Category Archives: Farmers’ Markets

Help the Western Wake Farmers Market Secure a Permanent Home

One of the great things about living in the Triangle is access to great local products and produce at local farmers markets. However, as development pressure grows some of these markets have found themselves in search of space for a permanent location so they can continue to serve the community. The Western Wake Farmers Market is one such market, and they need your help to raise funds for a permanent home in Morrisville. Please visit their Generosity by Indiegogo campaign to donate. Every little bit helps!

Western Wake Farmers Market (WWFM) and the Town of Morrisville are working together to create a new farmers market site that is not threatened by development. WWFM needs to raise $50,000 more to complete this $900,000 project, and open the new site in 2017.

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WWFM’s new, forever home will be located along Town Hall Drive, just past the new fire house and Chamber of Commerce building in Morrisville, NC. The campaign funds will pay for things like bringing electricity to the vendor stalls, water to the garden, grass, landscaping, and more.

WWFM is a 501(C)(3) non-profit and all donations are tax deductible. For more information and to make donations to this community farmers market, please visit the Generosity campaign website.

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Wake Forest Herb Festival – April 2014

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2014 Wake Forest Herbfest

The Annual Wake Forest Herb Festival returns to Festival Park in downtown Wake Forest April 18-19-20 and April 25-26-27. After a long cold winter now is the time to start planning your summer garden and thinking ahead about the veggies and herbs you want to grow this season. The Herbfest is a great local source to help start your garden and it a fun way to spend the afternoon in downtown Wake Forest.

At the festival you will find the largest selection of Non GMO organic herbs, heritage tomatoes, heirloom vegetable plants & local grown perennials for our climate The festival also features live entertainment, beer from local White Street Brewery and gardening educational seminars.

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The Wake Forest Herbfest

While this is a small town event by “festival” standards, the Herb Fest is recognized as the largest herb and perennial festival east of the Mississippi.  There is a ton of free parking along White Street next to the park and the festival provides wagons and carts to load up your plants (and to tote your children). For details about daily festival events you can visit their website here.

Wake Forest HerbFest 2014
Festival Park – 525 S White St, Wake Forest, NC (map)
April 18-20th and 25th-27th
website: http://www.herbfest.net
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Herbfest
twitter: @HerbFest

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Cary Downtown Farmers Market Opens Saturday April 6th!

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The Cary Downtown Farmers’ Market will open Saturday, April 6 2013, offering Cary and surrounding areas fresh, local food, artisan goods, and a blossoming sense of community.

The Cary Downtown Farmers Market and residents of Cary are excited for the 22nd opening of their beloved Farmers Market this Saturday, April 6th.  Visitors to the market can expect to see many of the same vendors they have come to depend on at the market. Vendors will be selling locally grown vegetables and fruit, pasture-raised meats, eggs, honey, seafood, crafts, and baked goods. The market is located at 301 S. Academy Street, Cary, across from the downtown Cary library.

Opening day at the market will include an exciting scavenger hunt based on the fresh foods offered at the market this week; live kid-friendly music from the Motley Tones, a jolly band of singing pirates; and a cooking demonstration, by Alyssa Campo, using fresh, local vegetables from market vendors. Children that plan to participate in the scavenger hunt should stop by the information desk to pick up a map when they arrive.

Cary Downtown Farmers Market will also be introducing their new Market Manager, Karmen Paterson. Karmen is an Agricultural Business and Environmental Science student at NC State expected to graduate in May.  Karmen, having grown up around chefs, has a passion for food and eating. She believes in sustainable agricultural and buying locally for healthy citizens and the economic growth of downtown Cary. Stop by the information desk to meet Karmen and welcome her to the market.

A strong community has developed at the market over the past 22 years. Consumers are able to get to know and trust the farmers who make their food while sampling produce, learning about where and how the food is grown, and talking about recipes with other shoppers. The market runs from April through November on Tuesdays from 2-6, and Saturdays from 8-12:30. November through March, the market is open on Saturdays from 8-12:30. The market is always open, rain or shine!

“We are excited about both our new and returning vendors this year, and our ability to bring more Cary residents to the market. We want people to know our market is a destination spot, in the revitalizing downtown Cary, for people to buy fresh, local produce, socialize with other foodies, and just enjoy themselves,” says Karmen Paterson, Market Manager.”

About Cary Downtown Farmers Market
The market’s mission is to be a cozy place for people to shop for goods they can feel great about, and to build bonds between Cary residents and their local farmers, which will ultimately strengthen the area’s sense of community. The market is a growers-only market, with only handcrafted goods for sale, no re-selling is allowed. The market features items grown or crafted by the vendors, who have traveled less than a 100-mile radius of downtown Cary. The market is always open, rain or shine!

For more information, please visit their website at caryfarmersmarket.com or the Cary Downtown Farmers Market facebook and twitter page.

