CupcakeCampColumbus, will return to the North Market on Sunday, March 14 from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Dispatch Kitchen and “this time it’s frostable.” Organizers Carmen Owens of Surly Girl Saloon, Kiesha Jenkins-Duffy of the blog 52 Weeks of Baking and the North Market’s Mary Martineau are offering a festive Saint Patrick’s Day and spring-themed celebration of cupcakes.

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

Best St. Patrick’s Day Cupcake: It’s just three days before “the wearing of the green” and your cupcake should pay tribute to this fanciful day of Irish frivolity. Give us green icing, shamrocks or leprechauns, but leave the orange at home!

Best Use of Bailey’s Irish Cream or Bushmills Irish Whiskey: We’re guilty of another Irish-themed category here, but for this one we want you to incorporate some fine Irish libations. You can choose to include Bailey’s Irish Cream or Bushmills Irish Whiskey into your recipe or, heck, go hog-wild and use both!

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 Spring-themed: The crocuses will bear their delicate little heads any day now and we’re sure the brilliant gold forsythia will bloom shortly. In the meantime, bake up a batch of cupcakes that reflect the rebirth of our greenery from the cold winter.

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

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 the CupCakeCampColumbus website. BAKER REGISTRATION FILLED. If you’re not a baker, but you are an avid cupcake eater and you would like to attend, tickets are $10 with the proceeds benefiting the Mid-Ohio Food Bank. TICKETS SOLD OUT.

 Tickets are limited and the event has sold out each time so get yours early!

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 a set amount of mini cupcakes provided by the Surly Girl Saloon will take home a special award. Registration for the Cupcake Crush will take place on the day of the event.

CupcakeCampColumbus is sponsored by Surly Girl Saloon, 52 Weeks of Baking, North Market, CrimsonCup Coffee, Bailey’s Irish Cream, Bushmills Irish Whiskey and Snowville Creamery. Judges and prize sponsors include AmyD, The Hills Market, Market Blooms, Pattycake Bakery, Sassafrass bakery, Spinelli’s Deli, Wholly Craft. The event will take place on Sunday, March 14 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. Keep up with the ongoing details of CupcakeCampColumbus on the website or visit or on the North Market events page.

Spring seems so distant, but the North Market is here to help you melt away the winter blues and blahs with our 7th annual Fiery Foods Festival on Saturday, February 20th. Boasting everything from tropical entertainment to tongue-tingling foods the Fiery Foods Festival will put you in a sunny frame of mind!

Want to get directly in on the fiery foods action? Customers can take a shot at fame and fortune (OK, infamy and North Market gift certificates) in a number of contests. There’s the tried and true Amateur Salsa Contest. If you’ve got a good mix of chunky or pureed fruit or vegetable salsa, put it to the test against other homemade salsa makers. Or maybe you like to play with fire? For you we have the Amateur Hot Sauce Contest. He/she with the supreme salsa or hot sauce concocting skills will take home $100 in North Market and CaJohn’s Flavor & Fire gift certificates. Or one can prove their chili preparing proficiency in our ever-popular Customer Chili Cook-off. The competition will garner the first place winner $100 and the runner up $50 in North Market gift certificates. Finally, those with iron gullets can register on the day of the event for the Hot Pepper Eating or the Wings of Fire wing eating contest. Familiarity with the term “capsaicin” should suggest that neither of these contests is for the faint of taste bud, but victors will take home a plethora of CaJohns’ products as prizes.

In its fifth year the Chef Chili Challenge pits local chefs against one another as contenders for the title “North Market Chili Champ 2010,” a special trophy and $200 in North Market gift certificates. Participating chefs (at the time of press release) include representatives of Basi Italia, Chef Butcher’s Creole Kitchen, Latitude 41, Jerry Bullock, the returning champ from North Market Poultry & Game, Pastaria and Two Caterers. We are sure to have many more chef entrants by competition time!

“Many people don’t realize that Columbus is home to the most-awarded fiery foods purveyor in the country, CaJohn’s Fiery Foods.” said David Wible, Executive Director of the North Market. “We’ve been holding the Fiery Foods Festival since before CaJohn was a merchant at the market, but he has always been a participant. His presence as a merchant certainly spices up the Fiery Foods Festival even more.”

Fiery Foods Festival Schedule:
• 8 a.m. North Market opens, fiery foods vendors on premises
• 9 - 11 a.m., musical entertainment by the Andrew Hartman Trio
• 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., face painting by Rita
• 10 a.m., Amateur salsa-making contest in the Dispatch Kitchen
• 11 a.m. - 2 p.m., Mark Wood Fun Show, cowboy tricks and balloon shapes
• 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., musical entertainment by The Piano Peddler
• 11 a.m. Free maracas, sombreros, balloons and chili-pepper shaped cookies for the kids (while supplies last)
• 11 a.m. Professional Chili Cook-off featuring chilis by local chefs
• 12 p.m. Amateur Chili Cook-off featuring chilis by customers
• 1 p.m., Amateur Hot Sauce contest in the Dispatch Kitchen
• 1 - 3 p.m., musical entertainment by the Island Breeze Duo
• 2 p.m., Hot pepper eating contest in the Dispatch Kitchen
• 3 p.m., Hot wing eating contest in the Dispatch Kitchen
• 3 - 5 p.m., musical entertainment by the Gadabouts
• Hot and spicy foods featured throughout the North Market all day

The North Market Fiery Foods Festival on Saturday, February 20 is a free event. Festival activities will take place from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Market hours are 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. To participate in the Salsa Contest, Hot Sauce Contest, Customer Chili Cook-off or the Chef Chili Challenge, and for more information, please call (614) 463-9664 or visit www.northmarket.com. Sign up for the Hot Pepper and Hot Wing Eating Contests will take place in the Dispatch Kitchen on the day of the event. A tasting fee of $5 enables onlookers to sample all of the chilis by both professional chefs and amateur contestants while supplies last. ###

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

Ale! Ale! The gang will all be here for the Columbus Microbrew Festival at the North Market. The usual suspects in the Columbus craft brewing community will be present and accounted for during the fourth annual celebration of all things local ale-related.

