April Showers Bring May Flowers
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Happy April!
I hope everyone is safe and dry! I know I am certainly looking forward to a dry Thursday! With the warm weather likely here to stay, let’s remember to stay hydrated! We are steadily marching into spring and lots of lovely produce is headed our way! I’ll talk a bit more about that and our monthly vendor highlight below.
The first week of April is National Public Health Week. Coming off of National Nutrition Month, I thought this would be a good subject.
We see a lot about public health in the news and around. So what exactly is public health? The CDC Foundation describes public health as “the science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities. This work is achieved by promoting healthy lifestyles, researching disease and injury prevention, and detecting, preventing and responding to infectious diseases. Overall, public health is concerned with protecting the health of entire populations. These populations can be as small as a local neighborhood, or as big as an entire country or region of the world.”
Public health is all forms of health from mental to physical and everything in between such as socioeconomic equity, accessibility, and racism.
So why is public health so important? “Public health professionals try to prevent problems from happening or recurring through implementing educational programs, recommending policies, administering services and conducting research—in contrast to clinical professionals like doctors and nurses, who focus primarily on treating individuals after they become sick or injured. Public health also works to limit health disparities. A large part of public health is promoting health care equity, quality and accessibility.”
Here is some more information about National Public Health Week:
https://www.cdcfoundation.org/what-public-health
https://www.nphw.org/Themes-and-Facts/2023-Mental-Health
https://www.nphw.org/Themes-and-Facts/2023-Accessibility
https://www.nphw.org/Themes-and-Facts/2023-Food-and-Nutrition
It’s the first of the month and that means another vendor highlight!
Bon Bon began in 2015 with the goal of creating exquisite cakes, iced cookies, and macarons for birthdays, weddings, and special events around Middle Georgia. After initially setting up shop at Wesleyan Market, we branched out to Mulberry Market and Napier Heights Food Co-Op at Tattnall Square Park, the Downtown Markets on Third and Plum, and the New Town Macon Markets including Christmas in Downtown.
We frequently collaborate with Mercer University’s School of Medicine, Phi Mu sorority, and Mercer Abroad programs to create custom cookies for their events. We've created cookies for the cast of Broadway’s Mean Girls and designed the dessert table for the late great Little Richard's 85th birthday tribute at Macon's Tubman Museum. We also created cookies for the 1st anniversary celebration of the Beverly Knight Olsen Children's Hospital in Macon.
We continue to enjoy a large community presence as a member of Georgia Grown, and participate annually in the Georgia Grown Christmas Showcase at the Shoppes of River Crossing. We love being a part of the Napier Heights Market every Thursday!
https://www.instagram.com/bonbonmacon/
We have a new vendor joining us this week! Kaneisha Miller of EM Farms in Culloden, GA is bringing us all sorts of wonderful goodness! She is bringing sweet potatoes, kale, strawberries, cucumbers, cabbage, zucchini, along with some baked goodies and jellies! Stop by her booth and check out her food!
Along with Kaneisha we have our all-star line up! Be sure to check out what all our vendors have! They work so hard to bring us wonderful things to feed our minds and bodies!
Mitchell from Buckwheat Farms will have various microgreens at his booth! XO Tigerlily has wonderful dried herbs and spices, teas, and more. We will have Bon Bon Bakery, Ms Shirley, Marie’s Baked Goodies all there with wonderful sweet baked treats. Jams Jellies Jewelry and More and Rosa Ray’s Farm Fresh will also be out there with wonderful jams and jellies, breads, and teas. And we can’t forget about the arts! Prachi Henna art and Sonder Collective will be at the park along with Jump 4 Joy Creations! Hank's Food Truck is a wonderful way to enjoy a late lunch or early dinner at the park! Mr Porter will be there with his wonderful creations and he also has some beautiful produce for us as well! And to keep us all smelling delightful and our hands clean, Chemscentations has us covered!
I have been waiting for strawberries! I love them on basically anything!
The first recipe is super simple! Grab some pound cake from Mrs. Shirley or Marie’s Baked Goodies or a cookie from Bon Bon Bakery, get some strawberries and slice them up onto the cake or cookie add some whipped cream or powdered sugar. That’s it! Enjoy your “short cake!”
The second recipe is a bit more or a main dish or side as opposed to dessert.
Strawberry Garden Salad
6 cups spring mix salad greens
2 cups microgreens
2 cups halved fresh strawberries
1 cup cubed fresh pineapple
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/3 cup raspberry vinaigrette
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
Place greens, fruit and onion in a large bowl. Drizzle with vinaigrette; toss gently to combine. Sprinkle it with cheese and almonds. Serve immediately. You can also add some cooked and seasoned chopped chicken to this as well to make a full meal!
Thank you so much to everyone who supports this market! We are so incredibly grateful for all of you! Whether you are coming in the rain or the shine or both, we are thankful for the support you show us each week! Whether you have yet to make it to the market, but are sharing our information with others, thank you! We could not do this market without you, our community! We really do love to see each and everyone of you each week! We hope to see you tomorrow!
We are always looking for more people to join our fun! If you or anyone you know is interested in becoming a vendor at our market, follow the link below for our vendor application!
Just a hint of all the fun we have to offer! Come join us!
We are a partner market with Wholesome Wave Georgia to help make your dollars go further at our market!
Bring your SNAP/EBT card to the market tent to double your spending power!