Call for Volunteers!

Our first year was an incredible success, due in large part to the efforts of our dedicated volunteers. We invite YOU to get involved in 2010. By volunteering with the Friends of Salem Saturday Market you can make a difference in your community, meet some like-minded folks and have fun, all at the same time!

We are seeking community members to serve in the following areas:

FINANCE COMMITTEE: This small committee reviews and oversees FSSM’s financial activities, makes suggestions to the Board of Directors about financial matters, and writes policies and procedures. The Board Treasurer is chairperson of this group. (New members needed: 1-2)

PROGRAMS COMMITTEE: This committee is where all public events are planned and carried out. You will brainstorm activities for the year, and small groups or individuals will be assigned as project managers for each event. Activities include classes, demonstrations, contests, tastings, and other projects that take place at the Market and elsewhere. (New Members needed: 1)

MARKETING & FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE: This group is responsible for promoting FSSM activities through press releases, our website, email, newsletters, fliers, signage, and other materials. The committee also is responsible for fundraising efforts and for all membership activities. (Members needed: 2)

ZERO WASTE COMMITTEE: The newest committee, this group is responsible for carrying out activities as specified in a grant we recently received from Marion County. Participants will plan, organize and implement this important project, which includes waste disposal, working with service contractors, educating market vendors and customers, setting up and maintaining waste-disposal equipment at the Market, organizing free classes, creating signage, writing grant reports, and more. It will be a busy committee this year, with a variety of responsibilities. (Members needed: 3-4)

VOLUNTEERING AT THE FSSM BOOTH: On Saturdays during the summer, booth volunteers educate Market customers about the FSSM mission, sign up new members, facilitate classes and activities, sell fundraising items, operate the Bike Valet service, help with the Zero Waste efforts, set up and break down our displays, and more.  Volunteers are generally scheduled for 3-hour shifts.  We can craft duties for you based on your interests and availability. Working at the booth and interacting with the public is fun and a great way to learn what Friends of Salem Saturday Market is all about! We would love to have you join us at the booth this summer, once or on a regular basis. Members needed: Unlimited!

If any of the above opportunities are of interest to you – or if you have other ideas that you would like to suggest – please email us and we will get in touch soon. TO GET STARTED…please also return a Volunteer Application Form.

You do not need to be a current FSSM member to volunteer.

Welcome New Members!

Thank you and a hearty welcome to all of the new members that joined this quarter. Most of you came through the Sustainable Holiday Market or the Holiday Market. We hope you’ll join us on January 16 at 11 a.m. when we tour Ankeny Lakes Wild Rice, to learn more about their operation. For all of the particulars, shoot us an email.

We are looking forward to a fabulous year of programming in 2010, including more farm tours, preserving classes and a new initiative aimed at reducing waste at the Salem Saturday Market. If you aren’t yet a member of FSSM, we encourage you to join now and help make 2010 even more spectacular. You can even sign up online.

Shop Local This Weekend

If you are looking for something locally made and a bit beyond the ordinary, then you’ll not want to miss the Holiday Gift Market this weekend, December 12 & 13, at the Americraft Building (formerly Jackman Long Building) at the State Fairgrounds.

The Holiday Gift Market is the largest all-handmade holiday event in the Willamette Valley, with hundreds of vendors offering arts, crafts, food, decor and thousands of gift ideas. The Friends of Salem Saturday Market will be there with a gift valet (we’ll watch your packages as you shop), special gift memberships and books for everyone on your list.

There will be live entertainment, door prizes, and a Kids’ Quarter featuring a clown, face painting and hands-on activities.

Admission is FREE, although parking is $3. We’ll also have a complimentary coat-check service, so stop by our booth at the the north entrance before you begin shopping.

We hope to see you there!

Volunteers needed

We will be selling gift-membership packages at the Holiday Gift Market.

Friends of Salem Saturday Market will host a booth next weekend at the Holiday Gift Market, Dec. 12 & 13.

We’ll be promoting gift memberships, explaining our mission, and selling books as a fundraiser. We’ll also provide a free “gift valet” service, where shoppers can drop off their gifts while they continue to browse.

