An Event At Oconee Farmers Market The Whole Family Can Dig!

By Dana Bradford

The Pastures Of Rose Creek

The Oconee Farmers Market has kick-started the season with a bang--surpassing records in number of vendors and with overwhelming support from the community.

Russ Page, vice president of the market, conducted the first official tally of customers last Saturday and stopped counting at 1,000. The Market had 38 vendors, a new record!

As the Market continues to grow--it also continues to reach out to the community it serves.

This year the Market is taking another leap forward with weekly children’s activities to share knowledge and love of farming.

This Saturday the Market will offer a Children’s Workshop and will hold a similar workshops the fourth Saturday each month for the next 8 months. The first planned workshop will involve making pots out of newspaper and using the pots to plant tomato seedlings.

Read on to discover how this can be incorporated into a family wide project!

Ready, Set... Grow!

Looking for something the whole family can “dig?” This year, get your hands dirty with your kids and start a family garden! Gardening is a magical, mystical, blissful thing – and has a multitude of benefits that are not restricted to the enjoyment of us grown ups. Plus, you can really capitalize on just what kids do best–getting dirty and bringing home bugs! Why not make it a learning experience?

From science, to stewardship, to working cooperatively, a garden is a place steeped in wonderment and teachable moments. It is a healthy environment to learn lessons in patience, responsibility and the value of life. Children can get first-hand experience in forming a healthy diet and cultivating a taste for healthy foods as they learn and appreciate where good food comes from.

Children also can watch and learn in amazement as their first tomato plant produces it’s very first tomato and the joy of experiencing the depth of flavor that can only come fresh off the vine. Not to mention the quality time you and your family can spend while working together sewing seeds and pulling weeds in the cool of the evening before harvesting the night’s menu.

So, where to begin?  

Unlock the magic and come down to the Oconee Farmer’s Market Saturday for this first Children’s Workshop on how to make a newspaper pot and planting a tomato seedling.  This activity is also a great lesson in stewardship and sustainability as newspaper pots are a great way to recycle. And you can put plant, pot and all right into the soil. The newspaper will naturally decompose and become organic matter--further nutrients for your plant!

The Market opens at 8 a.m. and runs until 1 p.m. each Saturday in front of the courthouse in downtown Watkinsville.

Here’s What Else You’ll Find This Saturday:

• Lettuces
• Carrots
• Radishes
• Kale
• Turnips
• Greens
• Cabbage
• Farm fresh eggs
• Goat cheeses
• Jams and jellies
• Honeyed peanut butters
• Herbs-both cut and for you to plant
• Pepper
• Tomato and strawberry plants
• Dried and dehydrated Shiitaki mushrooms
• Grass fed beef
• Pasture raised pork
• Fresh chicken
• Pecans
• Local wildflower honey
• Sour wood honey
• Boiled and fried peanuts
• Gluten free granolas
• Kettle corn
• Lemonade
• Organic whole wheat and whole wheat sourdough breads, spelt breads, artisan and pita breads
• Banana bread
• Bagels
• English muffins
• Scones, sticky buns, cinnamon rolls, coffee cake, whole and mini cakes, cupcakes
• Pies including Strawberry-Rhubarb
• Cookies
• Cake
• Bread and biscuit mixes in a jar
• Gourd instruments
• Jewelry made from recycled and found objects
• Birdhouses
• Squirrel feeders
• Blacksmith crafts
• Vegetarian cat and dog treats
• Free coffee and ice water