Saturday, 23rd May - Dandelion Jelly at the Farmers’ Market

We left for the Saturday Farmer’s Market at 07:10. This market, considered by some to be one of the top 10 in America, is held three times a week outside in summer with some vendors inside the tent. The venue is fairly new having opened last September in the renovated Railyard Park and Plaza. There’s plenty of parking and although the fee is normally $1.00 per hour, on Saturday morning we got 4 hours for our dollar.  Walking across the tracks of the Yard, we saw people already leaving with local produce such as leeks and garlic sticking out from their bags. It’s a real foodie lover’s place with unusual freshly picked vegetables, artisan breads, homemade soaps and jellies and incredible herbs, all grown locally.

It’s so tempting to buy lots of unusual items but our fridge is very small and I have to admit that I don’t cook a meal every day any more.  We can’t stock the tiny freezer with much either.  However, some things we just have to buy, like the homemade dandelion jelly made by Gayle Ice, who, with her husband, Ron, grow and make various jams and jellies amongst other items on their organic farm.  The samples, like crowder pea jelly, were interesting to taste. The crowder pea, also known as the black-eye pea or cowpea (I’m still wondering how that name came about) is well known in the southern states.  Not being very knowledgeable about weeds, such as the dandelion, I’m always amazed at what people can produce from flowers or plants such as dandelion leaves in salads. 

There was a sweet young girl of Mexican descent selling items from her stall while her Momma was elsewhere. We bought a small deep red colored corn cob decorated with red chili peppers and dried flowers which the young girl had made with her mother, who gathered and dried the flowers for the ornaments.  Chilies are said to protect people and  property and are so popular that strings of them are hung from porches as decoration and also traditionally known for many uses in medicine today.

 

The homemade breads were tantalizing. Varieties with wheat, rye, sprouted seeds, herbs, cheese, some sweet, many savory.  After tasting a small sample of the Anadama Bread, known to originate in New England and baked with cornmeal and sorghum molasses, I had to buy some from the wonderfully named “Intergalactic Bread Company”.  Did this name mean that their goodies were out of this world?  Maybe it had something to do with all the alien sightings seen in New Mexico - remember Roswell?  I didn’t find out but the bread was delicious.

Sometimes there are art and craft stalls at the market.  We are now proud owners of a small sized Micaceous pot from the Mudsoup Studio.  Aimee and Lee learned their craft from a Native American, an extremely well-known Apache called Felipe Ortega.  They are proud to carry on a tradition which has been part of the Indian culture for probably thousands of years.  It’s a process whereby the earth must be blessed before the clay is dug from the ground and a ceremony usually takes place beforehand to thank the earth for its bounty.  Aimee said that when they dug their clay, large muscled native men armed with pick axes and shovels must also be barefoot in respect of the land from which they take it. 

Once the clay, (which looked like small, hard rocks to me) is dug, it’s mixed with water and kneaded until pliable, then formed by hand into bowls, jugs, baking pots, mugs etc. covered with slip and then fired.  

Usually a soft orangy color, the change in coloring occurs during the firing process in a wood fire; the hotter the heat, the blacker the pot.   The clay is highly heat resistant and items were mainly utilitarian items used for cooking  directly on a fire or in an oven, but also for carrying water at least 400 years ago and probably longer.  The little pot we bought is additionally decorated with horsehair, which is thrown onto the sides when it’s taken from the fire, so seems to melt into the clay to make squiggly black lines on the surface.