Dear North Market Shopper,

On Saturday, October 3rd, we will, once again, host our annual Harvest Festival.  Another growing season is drawing to a close and each year we celebrate the hard work of our community of growers with a festival that celebrates the bounty of Ohio agriculture.  It’s everything fresh and everything local.

This year’s Harvest Festival is adding a couple new twists that will place even greater focus on eating locally.

Thanks to the efforts of Local Matters, the Harvest Festival will serve at the kick-off to Local Foods Week.  Many of you know Local Matters through The Greener Grocer here at the Market.  The Greener Grocer is our local farmstand in the city as they have partnered with many, many local growers to provide farm fresh Ohio produce all week long.  In just a little more than a year The Greener Grocer has become the premier destination for everything local.

At the Harvest Festival, Local Matters, will pair five local chefs with five North Market growers to highlight what’s fresh and delicious.  For those of you who are a bit more ambitious, Hills Market and North Market are hosting our first-ever Market to Market bicycle ride.  Head to www.northmarket.com for more information.  On Wednesday, Local Matters leader, Michael Jones and Dispatch Food Editor, Robin Davis will collaborate for an evening of cooking, recipes and local knowledge.  The class will be held here at the Market and tickets are available by calling 463-9664 or clicking here>

Those are just a few of the activities Local Matters has on tap for the week.  To learn more about Local Foods Week go to www.local-matters.org.  There you can learn more about this wonderful organization that works tirelessly to make sure that everyone has equal access to local, healthy and sustainably grown food.  While you’re there think about becoming one of the 1,000 Friends of Local Matters. 

See you at the Harvest Festival.

Dave Wible

If you yearn for good old-fashioned candies, or perhaps you like to mix and match among your favorites, then you’ll feel like the proverbial “kid in a candy store” when you set foot in the Candy Shack!
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The first CupcakeCampColumbus was a sugary success staged in the back parlor of the Surly Girl Saloon this past May. For round two, Revenge of CupcakeCampColumbus, organizers Carmen Owens of Surly Girl Saloon and Kiesha Jenkins-Duffy of the blog 52 Weeks of Baking have teamed up with the North Market’s  Mary Martineau. The trio will bring on an even bigger baking event that will take place on Saturday, October 10 from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Dispatch Kitchen at the North Market. Keep up with the ongoing details of Revenge of CupcakeCampColumbus on the official event website here>.  The new location also brings a new round of categories to submit for judging the cupcakes. Approximately forty different flavors of cupcakes created by local amateur bakers (REGISTRATION FOR BAKERS CLOSED, LIMIT REACHED) will be featured. This round’s classifications include:

Best Harvest Cupcake: These cupcakes should scream ‘Autumn’. Use of fall fruits or vegetables encouraged and decorating the cupcakes like shocks of hay or other fall imagery a plus.

Best North Market-Inspired: The North Market features a little of everything and so should these cupcakes. Think cupcakes inspired by Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream flavors. Or turn up the heat a little and bake a cupcake that would make CaJohn proud. Myriad options available here.

Best Ohio Pride: These cupcakes would make any Ohioan proud. Use all Ohio ingredients. Bake cupcakes in the shape of Ohio. Decorate with OSU colors. Go crazy!

Best Decorated: As simple as it sounds. Bust out your Wilton piping bag or consult your copy of “Hello Cupcake!”

Best Vegan: No animal products here! We want the tastiest cupcake you can create without using milk, eggs, butter or any other animal product.

Best Halloween: Get creative and dress those cupcakes up in their best costumes! Disguise a cupcake as something else, make fondant ghosts or create a haunted cupcake house!

Local celebrities, bakers and other experts will be on hand to judge each category and fabulous prizes will be awarded to the winners. Applications for cupcake bakers and tickets for cupcake eaters are now available. To register to be a cupcake baker visit (Edit baker registration closed)  If you’re not a baker, but you’re n avid cupcake eater and you’d like to attend, tickets are $10 with the proceeds benefiting the Mid-Ohio Food Bank and can be purchased online (EDIT: event now sold out).

