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Farmers' Market to open May 21

By Herald staff (Contact) | Austin Daily Herald

Published Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Center Court at Oak Park Mall was busy Saturday, April 18, with kids and their parents attending the third annual Kid's Day activities hosted by the Austin Area Farmers’ Market.

“By the looks on their faces, it looked as if everyone really enjoyed the demonstrations and had a great time,” said Sharon Thiel, organizer.

Along with packages of seeds given away by the market, the Mower County 2008 Dairy Princess and one of her Milk Maids provided a cup of milk to enjoy with the cookies provided by several of the vendors.

According to Thiel, Groh's Family Garden representatives told the story of how grapes are grown from a “dead” looking twig to grape juice.

Bluff Country Meats’ Annette Kiehne had some of her baked bread to try, and Rose Creek Honey Company showed how bees make honey, as well as the different types of bees and their purpose, what hives look like and gave honey sticks and honey candy so kids could taste.

Bush Gladious Gardens of Blooming Prairie let viewers see how the gladiolus bulbs are formed and invited them to take a tour of the gardens when the flowers are in bloom.

Farmer John and Jan Ulland’s Pumpkin Patch were there and gave away almost 90 pumpkin seed cups.

Patty Ulland read the story ”Eating Your Vegetables,” which the little ones especially enjoyed and was a nice addition to this year's event, Thiel said.

Hilltop Greenhouse’s Steve Otto, 2009’s AAFM president, gave away scented geranium starts.

“One of the new vendors for the 2009 season, My Backachers, gave away mushroom logs and hybrid poplar tree starts,” Thiel said.

Representatives from 4-H and the Mower County Horticulture Society encouraged kids to get involved with growing and kids were encouraged to enter plants at the 2009 Mower County Fair.

Thiel expressed the AAFM’s appreciation to all vendors and participants of this event and announced the 2009 Farmers Market season opening will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, May 21 in on North Main Street.

The new AAFM Saturday market will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. May 30 with the Monday market from 4 to 6 p.m. June 1.

Both of the markets will be held on the boulevard at Oak Park Mall across from the 18th Avenue Northwest entrance to Wal-Mart.

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