Arranging the produce at Morgan County-Decatur Farmers Market

You go there for the veggies, right?  Plump, pretty, newly picked produce.  And it’s bountiful in Morgan County, Alabama.  But so are the friendly farmers who do themselves proud with colorful pickin’s and Southern pride to boot!

Baskets and baskets of maters at Morgan County-Decatur Farmers Market

It was one of those summer Saturdays when farmers from Eva, Priceville, Somerville, Cullman, Decatur, and even Huntsville gathered in downtown Decatur under a long row of tents and awnings to arrange nature’s bounty for all to see.  Most farmers ‘fessed up to pickin’ on the Fourth just to get the freshest goods to market on Saturday, July 5th when we were there.

Can you believe this stack of green tomatoes! And that hand’s not holding ’em up, either!!

And there was plenty of it, too.  Juicy red maters, purple hull peas, tender yellow squash, freestone peaches, and watermelons piled high ready for thumpin’ to see how ripe they are.

Better boy tomatoes

Selling corn from the back of the truck

Yellow squash from Baker Farm

Sunflowers in a bucket

Huge cultured blackberries

One of the prettiest eggplants we’ve seen!

But what made this trip more fun (or is it funner?) than samplin’ them paper shell “pee-cans” was just jawin’ with the farmers.  Like this guy who offered us a slice of a fresh peach until we told him we were Tennessee fans who had reservations ’bout buyin’ from someone wearing a Bama hat.  He grinned ear-to-ear and said, “Aw, go on.  This is good eatin’.  You’ll like it.” Indeed we did.

Bama fan serving freestone peach samples to die-hard Tennessee fans — that would be us! And smiling, too!

Or how about these two early bird entrepreneurs — Jameson and Chandler Barber from Barbers Produce in Decatur?  Proud as punch to be standing by their harvest.  We even talked about being on Twitter, and I said I’d post their picture @rushasams and take a look at @BarbersProduce and their Facebook page too:  facebook.com/barbersproduce.  Farmers are high tech these days, don’t you know?!

Jameson and Chandler Barber standing by their just-picked produce. So happy to be a Decatur Farmers Market!

This lady from Gibson Farm & Greenery said she sells mostly to chefs who are into that farm-to-table thing, but when she has extra, she comes to the Morgan County-Decatur Farmers Market with her chalkboard brimming with good eats.

Selling to us what she normally sells to chefs in Decatur — the best, of course!

It’s not just veggies., though.  When this guy reached over for a jar of Strawberry Jalapeno Jelly and said it’d be good on cream cheese, he had us.  We packed up a couple of jars to share at our next family gathering in Tennessee.

“It’s good on cream cheese,” he said. And he had us buying that Strawberry Jalapeno Jelly at that very moment!

My brother-in-law Jim Mouch even found a yellow and purple bouquet that a lady from Huntsville carefully wrapped in a sack with a little pool of water in the bottom.  (Inventive folks, by golly!)

Jim Mouch seems pleased with a bouquet he found at the Decatur Farmers Market.

So, if you live near Decatur, come on down any Saturday ’til November 8, 2014. Better yet, plan to be there for these upcoming events.  They’re sure to be big-time fun!

Corn Festival — Saturday, July 12, 2014

Tomato Sandwich Day — Saturday, July 26, 2014

Watermelon Festival — Saturday, August 16, 2014

Remember: People almost trump produce at the Decatur Farmers Market — personable, happy, and proud of what they’ve grown.  And for good reason.  Come see!

For more information:

Morgan County-Decatur Farmers Market

211 First Avenue SE

Decatur, Alabama 35601

Website: http://www.decaturfarmersmarket.org/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/DecaturMorgan-County-Farmers-Market/174610319238067