Matthews market adds Tuesday night hours

Need more fresh fruits and vegetables? Of course you do -- and we all know Saturday mornings get kind of busy.

So the Matthews Community Farmers' Market is adding a Tuesday Night Twilight Market from 6:30-8:30 p.m., starting this week.

The plan is for the Tuesday night market to run through July 24. Expect live music and chef's demos along with the usual fresh produce, grassfed beef, pastured chicken, prepared entrees, baked goods, flowers, crafts and goat cheese.

Of course, the Matthews market will continue its regular hours as well, from 7:15 a.m. to noon on Saturdays, at 105 N. Trade St. in Matthews. Details: www.matthewsfarmersmarket.com.

Food calendar: Don't miss the Hmong egg rolls

Get out your calendars and scribble these down:

• Saturday (that's tomorrow): The Matthews Community Farmers Market reopens for the season. And for forever -- the winter market was such a success, they're going year-round. Address, hours and more details: www.matthewsfarmersmarket.com.

• Also Saturday (that's still tomorrow): The Davidson Farmers Market opens for the season, from 8 a.m.- noon in the space next to the Davidson Town Hall, between Main and Jackson streets. Details on vendors and special events: http://davidsonfarmersmarket.org/.


• Wednesday, April 13: Taste of the Nation, the annual Share Our Strength fundraiser to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina and Community Culinary School of Charlotte. Features small plates (some of them are pretty big) from a bunch of Charlotte-area chefs, plus entertainment, drinks and a silent auction. 7-10 p.m. in The Wells Fargo Atrium at MLK Boulevard and South Tryon uptown; tickets are $85 and parking is free in the parking deck off MLK. Details: http://www.charlottetasteofthenation.com/.


• April 16: The First Hmong United Methodist Church Egg Roll Sale, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at Kilgo United Methodist Church, 2101 Belvedere Ave. Egg rolls made by the Hmong women's group are $10 for a dozen or $5 for six. Walk-ins are welcome, but pre-orders are appreciated. Call Xia Her at 704-953-8650.


• April 30: Slow Food Charlotte event with winemaker Tony Coturri. 6-10 p.m. at the Atherton Market in SouthEnd. Features chefs making local-food pairings to match Coturri's organic wines. Tickets are $50, must be purchased in advance, and benefit the Slow Food Charlotte Farmers Fund, which brings continuing education to the sustainable farming community. E-mail pecanlanefarm@gmail.com for tickets.

Local food fans: Smile and say cheese

There's great food all over this state -- but who can do the driving to gather it all?

LynnErin Tyler of Charlotte has a new idea to take care of it, Simply Local at the Atherton Market in SouthEnd, 2104 South Blvd. The idea is that she'll get locally made foods from around the state and sell them at the market.

She's starting off with cheeses because there is such a demand for dairy products, including Ashe County cheeses, cow's milk cheeses from Holton Hollow Dairy near Statesville (that's a wedge of their cheese above), Bosky Acres and several others. She's also got a few products such as Imladris jams and jellies (fans of Walter, rejoice). She's hoping to add more products and she'll eventually expand from a table near the front to a larger space that the market is building for her.

She also hopes that her stand will enable farmers who can't be at the market for all three days to leave some of their goods with her to handle the sales. She's doing some of the driving to get food herself, and she's also teaming up with services like Leading Green.

"It's like a small retail grocery outlet," she says. "Each day, I learn something new about what's available." Prices for the cheeses range from $5 to $8; a 1/2 pound block of Holton Hollow is $8.

Look for LynnErin and Simply Local at the market, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays, 3-7 p.m. Tuesdays and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesdays. Elsewhere in farmers market world, this is the last weekend for winter markets at the Matthews Community Farmer's Market, off N.C. 51 in downtown Matthews. Next Saturday, April 9, marks the return of regular hours -- and another step in the market's evolution. There was such a good turnout for the off-weeks this winter that the market is now going to stay open year-round, even in winter. If you stop by tomorrow, you can celebrate by helping Pauline Wood and her crew put up the tents and get spiffed up for next week's return to a full market.

The market in winter: Matthews edition

Who says there's nothing fresh to eat in winter? The early January ice storm wiped out my beloved kale. But I still managed to cover a kitchen counter with what I found on Saturday morning at the Matthews Community Market, held every other week in winter.

Yes, Saturday, Feb. 12. That's what local farmers managed to coax out of the ground or out of their ovens.

My haul: Thumb-sized sunchokes for cutting raw into salads, carrots, radishes, spinach, Brussels sprouts, four kinds of lettuce, fresh goat cheese, whole-wheat Italian bread, sweet potatoes, eggs and green onions. I left off the two chicken leg quarters because there was no room in the frame.

Seriously, nothing fresh to eat in winter? Not in this climate. Market manager Pauline Woods says they're getting so many farmers and customers at the every-other-week winter market that they'll probably go to every week next winter. They also have a small market on the off weeks. While you're waiting for Saturday morning to roll around, here's a little picture show to get you in the mood:

It's still farmers' market season

If experience is any indication, I know what will happen the Saturday after Labor Day: The crowds at the local farmers markets will slow to a trickle, like somebody turned off a faucet.

I understand the problem: School is back in full swing, soccer leagues decide that 8 days a week isn't too often for your kids to be at practice, and buying seasonal, local food doesn't seem as pressing once the peaches and corn ease up.

Pity: The fall growing season around here is one of the best. The heat lets up -- a little! -- and we start to get things like apples from the mountains, greens and late-season tomatoes. Lots of local meat, of course, although the chicken farmers start to warn that they're coming to the last batches for the year.

The Matthews Community Farmers Market is months away from its winter schedule. But it will have shorter hours just for the Saturday of Labor Day weekend (that would be Sept. 4) because of the Matthews Alive! Festival. It will open 7:15 to 9 a.m. only on that Saturday.

Also, it's time to buy tickets to the Matthews market's annual barbecue, 5-7 p.m. Sept. 28. A $12 ticket gets you barbecue made by chef Alex Ranucci using Grateful Growers pork, and side dishes and desserts made by local chefs. I've gone before and I can tell you that tickets sell out fast for a good reason.

Get tickets at the market's Community House during market hours, or at Renfrow's Hardware, just a couple of doors up the street, at 188 N. Trade St.

Got a refrigerator for a good cause?

The people behind the Matthews Community Farmers Market are no stranger to innovation. It was the first grower-only market around here, and the first to add things like an Ask The Chef table.

This year's new program: The Share the Harvest Challenge. Customers can buy a little extra fresh produce and put it in coolers. Volunteers from the Matthews Help Center pick up the coolers and use the donations for food crisis assistance. I hear that fresh fruits and vegetables aren't the only things that get donated. One customer buys an extra dozen eggs every week to add, and the farmer/vendors do a pretty good share of donating from their unsold goods, too.

Market manager Pauline Wood says the program is doing better than they ever expected, filling 3 to 4 coolers on Saturdays and 1 or 2 on the new Wednesday market day.

In fact, it's going so well, the Matthews Help Center now needs help to handle all the food. Wood says the center is looking for someone who can donate a refrigerator to store the food while they distribute it. They need either a home refrigerator that doesn't have a freezer (so there's more space in the refrigerator) or a commercial cooler.

Got a line on one someone would be willing to donate? Call Kim Rhodarmer, the executive director of the help center, at 704-847-8383.