Finally, if you’re all about quantity over quality, perhaps you’d like to enter the Cupcake Crush. In this contest the first intrepid eater to finish twenty mini cupcakes provided by the Surly Girl Saloon will take home a special award.

Revenge of CupcakeCampColumbus is sponsored by Surly Girl Saloon, 52 Weeks of Baking, North Market, CrimsonCup Coffee, Snowville Creamery and Wholly Craft. The event will take place on Saturday, October 10 from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Dispatch Kitchen of the North Market. Admission is free for registered cupcake bakers, but space is limited. Only 100 tickets are available for $10 each to the general public. SOLD OUT

It all started innocently enough over at the CaJohn’s Flavor and Fire stand. John Hard would whip up a batch of his award-winning yet ever-so-simple Texas chili recipe in a crockpot on the weekends to help boost salsa sales. Customers went wild for it and wanted more than just a taste and thus, the CaBoom! Chili Company was ultimately born. To fix a batch at home simply brown a pound of ground beef, stir in 3 tablespoons of CaBoom! Chili Fixins’ and 1 cup of water and simmer for 5 minutes. Add 1 jar of your favorite CaBoom! Picante Sauce, simmer at least 10 minutes, toss on your favorite toppings and enjoy!

Possessing more than 300 awards (and counting) from shows all over the country, John and Sue Hard own America’s most-awarded fiery foods company. Their CaJohn’s Flavor & Fire stand in the North Market caters to everyone from those merely chile-inquisitive to die-hard chile pepper enthusiasts. With an already impressive array of products, John and Sue are constantly testing out new items to add to their line of salsas, hot sauces and spice blends.

Eric Ling has a background in bartending which could explain some of the delicious concoctions he and his staff create at Bubbles, the Tea and Juice Company. In addition to the expected fresh squeezed orange juice look for an ever-changing array of alternatives - like watermelon juice during the summer. Then there’s the smoothie menu which earns rave reviews, not to mention the assortment of freshly brewed tea options.

The North Market Harvest Festival is helping to kick off Local Matters Local Foods Week on Saturday, October 3. In addition to our usual extravaganza of harvest produce, baking contests, live music and kids’ activities, this year as part of their Local Foods Week celebration, Local Matters worked to pair local chefs with some of our farmers to do cooking demonstrations right out of their stalls.This festival is a fun one for the kiddies with a plethora of activities and entertainment. Mark Wood will be twisting balloon animals and executing fancy rope tricks. Rita Miller will be on hand for fanciful full face painting. There will be give-aways of cookies and apples and the Columbus Jaycees will return for their annual stint of offering harvest-inspired crafts. Not to mention, if you are looking for a new four-legged friend, the Columbus Dog Connection will be on hand with adoptable dogs.

Enterprising customers have several opportunities to take home a prize in our Harvest Festival baking contests. In the pumpkin bread contest, entrants are invited to submit their version in loaf or muffin form. Our two other contests feature the time-honored tradition of pie baking and participants can submit their favorite pumpkin or apple pies for judging. The first place winner of the bread competition will win $50 in North Market gift certificates and each pie competition winner will receive $100 in North Market gift certificates. All home-baked entries will be available for purchase with proceeds benefiting the nonprofit North Market Development Authority. To register or for more information, please call the North Market at (614) 463-9664. Participation is limited to 12 entries per contest.

“Having the Harvest Festival as the kickoff for Local Matters Local Foods Week is a perfect combination that highlights both our activities and our mission to support local businesses.” said David Wible, Executive Director of the North Market. “You will see and taste that mission in action with our local chefs preparing recipes right in our farmers’ stalls.”