This year’s event will take place on Friday, September 11th from 5 - 9 p.m. and on Saturday, September 12th from noon - 7 p.m. on the second floor of the market house. It’s a great place to start a stellar weekend and warm up for the rematch of the season with OSU taking on USC at home at 8 p.m. on Saturday, September 12 at 8 p.m. 

Participating local microbreweries include: Barley’s Brewing Company (Ale House No. 1), Barley’s Smokehouse & Brewpub (Ale House No. 2), Columbus Brewing Company, Elevator Brewing Company, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, Hoster Brewing Company and Weasel Boy Brewing Company. Representatives from each microbrewery will be on hand to pour samples of their signature drafts. Admission to the event is free. Beer tasting admission is $15 and includes a commemorative pint glass and ten tasting tickets. Discount coupons good for $2 off the tasting admission fee will be available at all participating microbreweries beginning September 1. Additional tasting tickets will be available for $.50 each. Tickets are available in advance online (starting September 1) at the North Market business office and at the door on the days of the event.

“The North Market is our community’s epicenter for all things local and culinary. We are home to local merchants, farmers, artisans and, this weekend, microbreweries!” said David Wible, Executive Director for the North Market. “The creativity exhibited and the quality of the beers created by our local craft brewers blend nicely with the atmosphere at our public market. The Columbus Microbrew Festival is an opportunity for our Market patrons to be exposed to our hometown brews and for beer aficionados to experience the North Market.”

Columbus Microbrew Festival
Schedule of Activities:

Friday, September 11, 5-9 p.m.
• 5-9 p.m., Microbreweries open for tasting on the second floor of the North market
•5-7 p.m., Music by Great Mad Hoax
•7-9 p.m., Music TBA

Saturday, September 12, 12-7 p.m.
•8 a.m., North Market merchants and farmers open
•9-11 a.m., Music by Slate Ridge on porch
•10 a.m.-3 p.m., Face painting
•11 a.m.-1 p.m., Music by Loosely Strung on porch
•12-7 p.m., Microbreweries open for tasting
•1-3 p.m., Music by Gipson and Fitz Trio on second floor
•3-4 p.m., performances by Majestic Belly Dancing on porch
•3-5 p.m., Music by Island Breeze
•5-7 p.m., Music by Happy Chichester

Festival hours are Friday, September 11 from 5-9 p.m. and Saturday, September 12 from noon -7 p.m., regular market hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday. For additional information on the North Market Microbrew Festival please call 614-463-9664 or visit NorthMarket.com

Come to the North Market for a Saturday of farm-tastic activity during the 18th Annual Farmers’ Festival on Saturday, August 15th. The North Market Farmers’ Festival will highlight bushels of locally grown farm-fresh produce, a homemade jam and jelly contest, the Chef Challenge: “You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to”, children’s activities, cooking demonstrations and live music. A heck of a good time will be had by all!

The North Market Farmers’ Market is one of the largest in central Ohio, featuring more than 20 farmers offering an array of locally-grown fruits, vegetables, flowers, plants and herbs. Farms scheduled to participate this year include Anderson Orchard, Beech Meadow Farm, Blue Jacket Dairy, Bridgman Farm, Combs Fresh Herbs, Ehmann and Sons Greenhouse, Elizabeth Telling Farm, Hinkle Farm, Honey Run Farm, K & R Garden Fresh Produce, Oakvale Farmstead Cheese, The Orchard of Bill and Vicki Thomas, Persinger Farm, Quiverfull Farm, Rhoads Farm, Somerset Herbs, Stevens Bakery and Orchard, Summer Thyme Farm, A Tasteful Garden, Toad Hill Farm, Toby Run Growers, Wayward Seed Farm and Wishwell Farms Produce.

“There’s no better way to get to know your growers than to come out and meet them in person at the North Market Farmers’ Festival,” says David Wible, Executive Director of the North Market. “Our farmers market has been going strong for 30 years and our farmers are trusted members of the North Market family and Columbus community.”

Saturday Farmers’ Festival activities and attractions include:
• North Market Merchants & Farmers’ Market opens at 8 a.m.
• Amateur Jelly/Jam making contest for North Market customers at 9 a.m.
• Musical entertainment by Loosely Strung, 9 - 11 a.m.
• Joy Unspeakable, The Living Statue, as “Old Country Boy,” 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
• Mark Wood Cowboy Fun show, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
• Face painting by Rita, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
• Cooking demonstration 10:30 a.m. by Steve Lawrence of CaJohn’s Flavor & Fire
• Musical entertainment by Slate Ridge, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
• Columbus Dog Connection, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
• Cooking demonstration by, 11:30 a.m. by John Hard of CaJohn’s Flavor & Fire
• “You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to”, Iron Chef style cooking contest, 12:30 p.m.
• Musical entertainment by One More Time String Band, 1 - 3 p.m.
• Cooking demonstration, 1:30 p.m. by Janel Hedgepeth of Barley’s Brewing Company
• Cooking demonstration, 2:30 p.m. by Anthony Frazier of Urban Chefs
• Musical entertainment by Folkwood Players, 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.

The Farmers’ Festival runs on Saturday, August 15 from 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. and is a free event. For more information about the Farmers’ Festival or to sign-up for the Amateur Jelly and Jam contest, please call Mary at the North Market at (614) 463-9664 or visit www.northmarket.com.