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June 6, 2009

STEPHANIE SALTER: One potato, two potato, tons potato more; farmers market still growing

By Stephanie Salter

TERRE HAUTE — The date had been circled in my agenda planner for weeks.

June 6.

Over the morning time slots I’d written, “Farmers Market Opens!” I was that excited.

Yesterday’s season kickoff in the parking lot at Ninth Street between Cherry Street and Wabash Avenue was the fifth for the Terre Haute Downtown Farmers Market. About two dozen vendors-strong now, the market began in 2005 with “only two or three people those first few sessions,” said Andrew Conner, director of the market’s founder, Downtown Terre Haute Inc.

I have watched vendor kids grow up and vendor babies join the world over the years of summer Saturdays at the market. I’ve seen a few folding tables and patio umbrellas mushroom into rows of nifty white portable gazebo stalls with artful displays of fresh vegetables and fruits and home-baked breads and desserts.

When hormone-free, humanely raised chicken, pork, beef and lamb began to make an appearance at the Farmers Market, I figured we’d arrived. Like more and more Americans, I want to know as much as I can about where the meat and chicken I eat originates.

Still the market grew. Homemade jams, relishes, salsas, pie fillings, pickles and honey became weekly staples — and no-brainer gifts for friends in big cities. Organic lotions, soy candles and soaps came along. Hand-carved wooden bowls and spoons and dried herb wreaths materialized.

Last year, organic dog biscuits took the market to a new level and paper bags full of the most-flavorful shitake mushrooms I’ve tasted anywhere were for sale in the later season.

True, there are bigger farmers markets in central and southern Indiana and Illinois, well-established extravaganzas that offer scores of diverse products. If a person happens to be near one of those other towns, it would be a good idea to go shopping.

When a person is on or near Ninth Street in Terre Haute between the first week of June and the end of October, however, they should do a couple of cartwheels in gratitude for what Italians call “abbondanza” — the abundance in our own downtown. And a person should make a point of spending some of her or his money here in support of this commitment to local, seasonable and sustainable food.

Several new vendors have joined the roster of the market this year, not the least of them the First Congregational Church with made-on-the-spot beignets. But I’ve a soft spot in my heart for many of the veterans: Momma Sue’s, Appleseed Farm (featured in Country Living), Johnson Branch Produce with Rosie’s Posies, Heron Bay with the Gambills’ boutique hot peppers, the Royer Family’s meats, the Webers and their maple syrup, and Lookout Farm with the Conners’ natural green eggs, alpaca manure fertilizer and the tastiest arugula on God’s green Earth.

The softest heart-place is reserved, though, for the Sisters of Providence’s White Violet Center stall, and that of the Lau and Augustus families of L&A; Family Farms from Edgar County in Illinois. Those two entities were the whole show during first few weeks of the Downtown Farmers Market in 2005.

Late last week, I phoned Andrea and Brian Lau to hear how L&A; was gearing up for the 2009 season. (Joyce and Kevin Augustus take part of the farms’ fare to the Saturday market in Paris, Ill.) Like so many Midwestern growers, Andrea Lau said the rain had slowed corn planting this year, but everything else was looking on-schedule and pretty darned good.

“We’ve got lettuce [which, let me say, tastes like lettuce, not leafy nothing] and green onions, our eggs, of course, and meat. And we’re doing something new this year with the chicken,” Lau said.

If customers want legs only or breasts or wings or — as requested last year — just chicken backs, L&A; offers specialized packages along with the usual whole or cut-up birds. The farms’ famed rhubarb is coming in soon they will have edamame, which needs only a steaming and ground sea salt to turn anyone’s home into a mini-Japanese restaurant.

Lau said L&A; keeps returning to Terre Haute because business is solid and because the downtown vibe has always been a good one.

“I like the other vendors a lot. We’ve gotten to know each other well over the years,” she said. “If we don’t have something, we’ll say, ‘Why don’t you try over there?’ or, like, when the Conners don’t come, their egg customers will visit us. Everybody supports each other.”

Lau said she also appreciates the surroundings, especially being “next to Clabber Girl for the bakery and the bathroom.”

Lau didn’t mention it, but there’s one other aspect of Terre Haute’s Downtown Farmers Market that makes the shopping experience much more than just buying vegetables. Most Saturdays, live musicians serenade us.

Yesterday, it was the Women of Erin with their violins and toe-tapping Irish tunes. Sometimes, it’s a solo guitarist, other times a duo or trio.

Two summers ago, a jazz saxophonist was playing. The sun was high, the air was warm, I’d hit the ATM for cash and had my customary armfuls of reusable grocery bags ready for stuffing. In a slow, almost plaintive rendition, the saxophonist started playing, “Back Home Again In Indiana.”

Talk about your abbondanza.



Stephanie Salter can be reached at (812) 231-4229 or stephanie.salter@tribstar.com.

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