You can also see some great pics of the 2012 Market in a great post by Triangle Localista here.

 

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Monuts Donuts of Durham – The Best Donuts Ever! Period.

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Monuts Donuts!

I’ll be honest with you, I have a lot of experience eating donuts. I grew up in New Jersey eating Dunkin’ Donuts and currently work around the corner from a Krispy Kreme in downtown Raleigh. On a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest I even made an early morning excursion to the famous Voodoo Doughnut shop in downtown Portland to try their famous donuts.

Well, I am here to tell you that none of those places even come close to the awesomeness of the donuts made by Monuts Donuts in Durham. As the title of this post states, Monuts make the best donuts ever! Period.

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Monuts Donuts at the Durham Farmers’ Market

I first heard about Monuts through facebook when they opened a little over a year ago in Durham.  It started off as a two person operation by Lindsay Moriarty and her partner Rob Gillespie but their reputation and popularity has quickly blossomed requiring them to expand their team to include Lindsay’s father and a new employee to help meet the growing demand for their donuts.

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Monuts & bike coffee setting up along Hunt Street in Durham

Lindsey and Rob started off making a few dozen donuts each week in the  professional shared space kitchen at the Cookery. Now it isn’t unusual for them to make 60-70 dozen doughnuts each week. Customers can pre-order their donuts online and receive them by delivery each Friday or you can find them at the Durham Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings. They typically set up their donut table on Hunt Street each Saturday morning alongside the cool folks at BikeCoffee.

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Fresh Monuts Donuts

Monuts Donuts are all hand-made. The dough is made the night before, and Lindsay and Rob get up well before dawn to perform the glazing process literally minutes before they head out the door to sell the fresh donuts at the Farmers’ Market.

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Monuts fans lining up at a recent RTP Food Truck Rodeo!

The donuts typically run around $2 each (well worth it) and they offer a limited number of Saturday pre-orders through their website providing a great deal at $12.50 a dozen. Their donuts are very popular and they often sell out within 2 hours at the market.

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Dulce de Leche Donut

In addition to their donuts being super fresh, Monuts Donuts stands out for their unique flavors using seasonally-inspired local ingredients whenever possible. On my recent visits to the market to buy their donuts I have experience everything from a Dulce de Leche donut, to flavors like Cinnamon Hibisucs, Maple Bacon Bourbon, and Blueberry Cabernet with Dark Chocolate Shavings (a favorite of mine).

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Maple Bacon Bourbon Donut

As mentioned above, their donuts are very popular and in high demand each weekend at the Farmers’ Market. Fortunately for donut lovers like myself, Monuts has plans to open a brick and mortar location in 2013. Planning for the store is still in the early stages, but we do know it will be located at 110 E. Parrish Street, right across from Bull City Burger and Brewery.

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Blueberry Cabernet Donut with Dark Chocolate Shavings

Recent updates on their facebook page indicate the store will feature 14ft ceilings, exposed interior brick walls and original hard wood floors in the dining room. Having their own store is an important next step for Monuts since it will mean more prep/ baking space allowing for them to increase production and experiment with even more flavors.  For a behind the scenes glimpse at their current donut making process check out this fun video below.

You can  read more about the cool people behind Monuts Donuts in a recent feature about them in last month’s Durham Magazine. Or you can also follow them on Facebook and  Twitter  to stay updated on the flavors they are working on and where you can find them each week.

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Second Annual Triangle Canning Swap – August 19th

Photo Courtesy of Kendra Spencer of A Sonoma Garden Blog

About the event:

Fire up your pressure canners and break out the jams, the Second Annual Triangle Canning Swap is right around the corner! This event is hosted by Matt Lardie of Green Eats Blog and brings together home canners from across the Triangle to swap some of their best goodies, helps promote food preservation and the art of canning, and is just plain fun. Last year’s event was a blast with items like homemade limoncello, blueberry syrup, dill pickles, and Chef Chad McIntyre’s famous bloody mary mix from his Raleigh restaurant, Market.

Here are the details for this year’s event:

What: Second Annual Triangle Canning Swap

When: Sunday, August 19th at 3pm

Where: Fullsteam Brewery, 726 Rigsbee Ave, Durham

How: You bring up to 5 jars of your homemade jam, jelly, chutney, sauce, salsa, pickles, etc. Local ingredients encouraged, and bring copies of your recipe to share if you like! For each jar you bring you get a chance to swap. Names will be dropped into a hat and chosen at random, and we’ll keep drawing until everyone has gotten to make their allotted swaps.

To sign up: RSVP on Facebook: Second Annual Triangle Canning Swap or send an e-mail to matt@greeneatsblog.com

About Matt Lardie & Green Eats Blog:
Matt Lardie is a freelance food writer and blogger based in Durham, NC. He is the voice behind Green Eats Blog and a contributing writing to Ashvegas.com.

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