Austin Harvest

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June is here, as are the summer hours for the HOPE Farmers Market! We’ll be open this Sunday, through September, from 10am to 2pm. Here’s a sneak peek of what to expect this weekend in the HOPE Backyard! LIVE Music, now at 11am and 12:30pm.  @11am: Cass Brostad. Click here to take a listen to this small-town Nebraskan singer and her newly defined Texan vocals, guitar strummin & whiskey lovin’ flavor.  @12:30pm: Brennen Leigh and Noe McKay. Take a sip of this country duo, tied with a sweet bluegrass twist. Although independently successful, they’re teaming up for a special collaboration for this weekend!  What else is going on this weekend at the HOPE Farmers Market? @ 12:00-3:00 Austin Pets Alive will be bringing information about their current cuties to adopt, foster, and volunteer for! Stop by their booth, shared with Dara, a 13-year-old Austinite who is making her own bracelets to raise money for APA. Come support them by visiting this Sunday! @ 1:30 Catch the LAST Performance of Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist! This FREE performance is brought to you by Austin’s Palindrome Theatre and the UPCollective. Through elements of black comedy and original commentary, this play aims to publicly discuss Austin’s own recent issues of police force in the name of public safety, while relating the 1970’s Milan version as a foundation.

June is here, as are the summer hours for the HOPE Farmers Market! We’ll be open this Sunday, through September, from 10am to 2pm. Here’s a sneak peek of what to expect this weekend in the HOPE Backyard!

LIVE Music, now at 11am and 12:30pm. 

@11am: Cass Brostad. Click here to take a listen to this small-town Nebraskan singer and her newly defined Texan vocals, guitar strummin & whiskey lovin’ flavor. 

@12:30pm: Brennen Leigh and Noe McKay. Take a sip of this country duo, tied with a sweet bluegrass twist. Although independently successful, they’re teaming up for a special collaboration for this weekend! 

What else is going on this weekend at the HOPE Farmers Market?

@ 12:00-3:00 Austin Pets Alive will be bringing information about their current cuties to adopt, foster, and volunteer for!

Stop by their booth, shared with Dara, a 13-year-old Austinite who is making her own bracelets to raise money for APA. Come support them by visiting this Sunday!

@ 1:30 Catch the LAST Performance of Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist!

This FREE performance is brought to you by Austin’s Palindrome Theatre and the UPCollective. Through elements of black comedy and original commentary, this play aims to publicly discuss Austin’s own recent issues of police force in the name of public safety, while relating the 1970’s Milan version as a foundation.

We’re happy to have Beth Lee performing this Sunday @ the HOPE Farmers Market!  Beth grew up in Houston, Texas, the daughter of a musician father.  Following alongside her parents at icehouses, dive bars, and honky-tonks, she adopted the grit and soul of the Houston music scene at an early age.  After moving to Austin to find out what the ”live music capitol of the world” was about, she decided it was time to go into the studio and start a band.  She enlisted the help of Ron Flynt and Scrappy Jud Newcomb, two well-respected musicians in the Austin scene.  After the release of her debut album, ”Cassette Tapes and Cash Money”  in 2008, Beth was mentioned in Rob Patterson’s Sidetracks column in Texas Music Magazine as a musician to “keep an ear peeled” for. She stands at “the crossroads where roots and rock meet, like a sweet, sad angel ready to deal with the devil in all of us”. She currently plays shows around the Austin area, most recently with local Houston transplants: bass-player Jessica Will, guitarist Adam Burchfield, and drummer Joel Duhon.  They formed the “Breakups” in 2011.  Joel’s hard-hitting drums, Adam’s rockabilly guitar licks, Jessica’s bluesy bass lines, and Beth’s soulful songwriting create a sound that is feisty yet vulnerable, unapologetic yet heartbroken. For more information about Beth Lee: http://www.bethlee.net/ Don’t forget to catch Austin newcomer Todd Roth, aka “My Buddy Todd”, this Sunday too! After moving to Austin from South Carolina, Todd has kept his love of blues strong and his vocals fierce. Combining a slinky slide guitar, dirty blues harp, big drums, and his butt shakin’ guarantee, you’d be happy to come listen at noon! Take a listen to Todd Roth: www.reverbnation.com/mybuddytodd

