North Market Harvest Festival – Baking Contests for Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Pie or Apple Pie

Celebrate the autumnal bounty of Ohio at the North Market Harvest Festival this weekend. There is still room for contestants in all three of our Harvest Festival Baking Contests so if you make a mean Pumpkin Bread (contest at 12PM), Pumpkin Pie (contest at 1PM) or Apple Pie (contest at 2PM), send an email to mmartineau@northmarket.com to get signed up! North Market gift certificates will be awarded to first and second place in each contest.

There will also be live music, cooking demonstrations, adoptable dogs from Columbus Dog Connection and kids activities including free cookies from Mozart’s North Market Bakery, face painting, the Mark Wood Fun Show and fall arts and crafts with the Columbus Artmobile!

For a full schedule of Harvest Festival activites click HERE>

Market to Market Ride Saturday

The weather forecast for Saturday is 60 degrees with only a 10% chance of rain. That sounds like the perfect temperature for a scenic ride up and down the Olentangy River Greenway on the Market to Market ride! So grab a friend or two (or go solo and make some on the path) and sign up for this two-wheeled bicycle adventure with benefits! 

Pre-registration is $15 and includes breakfast (either at North Market or The Hills Market – you choose), a sweet t-shirt, a scoop of Jeni’s Ice Cream, a goody bag (or two) and chances to win prizes including an awesome Seagull Bag, a gift certificate bonanza from the Small Business Beanstalk or two tickets to the Local Matters Local Foods Week Harvest Ball. What are you waiting for? You CAN procrastinate and sign up at the door at either location for $20, but we’ve sold out the last two events so why risk it?

Local Matters Local Foods Week

Local Matters is committed to sharing why local food connects us to the most important issues of our time with their 2nd Annual Local Foods Week from Saturday, October 2nd through Friday, October 8th. The week kicks-off on Saturday with the Market-to-Market bike ride and breakfast and concludes with a Harvest Ball on Friday night. During the week, the entire Columbus-area community is invited to add a little more delicious to their lives by competing in Local Matters “Eat Local Challenge” and win some fabulous prizes! For more information and a detailed schedule visit www.eatlocalohio.org.

CupcakeCampColumbus IV coming up next week!

Attention local amateur cupcake bakers, cupcake aficionados and those with crazy cupcake attire…we have a little event we think you just might be into and it’s coming up next Sunday, October 10.

For you cupcake bakers there are still spaces left to enter your cupcake concoctions in the following categories: Bacon, North Market Inspired and Vegan. Email mmartineau@northmarket.com for more details and to register.

And for those who just love to eat cupcakes or wear your love of cupcakes on your sleeve, there are still tickets available. Tickets are $10 and entitle the bearer to abundant cupcake sampling all while supporting the Mid-Ohio Food Bank who benefits from the event. Get your tickets online HERE>

Participating Farms on October 2

Anderson Orchard This week I shall bring sunflowers, pumpkins, cosmos, mixed bunches, organic apple dumplings and free range pork including bacon, Canadian bacon, loin and sausage.

Beech Meadow Farm  Chicken, turkey (legs & breasts) and eggs. Welcome to our newest farmers market family member, baby Noah!

Ehmann & Sons Greenhouse It’s time for fall MUMS! We’ll have a huge display with every color and variety that you can imagine!

Elizabeth Telling Farm CSA pickup only.

CupcakeCampColumbus, will return to the North Market on Sunday, October 10 from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Dispatch Kitchen. Organizers Carmen Owens of Surly Girl Saloon and Mary Martineau of the North Market will have ovens around Columbus blazing as participants create cupcakes to be judged by our city’s bakers, movers and shakers.

Approximately fifty different flavors of cupcakes created strictly by local amateur bakers will be featured. This round’s classifications include:

Best Halloween: Decorated with monsters, creepy crawlies or black and orange icing, show us your spookiest cupcakes in honor of America’s favorite hair-raising holiday.

Best Use of Bacon: As far as carnivores are concerned, everything’s a bit better with bacon, and cupcakes are no exception. So bake up some cakes with bacon bits and pork parts. Haven’t you heard, bacon is the new black? Prove it!

Best Use of Godiva Liqueur and/or Bulleit Bourbon: Bring on the booze! Spike your cupcakes with a shot or two of Bulleit Bourbon or use Godiva flavors like Caramel, Cappuccino or Chocolate in your frosting. Or go crazy and slip some hooch in everything, including the cherry on top!

Best North Market Inspired: The North Market features a little of everything and so should these cupcakes. Cupcakes inspired by Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream flavors were popular in the last round. How about using one of our ethnic eateries for inspiration? With Thai, Vietnamese, Mediterranean, Belgian, Indian, Italian and even Polish cuisine on market there’s a world of inspiration here!

Best Surly Girl Saloon Inspired: At Surly Girl Saloon, sassy lasses drink cleverly concocted cocktails with names like Six Shooter, Surly “Sass”parilla and Surly Temples. We think those make for some nice inspiration for cupcake recipes too. Reinvent your fave Surly libation, or show us what a pirate ship-meets-bordello cupcake looks like in your imagination.

Best Vegan: No animal products permitted. Bring us the tastiest cupcake you can create without using milk, eggs, butter or any other animal product.

Best Cupcake Attire: Do you love cupcakes, but can’t bake to save your life? This time around, we’ve even got a category for you! All CupcakeCampColumbus participants are encouraged to wear their snazziest, kookiest, prettiest or most over-the-top cupcake fashions…just dress to impress since prizes will be awarded based on audience participation.

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 are now available. To register to be a cupcake baker please email mmartineau@northmarket.com.

If you’re not a baker, but you are an avid cupcake eater and you would like to attend, there will be two tiers of tickets available with the proceeds benefiting the Mid-Ohio Food Bank. A limited number of VIP tickets (25 total) costing $20 will be available on Monday, September 13. VIP ticket-holders will receive reserved seating, first dibs on a limited number of cupcakes during the judging portion of the event (before regular ticket-holders are allowed to select) and a quartet of cupcakes to take home. Regular tickets costing $10 (75 total) will be available on Monday, September 20. Tickets can be purchased online here>.  Tickets are limited and the event has sold out each time so get yours early!

CupcakeCampColumbus is sponsored by Surly Girl Saloon, North Market, Bulleit Bourbon, Godiva Liquer, CrimsonCup Coffee and Snowville Creamery. Judges and prize sponsors include 3 Babes and a Baker, Made by AmyD, Bakery Gingham, CMHGourmand.com, ColumbusFoodAdventures.com, ColumbusFoodie.com, The Greener Grocer, The Hills Market, Little Alouette, Market Blooms, Mozart’s North Market Bakery, Our Cupcakery, Pattycake Bakery, Sassafras Bakery, Spinelli’s Deli, Studio 35, Sugar Inc., Wholly Craft and Wild Goose Creative.

CupcakeCampColumbus IV will take place on Sunday, 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 total tickets are available to the general public. Keep up with the ongoing details of CupcakeCampColumbus on the event website or visit www.NorthMarket.com.