Scheduled Harvest Festival activities include:
• Farmers’ Market and North Market merchants open at 8 a.m.
• Market to Market breakfast in the Dispatch Kitchen, 8 - 10 a.m.
• Cooking demonstrations with local chefs at farmer stalls, 9 - 11 a.m.
• Live music by Folk Wood Players, 9 - 11 a.m.
• Mark Wood Cowboy Fun Show, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
• Joy Unspeakable, the Living Statue, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
• Face painting, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
• Free pumpkin cookies for the kids, courtesy of Mozart’s Bakery, 10 a.m. while supply lasts.
• Free apples for the kids, 10 a.m. while supply lasts.
• Autumn crafts with the Columbus Jaycees, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
• Columbus Dog Connection, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
• Live music by Slate Ridge, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
• Pumpkin Bread contest, 12 p.m.
• Pumpkin Pie contest, 1 p.m.
• Apple pie contest, 2 p.m.
• Face painting, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
• Live music by Willie Phoenix, 1 - 4 p.m.

The North Market Harvest Festival begins at 8 a.m. and is a free event. For more information or to sign-up for any of the contests, please call the North Market at (614) 463-9664 or email info@northmarket.com

Cheryl and David Smith are considered the Market’s quintessential “Mom and Pop” out of all of our shops here at the North Market. They are an old-school butcher selling hormone and antibiotic-free beef, pork, lamb, veal and goat meat from animals raised on their farm in Marysville. Daughter Jamie and son Cody are know to help out regularly as well.

Farmers' Festival Poster by Clinton Reno August 2005

It must’ve been fate that Clinton Reno had been hanging his rock-n-roll posters at the North Market way back in 2005. I had just come aboard as the new Director of Marketing. It was a copy of his poster for “The Killionaires Must Destroy You” promoting a gig at Little Brother’s that caught the eye of my husband, Eric, who was visiting for lunch. As we purloined the poster from the market bulletin board he commented, “You should see if this guy would do posters for the North Market.” So I dropped him an email and as it turns out, he would and indeed has been creating graphics for North Market events since the Farmers’ Festival in August 2005. We liked the poster so much that we decided to “keep him” and the first series that Clinton created for events through the next year became familiarly known to us as the “Veggie Head” posters. It started with “Turnip Head” for the Farmers’ Festival and progressed through Apple Head” (the Apple Festival which has since 2006 been replaced by the Columbus Microbrew Festival), “Pumpkin Head” (Harvest Festival), “Chestnut Head” ( Holiday Open House & Craft Extravaganza), “Chili Head” (Fiery Foods Festival), “Tomato Head” (Grillmasters Festival), and “Grape Head” (Food & Ohio Wine Festival). Snippets of all of these posters seen below (OK, except “Tomato Head” because Wordpress isn’t cooperating).

Incidentally, the original posters from the first series through the current iteration are available for purchase (those that we have not sold out) in the business office. Clinton carefully hand silk-screens each image on high quality craft paper. Most are stamped for promotional use but he signs and numbers about 40 which we split and sell at the North Market and on Clinton’s website.

Dear North Market Shopper, 

There’s a local angle to everything these days. As informed consumers participate in the marketplace, local foods, local businesses and local economies now occupy an ever-important place in our community.

This weekend we’re putting a fun twist on local by hosting eight local microbreweries at our 4th Annual Columbus Microbrew Festival. Craft brewing is hot as local brewmasters impart their special touch on a wide variety or beer and ale. Not unlike winemakers, brewmasters use their knowledge, passion and creativity to create unique and tasty brews.

True to the North Market experience where you can visit with business owners, growers and artisans, you’ll have the opportunity to meet the craft brewers and learn more about their trade.

As you learn about locally produced beers, you’ll also be learning about a new way to support another category of locally produced products. It’s another way we can be proud of the abundant creative energy we have in our city.

In addition to our eight craft brewers, we’ll have our full complement of growers on Saturday, a Market full of the finest local food in town and a dozen Ohio Proud vendors on Sunday.

The North Market. More than 35 local businesses, more than 30 local farms and this Friday and Saturday, 8 craft brewers, 12 Ohio Proud vendors on Sunday…our selection is tremendous, the freshness is unsurpassed and as always, the advice is free.

Looking forward to seeing you here.

David Wible
Executive Director