{"id":74685,"date":"2019-04-17T18:18:41","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T00:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=74685"},"modified":"2019-04-17T18:18:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T00:18:48","slug":"oxford-community-market-kicks-off-the-2019-season-on-april-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/oxford-community-market-kicks-off-the-2019-season-on-april-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxford Community Market Kicks Off the 2019 Season on April 23"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If there\u2019s one thing that\nOxford Community Market<\/strong> is known for,\nit\u2019s good-old fashioned Southern hospitality and the ability to turn a regular\nold Tuesday afternoon into a community-wide celebration of local food, art,\nculture, and commerce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every Tuesday from April through December, OXCM transforms the empty Old Armory Pavilion<\/strong> into a beautiful, public marketplace filled with music, fresh local goods, farmers, artisans, kids playing, and customers from all walks of life. OXCM opens for business on April 23 with its annual Spring Kick-Off Party<\/strong> from 3\u20136:30 pm at the corner of Bramlett Boulevard <\/strong>and University Ave<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOXCM\u2019s Spring Kick-Off event is a big community block partyandeveryone<\/em>is\ninvited,\u201d said market director Betsy\nChapman<\/strong>. \u201cThe kick-off sets the tone for the market season and is all about\nbringing people together, building community, stimulating the creative economy,\nand bringing public gathering spaces to life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event offers free kid\u2019s activities, cooking demos,\nrefreshments, and live music plus loads of fresh local spring produce, baked goods,\nmeats, milk, honey, jams and jellies, pickles, and more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour local farmers market is where you\u2019re going to find the\nlargest, just-picked selection of fresh produce,\u201d said Chapman. \u201cPlus, you\u2019re buying\ndirectly from your farmer so every penny they make goes right back into local\nfarms and it\u2019s a pretty good feeling to be friends with the people who feed\nyou.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kick-off event is free and open to the public but also\noffers the opportunity for the community to support the non-profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur goal as an organization is to support local growers by\nproviding a place for them to sell to the public for a nominal fee as well as\nproviding marketing services, technical support, and small business resources\nthat are not accessible to most small growers and food producers,\u201d said\nChapman. \u201cWe are hopeful that the investment OXCM makes in our farmers benefits\nthem beyond just our market, helping them expand to other markets, restaurants,\ngrocery stores, and farm stands across north Mississippi. And we can continue\nto do all of this work with the generous support of this town.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to supporting farmers, OXCM is also known statewide\nfor its efforts to improve access to fresh, local food to those who are most\nvulnerable to food insecurity with special programs to support SNAP\/WIC\nshoppers and senior citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe that everyone deserves access to the highest quality\nfood and that local food economies thrive when everyone is able to participate,\u201d\nChapman noted. \u201cOur work to help families who experience food insecurity is\nsupported by the United Way of Oxford and Lafayette County, Baptist Hospital,\nand Move On Up Mississippi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The community can support OXCM\u2019s work with a small donation to\nattend the 2019 Friends of the Market\nHappy Hour<\/strong> to be held from 5\u20136:30 pm during the kick-off event. Donations\ncan be made at www.givegab.com\/campaigns\/market-happy-hour<\/a> or at\nOXCM\u2019s website www.oxfordcommunitymarket.com<\/a>. For\nmore information about OXCM, contact Chapman at 662-816-7413.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Betsy Chapman<\/strong>, director of Oxford Community Market<\/strong>, avid gardener, and loyal listener of The Gestalt Gardner<\/em><\/strong> wanted to get the dirt on Mississippi gardening with a few questions for Felder Rushing<\/strong>, Mississippi\u2019s garden guru. Felder will be at Oxford Community Market\u2019s 2019 Spring Kick-Off Party April 23<\/strong> at the Old Armory Pavilion<\/strong> for a meet-and-greet before he heads over to the Lafayette County & Oxford Public Library<\/strong> for his talk \u201cGardening with Felder: Grow Anything IN Anything.\u201d This free talk is sponsored by UM Office of Sustainability<\/strong>, The Oxford Community Garden Association<\/strong>, andSustainable Oxford<\/strong>. \u201cFelder is super knowledgeable and delivers useful information in an easy-to-understand and entertaining way. The Oxford Community Garden is pleased to partner with these great organizations to bring him here, and we are excited to pick upsome tips on growing a better garden,\u201d said Tiffany Bensen<\/strong> of the Oxford Community Garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I called in once, several years back, and you instructed me on how to manually pollinate my squash plants that weren\u2019t producing and it worked! You\u2019ve been doing this for a while now and you must have had at least a few wacky call-ins over the years. What is the weirdest, funniest, and\/or most memorable call-in question of your career?<\/strong>
I\u2019ve had calls about how to know when to stop mowing the lawn in the fall and about termites in marijuana plants. But the best was when I got totally owned by my own mom, who called me out and hung up on me on-air, live, for being too horticultural and cynical about a project a man had called in about something he wanted to do with his grandson. \u201cYoung man,\u201d she said, \u201cyou misread the last call. That man didn\u2019t want your negative advice; it\u2019s a beautiful day and he just wanted to do something outdoors with his grandson. And you completely blew it.\u201d CLICK!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I dream of my yard looking like the big, beautiful lawns that line the boulevards in Oxford. Every spring, for years, I\u2019m out there digging from dusk till dawn and mine still looks a hot mess. What is the best advice you have to encourage gardeners to never give up on having the yard of their dreams?<\/strong>
In spite of my being a turf expert, I think most people have unrealistic, body-shamed expectations about the need for a standardized \u201cMiss America\u201d lawn. They are not easy to pull off without occasional deep soakings\u2014never more than once a week, but at least once a month\u2014 and light fertilizers every April. If there is one simple trick, it is to raise the mower to its highest setting, and leave it there. This is what the lawn needs for deep roots and thick growth, and is the best weed prevention of all. Just mow right, edge every now and then, and learn to tolerate a few blemishes\u2014or prepare for ceaseless toil. It\u2019s okay to not have a perfect lawn. Really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For beginning gardeners: What are your top three favorite easy-to-grow plants?<\/strong>
No two gardeners will ever agree on their favorites, which often change every few years anyway. But I would encourage newbies to start with a simple group of rosemary or oregano, an all-season Compacta nandina, and a skirt of variegated Liriope or iris. It\u2019s an all-season combination in beds or pots, and anything can be added later (I\u2019m thinking paperwhite Narcissus, Powis Castle artemisia, and sky\u2019s the limit).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you were stranded on a deserted island and you could only bring one gardening book, what would it be?<\/strong>
I love the easy reading and practical tips of Deep-Rooted Wisdom – Skills and Stories from Generations of Gardeners<\/em>(Timber Press) by Jenks Farmer, a fantastic story-telling horticulturist from South Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve met gardeners and visited gardeners all over the world. What is special and unique about gardening in the South? What do Mississippi gardeners have in common with gardeners from around the world?<\/strong>
Mississippians can enjoy all sorts of flowers, shrubs, trees, vegetables, and culinary herbs every single week of the year, and the very best gardeners do, often with plants gleaned from many sources including pass-along heirlooms from family, friends, and neighbors. We are a sharing lot who love to laugh and tell stories. We are less stressed than other cultures in our gardens, except perhaps English gardeners who also have a strong sense of place and tend to grow practical and dependable rather than showy flash-in-the-pan plants. But whether I am gardening half the year here or in my home in northern England, or visiting other gardens around the world, I find that,other than using somewhat different plants, we pretty much all do the same things with the same hopes and frustrations. Unlike goal-oriented horticulture, gardening is more a process to enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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