Holly Fann

Nicola Macpherson and her son Henry at the Maplewood Farmers' Market.

​Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that more than 1,000 new farmers' markets have popped up across the country since last year, making a total of 7,175 markets operating in the U.S. currently. This news came just days before National Farmers' Market week, which began August 7. The week-long celebration of markets providing locally grown produce and the farmers and food vendors that make them possible serves as a reminder of just how many markets we have access to in St. Louis county alone.

We talked to some local market managers and found out what they have planned for the national week-long holiday in their honor. Find the schedule of local National Farmers' Market Week events after the jump.

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​Molly Rockamann grew up in the suburbs of Creve Coeur, where vegetable farms consisted of small tomato gardens in backyards or a few pole beans creeping up the sides of fences. But it was there where Molly developed a real passion for vegetables at an early age. As co-founder and head of EarthDance Farms, a nonprofit educational organic farm that began in 2009, Molly is able to share her love for all things organic with the many apprentices who come to the farm each season to learn the art of farming. Molly was briefly whisked away from the small farm in Ferguson to San Francisco where she received a Growing Green Award from the Natural Resources Defense Council. But amid the gala dinners and networking, she was able to stop and talk with Gut Check about her beginnings as an organic farmer and how the organic food movement in St. Louis has grown.

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You say "tomato," we say, "heirloom tomatoes."

​Is there a vegetable more beloved by gardeners than the tomato? Incredibly versatile, preservable, and downright perfect when picked from the vine at peak ripeness, tomatoes rightly find their way into even the smallest gardens. In honor of this garden favorite, Slow Food St. Louis and Farm to Family Naturally are sponsoring a tomato-growing contest. Dubbed "The Good, the Big, and the Ugly," the competition gives local back-yard farmers a chance to strut their tomato stuff in a variety of categories at an event scheduled for Saturday, July 31, at Sappington Farmers' Market.

"St. Louis needs a tomato contest to get more people involved in growing their own food. Tomatoes can be the first step in teaching people where their food comes from," says Justin Leszcz of Yellow Tree Farm, who suggested to Slow Foods the notion of a tomato contest. "It's easy to grow a tomato -- anyone can do it, and that's what we want to get people to see."

"The Good, the Big, and the Ugly" will feature tastings of heirloom tomato varieties grown by local farmers and gardeners, as well as cooking and preserving demonstrations, and educational activities for children. Growers may submit their tomatoes in best-tasting, best-looking, heaviest, ugliest, and Brix measurement categories.

Not a gardener? There'll be a bloody mary-making contest for professional and amateur mixologists.

"This type of contest is important to Slow Food, because ultimately we are interested in connecting people with their food," says Slow Food co-leader Kelly Childs. "This includes how their food was cultivated, what kind of seed it comes from, whether chemicals were used and where it originated geographically.

"If we can actually inspire people to grow some of their own food, then we are really accomplishing our mission," Childs continues. "We're also accomplishing our mission even if people just come out to taste something new or learn about seed saving or preserving their tomatoes for winter use."

Further details, as well as entry information, can be found on Slow Food St Louis' website as they become available.

Unless you're a gardener, you might not be aware that many people who grow stuff have already started seedlings or, at the very least, put in their seed orders for this year's backyard crop.

If you never even got around to yanking last fall's desiccated tomato plants from the frozen tundra, raise your hand.

Regardless of your level of devotion, you might be interested in a method of acquiring fruits and vegetables that doesn't involve muddy knees or thieving birds, squirrels and rabbits.

Now is the time to secure your CSA share for the spring.

www.lavistacsa.org

Field of beans: A green CSA vista, courtesy of La Vista in Godfrey, Illinois.

​CSAs -- the abbreviation stands for community-sponsored agriculture -- appear to be on the rebound in the St. Louis area, and for people in search of good, fresh food, that's encouraging news. Investing in a CSA essentially involves extending a short-term loan directly to a farmer. When the crops come in, shareholders recoup their investment in edible form.