We’re happy to have Beth Lee performing this Sunday @ the HOPE Farmers Market! 
 Beth grew up in Houston, Texas, the daughter of a musician father.  Following alongside her parents at icehouses, dive bars, and honky-tonks, she adopted the grit and soul of the Houston music scene at an early age.  After moving to Austin to find out what the ”live music capitol of the world” was about, she decided it was time to go into the studio and start a band.  She enlisted the help of Ron Flynt and Scrappy Jud Newcomb, two well-respected musicians in the Austin scene.  After the release of her debut album, ”Cassette Tapes and Cash Money”  in 2008, Beth was mentioned in Rob Patterson’s Sidetracks column in Texas Music Magazine as a musician to “keep an ear peeled” for. She stands at “the crossroads where roots and rock meet, like a sweet, sad angel ready to deal with the devil in all of us”. She currently plays shows around the Austin area, most recently with local Houston transplants: bass-player Jessica Will, guitarist Adam Burchfield, and drummer Joel Duhon.  They formed the “Breakups” in 2011.  Joel’s hard-hitting drums, Adam’s rockabilly guitar licks, Jessica’s bluesy bass lines, and Beth’s soulful songwriting create a sound that is feisty yet vulnerable, unapologetic yet heartbroken.
For more information about Beth Lee: http://www.bethlee.net/

Don’t forget to catch Austin newcomer Todd Roth, aka “My Buddy Todd”, this Sunday too! After moving to Austin from South Carolina, Todd has kept his love of blues strong and his vocals fierce. Combining a slinky slide guitar, dirty blues harp, big drums, and his butt shakin’ guarantee, you’d be happy to come listen at noon!

Take a listen to Todd Roth: www.reverbnation.com/mybuddytodd

February 23, 2012 Forecast: Sunny & 88 degrees. Folks, it’s already warming up quick here in Texas! Although we’re not in panic mode yet, the fast approaching heat has raised a few concerns about how to keep one’s garden growing well through this spring and summer. Lucky for us local plant specialist and educator, Dani Slabaugh of Yard to Table Gardens, will be speaking this Sunday at the HOPE Farmers Market to address the issue of Water Management and Drought Resistance through her workshop. (1pm at East 5th & Waller) Beyond marking the workshop on our calendars, we wanted to find out a little bit more about Dani, her up & coming business, and how plants have come to rule her life. Austin Harvest:How did you personally get into gardening and when did you realize it was your passion? Dani Slabaugh: “I started gardening when I was a kid, both my grandmother and my mother we’re gardeners, and I remember being “in charge” of certain edible flowers when I was six.  I’ve always felt more at home in the woods than most other places, and really felt a connection to nature. I began to study resource use in college and realized that fixing our food system at home is one of the most important things that we can do, and I threw myself into researching sustainability and food cultivation!” AH: Can you tell us a little about Yard to Table Gardens & how it began? DS:  “Yard to Table began with the desire to make Austin a more food secure place. Most of the available land for food cultivation in a city is either public park or private homes. When most people think about “sustainable living” they think of things that tend towards function rather than aesthetics. I wanted to offer ecological, sustainable land use that could fit into the average neighborhood and be something to show off, rather than an eyesore.”  AH: What services does Yard to Table Gardens provide & what are your overall goals for the business? DS: “Yard to Table offers consultation, maintenance, design, and installation services.  I have worked alongside clients that wanted guidance and support in their quest for a more sustainable lifestyle, and hired on a crew to complete long term installation projects. I offer more or less, whatever the client needs to be successful.The long term goal of Yard to Table is to help sustainable design become more understood and commonplace, be that rainwater harvesting, building soil health, providing wildlife habitat, or growing some of your own food at home.” AH: If you could lend one trick to a beginner gardener, what advice would you share? DS: “I would recomend that they find a quiet spot in a nature preserve, and sit and watch how nature gardens. We do so much extra work that interrupts the inertia of mother nature.  In a healthy forest, the trees are never irrigated, mulched sprayed, pruned or raked. To me sustainability means that we work with nature, find her flow and join in it to get what we need, rather than do as we have been and try to fight the flow of nature.” AH: What is your favorite thing about the HOPE Farmers Market? About Austin? DS: “I love the greenbelt and barton springs. The HOPE market has really grown in the past year, and I love how many people are waking up to the food system’s shortcomings and shopping at the market - but I have always loved the live music.”  Whether you’re interested in transforming your garden into an edible paradise, or are simply wanting to know more about how food grows naturally, hit up this Sunday’s workshop at the HOPE Farmers Market. There will not only be Dani sharing her secrets, but plenty of local produce vendors, food artisans, and live music to keep the body healthy & the mind happy. Mark your own calendar: This Sunday, February 26 @ 1pm, HOPE Farmers Market, East 5th & Waller. Sustainable Urban Farm Series: Water Management & Drought Resistance Workshop Don’t let the drought get you down! Come to this workshop and learn how to harvest rainwater in cisterns, aquaculture gardens, and passive rainwater harvesting earthworks. Learn why rainwater harvesting is so essential to healthy plant growth in Austin specifically, and all of the ways that it can be done. Free and open to the public, suggested donation of $5.

