by CLIFF AND NANCY HILL
Green Thumb Acres’ Michelle Flokstra stands beside all of the ingredients needed, including secret herbs and spices, to make awarding-winning salsa.
For the past 13 weeks, The Rockford Squire, your locally owned and original hometown newspaper, has been providing exclusive front-page coverage of the Rockford Farm Market’s improbable race to victory in the America’s Favorite Farmers Markets contest sponsored by the American Farmland Trust. We hope you’ve enjoyed our articles as much as we enjoyed bringing them to you.
It may have only been 13 consecutive Saturday mornings in the history of Rockford, but for the farm market faithful it was the summer of a lifetime. Not only were farm market devotees afforded weekly the abundance of seasonal, freshly harvested, locally grown, Michigan produce, they were at the same time caught up in the excitement of the nationwide farmers market contest.
As this week’s Squire went to press, the contest results were not yet available. If you are reading this issue Wednesday, August 31, you still have an opportunity to cast a vote up until midnight when the contest voting ends. All you have to do is get off your “duff,” head to your computer, and go to the contest voting website at www.farmland.org/vote and cast “the winning vote.”
If you’re reading this issue of the Squire on Thursday, Sept. 1 or later, the contest is over and the results are available, again, by going online to the aforementioned website. Contest results may also be available in the Grand Rapids Press, along with WZZM TV 13 newscasts, or at rockford.waam13.com, in addition to local radio stations. Or, if you prefer, call Kate, the Squire’s office manager, at (616) 866-4465—she will most certainly have the results.
Next week’s Thursday, Sept. 8 edition of the Squire will provide an in-depth recap of the three-month contest, hopefully reporting a win for Rockford.
The contest may be over, but Rockford’s “Pure Michigan” farm market sails on and will be open for business as usual through the last Saturday in October (27). The fall season brings a new variety of offerings such as apples, cider, squash, pumpkins, mums galore, and much, much more.
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