Friday Farmstand - July 12th!

Round Two on Monte Sano Mountain - tomorrow!

Dear Hillfolk,

By the time you see this - I will be out in the garden, clipping stems and plunking ripe fruit into a bucket. If I am honest, I am still luxuriating in the memory of last week’s farmstand - the summer table set, surrounded by friends and meeting so many new ones. I can’t thank you all enough for showing up and I will never forget you and the images I have of you in my mind - standing in the yard, some of you with a cup of coffee and a bouquet, eating a slice of blueberry cake.

I am beyond happy to announce that this week, we are doing it again - and with some fantastic upgrades!

First, I am THRILLED to let y’all know that there will be a pickers and songwriters circle at the farmstand between the table and the house. Below is a post made by our friend Len Bullard - casting out the net. Lucky doesn’t begin to describe the way I feel about this addition!

Then, as far as food and treats go - this week is full of upgrades.

First, Jessica Hanners from Homecoming Cafe in Guntersville - my favorite farm-to-table southern-fare restaurant in North Alabama - will be back (thank goodness - I couldn’t have done last week without her!) - with: cobbler and cake to sell, pre-made chicken salad, pimento cheese, a chilled cucumber soup and maybe - just maybe - some of her famous tomato pies.

While you are here and thinking about it - y’all check out their menu and website and plan a trip over to Guntersville for great food and for the Fried Green Tomatoes type of experience that all of our dreams are made of: Homecoming & Co.

Second, y’all - I am thrilled and honored to offer Sequatchie Cove Farm’s Pasture Raised Eggs. Prized by chefs (including Sean Brock!) - these eggs are so high quality, I would consider them a medicinal food. Sequatchie is just outside of Chattanooga and I truly believe that it is the best multi-generation family farm in the Southeast. It is really hard to find a high-quality pasture-raised egg in and around Huntsville and I couldn’t be more pleased to bring in eggs from a farm that is building soil fertility and community.

Here is a link to a video of Sequatchie Cove Farm’s Eggmobile

Here is a link to the Sequatchie Cove Farm Website where they detail their entire egg operation. If there are any North Alabama chefs looking for eggs - or if any of y’all want to put in a weekly order for me to pickup on Friday mornings, let’s talk!

Sequatchie Cove Farm hosts an amazing supper club where local chefs come out and cook a big dinner using ingredients off of their land - and I highly encourage y’all to follow them on INSTAGRAM.

The Cumberland Folk School is an extension of Sequatchie Cove Farm and they host some of the best workshops in the region - you can find out more on THEIR WEBSITE and INSTAGRAM.

Third, I am so excited to begin offering organic sourdough bread from Niedlov's Bakery & Cafe in Chattanooga. When it comes to bread - I am really picky. Niedlov’s bread and pastries are made with organic flour, milled in the United States. Their Chattanooga Sourdough loaves (besides being beautiful and tasting incredible) - are made of only three ingredients: organic flour, water, and salt, and are fermented in a way that breaks down gluten and drastically improves digestibility - leaving out the pesticides, fillers, binding agents, and genetically modified, highly-processed grains and ingredients that so many of us have a hard time with. I am starting small on this one - with a few loaves, and if all goes well - next time, I’ll add their baguettes to the table, and who knows - maybe morning buns and croissants will follow.

Finally, here is what you can expect in the realm of produce and flowers:

Although I have been snacking on cherry tomatoes this week, most of them are still ripening on the vine. So, this week, Hillfolk will be back with North Carolina heirloom - the Roseland Small White Cucumber, Mexican Sour Gherkin Cucamelons, Rare Flower Bouquets, Herbs, Sungold Cherry Tomato and Night Blooming Tobacco plant starts, and maybe a few herbal salves for all your summer bumps, scrapes, and bruises!

David Lewis from COFFEE BREAK will be back with iced caffeinated and decaf cold brew for y’all to enjoy with your Homecoming cake and cobbler! He will also have bags of beans (I’m obsessed with the Country Roads blend and don’t want to drink anything else), as well as growlers of cold brew (the only cold brew for me!) I’m so glad he will be there - it wouldn’t be the same without him. His wife, and my good buddy, Jessie Lewis, took the absolutely wonderful pictures of the farmstand that I have included in the newsletter - she will be there and you can learn more about her work and sign up for a session HERE!

Mama Kat will have items on the table again this week! Butternut squash, spaghetti and patty pan squash, fresh butter beans, lima beans, purple hull peas and snap beans, summer squashes and their flowers, corn, berries, okra, fried green tomato kits, pickles, and herbal balms!

Since many of us are sending kids back to school in three weeks - my mind is on my medicine cabinet and getting stocked up for those first few back-to-school colds. I’m encouraging her to send any salves and wild foraged goodies she can share!

Iris and James Curley will have more of their Oak Park garden produce, as well as some frozen and canned local corn. Maybe some honey - and maybe some of their medicinal lions mane mushrooms, which are the best I’ve ever had.

Whirlwind Farm, home of the Sand Mountain Seed Bank, will be sending more of their organic blueberries - the best I have ever tasted!

My sweet friend Allison from Free Hearts Farm is going to send some of her canned creations and I could not be happier about it. Every year, I buy up a couple of every single thing she has at the Madison City Farmers Market where she sells with YK Farm, one of my absolutely favorite pastured-meat producers in the North Alabama, Southern Tennessee area. Recently, I’ve been using her Fermented Black Garlic Salt, eating her Cucumber Relish, and as always - her Pool Hall Slaw, which is a showstopper. Made entirely from her garden, Pool Hall Slaw - also known as Pool Room Slaw, is a North Alabama speciality. Incredible on hot dogs, hamburgers, cornbread, etc. - here is a quick read by Garden & Gun on Pool Room Slaw.

Beyond that - I may pick up a box of Amish Cherokee Purple Tomatoes and some local peaches from Ayers Farm Market on Cook Avenue. Their tomatoes and such are from the Amish community in Etheridge, Tennessee. They are not organic, but they are local and incredibly delicious - wildly better than anything at any grocery store, except maybe the Grainger County Tomatoes at Fresh Market (also not organic.) As far as nutrition goes, we know that the same phytochemicals that express themselves as taste - express themselves as the medicinal qualities of the plant. When I think of tomatoes - I think of the potent antioxidant, lycopene, which has been shown to lower cholesterol, the chance of stroke, and helps to eliminate the effects of free radicals in the body.

So, even though I prefer organic - the rich taste of these tomatoes let me know that there are plenty of benefits to be had, even without an organic certification. If you do grab a tomato - lycopene is fat soluble, so y’all give it a good drizzle of olive oil when you sprinkle it with salt and pepper, or grab a loaf of sourdough and make yourself a tomato sandwich this weekend with some good mayo - so you can absorb all of that heirloom goodness.

FINALLY! We will once again have a kids coloring tent with lemonade and popsicles! All kids are welcome. Last week, some of your kids ended up in some of my kids bathing suits running through the sprinkler - or on the trampoline, and it’s bound to happen again. Ha!

Last but not least - PARKING:

If you live on the mountain and can - I highly recommend walking or biking to the house. If you are popping in quickly to shop, you can park across the street - on the gravel next to the sidewalk, as long as you are not parked ON the sidewalk. But, if you are planning to stay awhile - I recommend parking on a side street like Hutchens or Highland and walking over! Lawn chairs and blankets are welcome if you want to eat some treats and listen to the songwriters in the round!

Wow. Tomorrow is going to be a good one.

I hope to see y’all there!

And as always, thank you for supporting this local food mission!!

Love,

Lauren