And the harvest is plentiful.

A wide range of vegetables is relatively standard across the region thanks to the magic of climate patterns. Early season always brings mind-boggling amounts of lettuce and greens, summer yields lots of cucumbers, summer squash and zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, beans and peppers, and the fall bounty includes potatoes, squashes and greens again. You'll have to learn what to do with turnips, and it helps to be open to less-common crops -- celeriac, sunchokes, kohlrabi. Fruits are not standard, but a lot of places grow watermelon, raspberries and strawberries.

After the jump: a rundown on some area CSAs.

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I spent the first half of January -- the crappy half, as you all know -- south of the equator, in Peru. About half of our stay was in the smallish city of Cusco, which sits about 3,000 meters above sea level. A significant portion of the city still uses streets first constructed by the Incas in the 1400s, and artisans travel from surrounding towns to sell their wares on the streets.

Alissa Nelson

​There are a few supermarkets in the city, but there is a bustling energy around the central market, or mercado central. Since there isn't enough of an infrastructure for large-scale shipments from larger coastal cities like Lima, much of the food for sale in the city is grown locally, transported out of the surrounding mountains by donkey and then transferred to cars and trucks.

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So hopefully the omnivores in the audience haven't given up on me yet. I know I burst onto the Gut Check scene in 2009 promising to explore the full spectrum of local foods, yet I've barely glanced at foods with faces.

To the patient among you, rejoice!

Alissa Nelson

​The reason for the absence of meat in this column is twofold: First, it's basically seasonless. Most of the local farmers have their wares frozen before hitting the market, so I have yet to notice a difference in what they're selling from month to month. Second, I was a vegetarian for a decade (nearly to the month), so it's been tough for me to expand my repertoire in my mere four years back on the dark side. Besides, vegetables are really just so damn good.

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I first developed egg-brand loyalty while in college in Massachusetts. I religiously purchased eggs from a farm called the Country Hen -- in no small part because the cartons featured little chicken bios, which gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling inside, like I was checking in with friends down the street.

Alissa Nelson

​In St. Louis, it took me a little while to find a producer we liked: Prairie Grass Farms, which has the most transcendent eggs I'd ever eaten. The yolks are orange, and the eggs have a chickeny quality that's hard to put your finger on but undeniably there. I was home. Plus, the farm's whole multi-animal model reminded me of Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm, which was an automatic warm fuzzy interconnected-drum-circle-of-life kind of feeling. More >>

User "Zyance," Wikimedia Commons

​December is a sad time for the farmer's market aficionado. At minimum, it will be three months before the first spring greens are available. We're down to two monthly markets, the indoor Tower Grove setup at St. John's Episcopal Church on Arsenal Street and Maplewood's "Indoor Pantry" at Schlafly Bottleworks, as well as the venerable Soulard Farmers' Market. And, damn, it is cold and dreary outside.

Don't despair: There are still plenty of local goods to be had. Over the next few months, I'll highlight some of the offerings that will remain available despite the lack of sun and warmth.

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Alissa Nelson

​These days it's smart to be budget-minded and realistic when giving gifts. If you're like this blogger, that means forgetting that Hanukkah is coming and then blaming late gifts on finals or wanting to make something yourself to save money. In previous years, I've knitted various clothing items for everyone I know, which is slow going, guaranteeing that gifts will be late. This year, I had the luck of both finals and having quit my job to go back to school.

No time, no money and no sense of the lunar calendar: Not bad, right?

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Alissa Nelson

​In previous posts, I've talked a lot about how I like cute things: dogs eating green beans, dogs falling asleep in weird positions, dogs in general.

Oh, and food. There's plenty of cute food, like cupcakes and other various expressions of twee craft-show fare. Brussels sprouts fit into that category, too. They look like mini cabbages. I'm sure that's fooled plenty of easily influenced kids at some point in their lives.

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