February 23, 2012 Forecast: Sunny & 88 degrees.

Folks, it’s already warming up quick here in Texas! Although we’re not in panic mode yet, the fast approaching heat has raised a few concerns about how to keep one’s garden growing well through this spring and summer. Lucky for us local plant specialist and educator, Dani Slabaugh of Yard to Table Gardens, will be speaking this Sunday at the HOPE Farmers Market to address the issue of Water Management and Drought Resistance through her workshop. (1pm at East 5th & Waller)

Beyond marking the workshop on our calendars, we wanted to find out a little bit more about Dani, her up & coming business, and how plants have come to rule her life.


Austin Harvest:How did you personally get into gardening and when did you realize it was your passion?

Dani Slabaugh:

“I started gardening when I was a kid, both my grandmother and my mother we’re gardeners, and I remember being “in charge” of certain edible flowers when I was six.  I’ve always felt more at home in the woods than most other places, and really felt a connection to nature. I began to study resource use in college and realized that fixing our food system at home is one of the most important things that we can do, and I threw myself into researching sustainability and food cultivation!”

AH: Can you tell us a little about Yard to Table Gardens & how it began?
DS:
 “Yard to Table began with the desire to make Austin a more food secure place. Most of the available land for food cultivation in a city is either public park or private homes. When most people think about “sustainable living” they think of things that tend towards function rather than aesthetics. I wanted to offer ecological, sustainable land use that could fit into the average neighborhood and be something to show off, rather than an eyesore.” 
AH: What services does Yard to Table Gardens provide & what are your overall goals for the business?
DS:
“Yard to Table offers consultation, maintenance, design, and installation services.  I have worked alongside clients that wanted guidance and support in their quest for a more sustainable lifestyle, and hired on a crew to complete long term installation projects. I offer more or less, whatever the client needs to be successful.The long term goal of Yard to Table is to help sustainable design become more understood and commonplace, be that rainwater harvesting, building soil health, providing wildlife habitat, or growing some of your own food at home.”

AH: If you could lend one trick to a beginner gardener, what advice would you share?
DS:
“I would recomend that they find a quiet spot in a nature preserve, and sit and watch how nature gardens. We do so much extra work that interrupts the inertia of mother nature.  In a healthy forest, the trees are never irrigated, mulched sprayed, pruned or raked. To me sustainability means that we work with nature, find her flow and join in it to get what we need, rather than do as we have been and try to fight the flow of nature.”

AH: What is your favorite thing about the HOPE Farmers Market? About Austin?
DS:
“I love the greenbelt and barton springs. The HOPE market has really grown in the past year, and I love how many people are waking up to the food system’s shortcomings and shopping at the market - but I have always loved the live music.” 

Whether you’re interested in transforming your garden into an edible paradise, or are simply wanting to know more about how food grows naturally, hit up this Sunday’s workshop at the HOPE Farmers Market. There will not only be Dani sharing her secrets, but plenty of local produce vendors, food artisans, and live music to keep the body healthy & the mind happy.

