Local Diet Update - 2009 Halloween Edition

Let's just say this morning's Brazos Valley Farmers' Market gave everyone a scary good time! And it was good to see all those friendly faces as well as lots of new people at the market. Hopefully that means all the advertising we've been doing through the "Friends" group is working.

It really was an absolutely amazing morning! We had tons of vendors dressed for the festivities (more than normal for this time of year, including a meat vendor), a steady stream of customers (with lots of kids for trick-or-treats from vendors), and a wonderfully successful raffle for a special halloween cake donated by Karen Jozwiak which raised money for the Friends of the Brazos Valley Farmers' Market (thanks, Karen!).

Hopefully this will be an event that people talk about for a long time. I know I had a blast and we were all taking about doing it again for Christmas. But instead of just telling you about the morning. Check out these photos...

• The photo up top is Marjorie Beeler, salsa and veggie vendor
• Next is Roger and Donna Burton (bread and salsa vendors) dressed as Mr. and Mrs. Dracula
• And finally, below we have David Elsik (veggie vendor) as a scary garden attaching Richard Shubert (egg and veggie vendor) as a "Chick Magnet" (it's hard to tell from the photo, but he's wearing a huge magnet around his next with little baby chicks attached - definitely the most creative!)

I dressed up as a veggie garden too, clothed in all greens and browns with a special veggie helmet atop my head, designed by friend, artist, and local hospice chaplain Cherry Moore (thanks Cherry!) You can see my veggie helmet in the photo of my farmers' market haul at the bottom of the post - you'll see it behind the container of whole wheat flour. It's a hat of greens with some carrots and radishes mixed in for color. I loved it!

Things were so busy, I didn't get a list compiled of all the day's market offerings but it was an enormous spread of fruits, veggies, breads, canned goods, and sweets. Of course, I did manage to snap a photo of what I can home with, including bought, bartered, and given (that's it there at the very bottom). Let's see, there's 4 bars of soap (I had 5, but I'd already given one as a birthday gift by the time I came home), 2 Halloween cupcakes for Dave, a beautiful spiral of bread, 2 cucumbers, 9 pears, a containers of whole wheat flour, lots of red potatoes, and a bag of green beans.

Between this and all the goodies we still have at home from our garden (sweet potatoes, green peppers, green onions, sage, basil, and green beans), we're going to be eating well again this week.

Hope everyone else out there is having a wonderful Halloween so far. Next is the party here at home. We're expecting guests at our home to enjoy homemade pizza, pumpkin bread, and punch, while we hand out candy to anywhere from 500-700 trick-or-treaters. Time to get busy...

Happy Halloween, everyone and Happy (and mindful) Eating!