We’re looking for volunteers to help us out at the booth. Do you have a couple of hours to donate to our non-profit group? No experience is necessary, just a friendly demeanor!

The Holiday Market is Saturday Dec 12th from 10 am – 6 pm and Sunday December 13th from 10 am – 4 pm.

If you’re interested, please email info@friendsofsalemsaturdaymarket.org.  Thanks so much & we appreciate your help!

(To learn more about our group, visit www.FriendsOfSalemSaturdayMarket.org.)

Local Chefs Share Holiday Recipes

In case you are still searching for holiday menu ideas, or simple inspiration, we asked two local chefs, Nate Rafn, creator of the televesion program Living Culture, and Jessica Ritter, co-owner of The Wild Pear, to share a couple of their favorites. Read on to learn more about Nate’s family recipe for Best Pumpkin Cookies and Jessica’s delicious Roasted Butternut Squash – either one is guaranteed to bring some local flavor to your holiday table!

———————————————————-

“What would the  holiday season be without the mouth-watering tradition of reviving old family recipes?” says Nate. “Family recipes are an important part of the holiday experience. It gives children and adults alike an opportunity to engage and create something memorable. It is this custom that preserves family connections, and keeps us in touch with fond recollections of years past.”

His his family enjoys holiday treats that pay tribute to Danish or American culture – homemade eggnog, Danish julekage, and his Grandma’s unusual, but tasty, pumpkin cookies.

“My grandmother, Louise Rafn, was the first in my family to make pumpkin cookies,” he says. “She originally found the recipe in a Church of Latter Day Saints Relief Society magazine. She liked the recipe so much, that she submitted it to the Salem 4th Ward Relief Society cookbook in 1979. It has been a popular treat in my household, and others in the Salem area Mormon community, ever since.”

BEST PUMPKIN COOKIES - makes 25 cookies
This recipe produces a cookie that is subtly sweet, soft, and somewhat bread-like. Most of the moisture comes from the pumpkin puree. So be careful not to over-mix the dough. These cookies also freeze very well.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup nuts (optional)
1 cup raisins (optional)
1 cup chocolate chips
2 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or prepared fresh)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Stir the butter to soften. Gradually add sugar and cream together until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, and mix well. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternately with pumpkin. Beat after each addition until smooth. Fold in raisins and nuts (optional), and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoons on two greased cookie sheets. Bake each batch at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy these cookies with a mug of eggnog!

Nate Rafn produces a television series about local foods entitled Living Culture, on KWVT Willamette Valley DTV channel 17.1, Comcast channels 22 in Salem and 29 in Portland. Visit www.livingcultureonline.com.

———————————————————-

ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH
This recipe, from The Wild Pear’s Jessica Ritter, uses blue cheese and pecans to take roasted butternut squash from ho-hum to heavenly – showing that simplicity is sensational. The amount of blue cheese, pecans and sugar that you use will be dictated by how much squash you have. You can easily modify this recipe to make a smaller or larger amount – just keep the proportions roughly the same.

1 medium-sized butternut squash
1-2 T of canola oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 – 1/2 cup of crumbled blue cheese
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 cup of pecans, roughly chopped

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Seed, peel and dice the butternut squash into chunks. Toss squash with oil to coat and season with salt and pepper. Place in baking dish and cook uncovered until soft and nicely browned. Remove dish from oven. Toss together blue cheese, pecans and brown sugar. Sprinkle this mixture over the squash. Bring oven to broil. Place dish under broiler for a few minutes. Serve.

Jessica Ritter is co-owner , along with her sister Cecilia James, of Salem’s Wild Pear Restaurant, located at 372 State Street. Visit www.wildpearcatering.com.

Many thanks to Jessica and Nate for sharing their culinary talents on the FSSM blog!

Give Green!

Looking for for a way to “give green” this holiday season?  Don’t miss the 2nd Annual Sustainable Holiday Market, sponsored by Friends of Straub Environmental Learning Center. It’s being held this Sunday, November 22 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Willamette University’s Cone Field House at Sparks Field.