Mark your own calendar:

This Sunday, February 26 @ 1pm, HOPE Farmers Market, East 5th & Waller.

Sustainable Urban Farm Series: Water Management & Drought Resistance Workshop

Don’t let the drought get you down! Come to this workshop and learn how to harvest rainwater in cisterns, aquaculture gardens, and passive rainwater harvesting earthworks. Learn why rainwater harvesting is so essential to healthy plant growth in Austin specifically, and all of the ways that it can be done. Free and open to the public, suggested donation of $5.

We caught sight of this lovely singer from Oregon, Laura Gibson, at the Mohawk late Sunday at her show with the playful Michigan troupe, Breathe Owl Breathe. Both brought a whimsical energy as Breathe Owl Breathe sung about everything from Dragons to Sabertooth Tigers and Laura continued to pull influence from her home in eastern Oregon. 

We also wanted to mention a beautiful project the folks from Breathe Owl Breathe have created: a wood-block printed children’s book with lyrics sung by them on a 7” vinyl, titled The Listeners. It’s not only for kids, everyone. I bought one!

Catch both groups as them continue to tour through March.

Market Go-ers of the Week

We love and appreciate our supporters at HOPE — and that includes our market go-ers! This week we caught up with John and Jane King. While this was only their second time at the market, they are already seasoned HOPE FM shoppers. In this photo they’re juggling goodies from Pate Letelier, Lamba’s, Johnson’s Backyard Garden, Wild River Farms, Third Coast Coffee and Pie Fixes Everything.

Pretty impressive assortment, John and Jane. Hope to see you soon!

“We first came to HOPE to support our friend Phil at the tasting booth, but now we’re back for the second week in a row and plan to bring everything to a potluck tonight!” —John & Jane

Photo and post by Jessica Warren, our HOPE FM volunteer & PR extraordinaire!

Super Bowl 2012: Your Sunday Shopping Guide

Now presenting!  The HOPE Farmers Market Super Bowl Party Prep!

To assist all you football fanatics, we’re providing a helpful shopping guide for this Sunday to help you find your local vendors that can help you celebrate the game best. From cured meats & relishes to farm fresh tomatoes & cilantro, this Sunday, February 5th we’ll have all you need to pull off a win…in your kitchen!

Thanks to Wild River Ranch, Salt & Time, Windy Hill Farms, & Wunder-Pilz, you’ll be sure to not only impress your fellow fans with these delicious eats, but also put on an awesome locally-sourced snack show! Now that’s worth bragging about…

Recipe of the Week: Pork and Pozole Stew


Superbowl Style!

Guys & gals alike, it’s time to prepare yourself for biggest TV event so far this year…2012’s Superbowl! Okay, regardless of your dedication to football—don’t we all love the excuse to eat good food and better yet, cook it? At least us at the HOPE Farmers Market and all our fellow Austinites believe this to be true.
So we’re sharing one of our tried & true secrets for an AWESOME dish that’ll be sure to fill the bellies of all your friends and family: Pork and Pozole Stew! Thanks to our in-house Chef extraordinaire, Phil, we have the recipe right here for you:
  • 4 pounds pork shoulder
  • 4 pounds prork neck bones
  • 6 cups hominy (pozole), use canned or fresh
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 2 tablespoons ground cumin
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 8 cups water, or more
  • 1 pound carrots (try some from Johnson’s Backyard Garden!)
  • 1 pound celery
  • 1 pound onions (try some from Johnson’s Backyard Garden!)
  • 4 sprigs parsley, fresh, use for bouquet garni (try some from Wild River Ranch!)
  • 4 sprigs cilantro, use for bouquet garni (try some from Wild River Ranch!)
  • 2  bay leaves, use for bouquet garni
  • 10  peppercorns, use for bouquet garni
  • 5 sprigs thyme, use for bouquet garni
  • 4  dried guajillo peppers, remove seeds and stems and rehydrate in some hot water

