,” Carpin said.
Sharon Leiby holds up free-range chicken and pork.
Sharon Leiby and Ken Davidson operate the Virginia Natural Farmer in Newtown. They specialize in heritage pork, pasture-raised chicken and farm-raised free-range eggs.
Their pork comes from a pig that is a cross between Tamworth (75 percent) and Berkshire (25 percent). Tamworths are also known as Irish graziers and considered bacon pigs because of their long and lean bacon type, Davidson pointed out.
Their hogs are pasture-fed, and Davidson said the difference between their sausage, chops and bratwurst and store bought is like comparing a tomato you pulled off the vine from one picked green “from who knows where” and shipped to the supermarket.
Leiby said her chickens are raised on pasture and non-GMO feed and are antibiotic free. They are available dry aged for three days and then frozen before sale.
Shopping for fresh produce and healthy meat and poultry can give you a sweet tooth and the folks at Your Just Desserts are ready to help with that.
Betty Mays Smith and her daughters Pamela and Angela Smith love baking, and their array of cakes, pies, cookies, brownies and breads shows it.
“All these recipes are from our family,” said Betty Smith. She retired from working in a furniture store and started her home business doing what she really loves to do.
“We test some new things out and try to use what’s fresh in veggies and fruits for our selections. What they make and sell is fresh and uses no preservatives.”
A typical selection of pies can include apple-cherry, chocolate chip-pecan ginger peach, sweet potato and vinegar. Cakes include Boston crème, carrot, angel food, lemon-coconut, red velvet, rum, peanut butter and jelly and – get this – maple-bacon. Breads run the gamut from cranberry-orange to zucchini to banana.
Some of the vendors, including Your Just Desserts, also appear at the Bowling Green Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.