Local artisans will offer recycled, chemical-free, locally made, fair trade, and energy- and water-saving gifts suitable for everyone on your list.  Also, take home tips to make your holiday celebrations more earth-friendly, while the kids make gifts at an “Earth-Friendly Elves” station. There will be live music and a chance to buy raffle tickets to win sustainable gifts. Entrance is FREE, as is parking in the adjacent Sparks Field Parking Lot.

We’ll be there with two special holiday membership packages – a Friends of Salem Saturday Market 16-month membership and cool water bottle for $15, or a membership along with a spiffy Friends shopping tote and Barbara Kingsolver’s best-selling book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for $40.

We’ll also have a selection of books focused around cooking, buying and living sustainably. What a great way to wrap up your holiday shopping early and support Friends of Salem Saturday Market!

Love Banned at Oregon Farmers’ Markets?

An article appearing in the Bend Bulletin (which we discovered by way of the Willamette Week) describes how the Oregon Department of Agriculture is taking a closer look at ingredients and farmers’ market vendor practices.

Writer Nick Budnick reports that the ODA asked Redmond-based baker Sarah Yancey to “stop putting love into the bread, cookies, jams and jellies she makes — or at least stop listing “love” as an ingredient, like flour or fruit.” According to Yancey, last August an ODA inspector told her that “love was an impermissible ingredient because it can’t be measured.”

Meanwhile Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem, who has heard similar complaints from other vendors regarding ingredient and procedure crackdowns, invited representatives from farmers’ markets and the Agriculture Department to testify at a hearing on Wednesday, November 18 during a meeting of the House Agriculture, Natural Resources & Rural Communities Committee.

Test Your Local Farms Knowledge

Here at the Friends of Salem Saturday Market, we want to get people thinking about local farm and food connections. Yes, we know that butternut squash tastes better and fresher when it comes from the farm down the street. But what are some of the other issues related to getting food from field to table? Test your knowledge of local farms with this fun and informative quiz from American Farmland Trust – and get the real dirt on local foods!

Yard Sale was a success!

The weather could not have been better for the last Saturday Market of the season. Mild temperatures and an occasional burst of sunlight made for a magnificent day – not to mention the trick-or-treaters and others costumed for Halloween!

We raised just over $200 at our booth yard sale. Our thanks go out to all of the folks who stopped by to say hello and make a purchase, as well as those who donated items to sell.

The money will help to support the educational programming we have in the works. Our hope is to continue programs throughout the winter months, so be sure to check back here for more information as it becomes available.

In the meantime, be sure to put these dates on your calendar. We’ll be at both events!

• Sunday, November 22 – Sustainable Holiday Market sponsored by Friends of Straub Environmental Learning Center. It’s at Cone Field House, Willamette Unversity.
• December 12 & 13 – Salem Saturday Market Holiday Gift Market will be at the Oregon State Fairgrounds, in the AmeriCraft Center (formerly the Jackman Long Building). Friends of Salem Saturday Market will be hosting a “gift valet” service to hang on to your purchases while you continue shopping.

Both events have free admission and free parking. Hope to see you there!

Yard Sale at the Saturday Market

Hi Friends!

Saturday, Oct. 31, is the last day of the Salem Saturday Market for 2009!

Friends of Salem Saturday Market will be there holding a yard sale at our booth ~ our first big fundraiser. Swing by our booth on the northwest side of the Market to see the great stuff we’ve got for sale, at ridiculously affordable prices.

The money we raise Saturday will help get us through the winter months. Although the Market may be finished, our activities and events certainly are not! FSSM is a year-round organization, and we want to keep the momentum going that we’ve gained all summer. So come take a look at our booth, see what we’ve got for sale, or just say hi. We’ll miss seeing all of our great members & supporters every week!

We’re not the only ones with good deals Saturday ~ a lot of the vendors will be selling garage-sale items, too. You’ll find even more great stuff than usual!

Bring the kids, too, for trick-or-treating and a costume contest. There’s even a costume contest for dogs!

We hope to see you you down there – rain or shine! – to bid farwell to a wonderful Market season!