1. Take the ingredients for the use for bouquet garni and tie into a sachet using cheese cloth
2. Take pork bones, bork shoulder, bouquet garni and place in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil over a medium-high heat, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for approximately 2 hours or until meat is very tender
3. Remove the meat, sachet and vegetables from the pot. Discard the neck bones, sachet and vegetables
4. Once the pork shoulder is cool enough to handle, shred with your hands
5. Add the meat back to the pot and add pozole and then season with cumin, salt and pepper to taste
6. Place the rehydrated chilies and place in a food processor, mix them with a little of the hot liquid and blend in a food processor or blender. Strain through a sieve and add to the pot 
7. Let simmer for another 15 minutes.
8. Adjust seasoning and let your diners garnish their stew with the following items

Use any of the following for garnishes.

Cabbage, shredded
Onion, finely diced
Limes, cut into wedges
Avocado, diced
Cilantro, chopped
Oregano, dried

Enjoy!

A Volunteer Perspective

Volunteer.

To some, it’s a scary word. To others, it is what life’s all about. To me, it’s a way to dive into in my community, to befriend new personalities, to learn and to donate my resources.

A few months ago I decided it was time to start volunteering here in Austin. After poking around and weighing my options, I decided to get involved with the HOPE Farmers Market, an ideal combination of Sunday Fun-day, food, music, art and creative people.

HOPE Farmers Market Entrance

My first time helping at HOPE I hung around the merchandise station to sell posters, t-shirts and water bottles. I had a great time chatting up strangers about HOPE’s parent organization, mission and artwork. I even ended up buying a few posters for myself (which look fantastic in my apartment, I might add).

A week later the volunteer coordinator approached me with the question, “Do you have a smartphone?” “Yes.” “Okay, great. I’ll make you a Facebook admin for our page.”

It was brilliant! The PR and media flack in me was thrilled that I could bring my professional skills and resources to the table. After all, I spend much of my day discussing social media strategies for clients anyway, and I enjoy breaking out my DSLR for freelance photography projects—why not incorporate these skills into my volunteer work?

Since then I’ve been using my phone to update HOPE’s Facebook directly from the market, posting photos and videos of vendors, market-goers and live music. I’ve been taking photos with my DSLR camera for use onFacebook, the HOPE blog and even local ads for the market. And just last weekend we put together HOPE’s first ever market photo booth, complete with veggie props and burlap. Next on my list are website and blog recommendations.

Applying professional skills to personal interests. Is this volunteering of the modern world? As it turns out, I’m not the only HOPE volunteer with the idea. Young bike connoisseurs have established a pop-up fix up shop at the market, a part-time caterer runs the tasting booth and cooking demos (pictured below bottom), and the owner of an Austin landscaping company facilitates the community compost (pictured below top).

Maybe we’ll soon see award-winning chefs behind soup kitchen counters and urban architects building playgrounds. What skills can you offer your community?

Join me at the HOPE Farmers Market – Sundays 11 AM – 3 PM, Pine Street Station at E. 5th and Waller St., Austin, TX.

Annie Welbes

—Written by Jessica Warren

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Jessica, who works for INK PR, has been volunteering for the HOPE Farmers Market since December as our staff photographer, facebooker & overall kickass volunteer. This is her first contribution to the Austin Harvest blog and hopefully not her last!

Market Go-ers of the Week

Dear HOPE Market Go-ers, 

We think you are the bees knees! Not only do ya’ll buy your produce weekly at the HOPE Farmers Market, but also believe in taking action to support Austin’s local vendors!

Two wonderful examples of these such cases are Leslie Bauer and Ron Karz, a dedicated couple who stride the HOPE Farmers Market—rain or shine!

             

“It’s our favorite market. Friendly, fantastic and full of fun…We buy from at least 6 or 7 vendors when we come. We like to support everybody.”    -Leslie & Ron

Showing off their Sunday purchases of goat meat and beets from Windy Hill Farms, lettuce greens from Wild River Ranch, an Edible Austin magazine with the HOPE bingo game, a scarf from our textile vendor, Tara, Sirius chocolate and a jug of Wunder-Pilz Kambucha—we need to provide no explanation for why these folks rock our socks off. 

Thanks for all the support, Leslie & Ron! See you next week!

—HOPE FM Team