Happenings at the Downtown Farmers' Market

Join us Fridays 11am-2pm!

Cleveland Cooks kicks off tomorrow, July  29 A monthly cooking series providing hands-on demonstrations from area chefs. Part of the Growhio Education Sessions, classes will include a guided market tour, hands-on instruction in meal preparation and tips on how to grow produce easily at home. Classes will be free and open to the public but will target Downtown residents and employees. Cleveland Cooks will take place at Old Stone Church at 1:30pm on the last Friday of the month. Dates for the cooking series are below: Friday, July 29, 2011 Friday, August 26, 2011 Friday, September 30, 2011 Friday, October 28, 2011 Chef Dimitri Ragousis from Battery Park Wine Bar will join DFM tomorrow, July 29 to kick off Cleveland Cooks with a "garden BBQ." Ragousis will lead the class with a demonstration on grilled meat preparation, homemade sauces and condiments, and a pickling of fresh garden veggies. About Chef Dimitri Ragousis: Dimitris Ragousis is Executive Chef at the Battery Park Wine Bar since its opening in the fall of 2010. Born in Athens, Greece, Dimitris Ragousis grew up in a culture and in a home where food was love. His earliest memories of cooking are at his grandmother’s side in her impossibly small kitchen which magically produced epic amounts of food. Both his parents also loved to cook and Dimitris’ father even worked as a head chef on cruise ships for many years. Fast forward 20+ years past his immigration to Cleveland, a career in I.T., and the birth of his daughter, Sofia. In the late 80s Dimitris co-owned and operated a bakery/pastry shop. Always a fan of cooking for others in his home, Dimitris was asked to cook for a dear friend’s 50th birthday party in early spring 1999. Before the night was over, he had three more requests to cater special events – thus, OPA! Catering was born. In 2004, he opened OPA! On 25th, an intimate restaurant in the Market District of Ohio City. Dimitris likes to call his style of cooking ‘The New American Cuisine’, a mix that blends mostly eastern Mediterranean staples with other regional flavor profiles. While OPA! Catering & OPA! On 25th closed in 2007 and Dimitris returned to Greece to attend to family matters, his love of cooking for others has never wavered. “I still believe in the OPA! company motto – ‘food that celebrates eating & events that celebrate life’.” Our next cooking class on Friday, August 26 will feature chefs from The Greenhouse Tavern. To attend this intimate hands-on cooking class, please email downtownclevelandmarket@gmail.com or call (440) 821-0254. Space is limited so sign up now! New Vendor Spotlight: HAPI Fresh and French Creek Breads Tomorrow join us in welcoming two new vendors - HAPI Fresh and French Creek Breads. The Healthy Asian Pacific Islander (HAPI) Fresh Farmer’s Market provides farm training to enhance job opportunities for Asian immigrants and refugees in Cuyahoga County.  HAPI Fresh Farmer’s Market currently works with Nepalese refugees from Bhutan and Burmese from Thailand and Malaysia who were forced into exile by their government.  The program provides agricultural job training and farming and management skills for refugees and Asian immigrants while contributing locally grown food to Northeast Ohioans. HAPI Fresh will have Osaka Purple, Chinese cabbage, Chinese Broccoli, Tastoi, Zaub Ntsuab and Bitter Melon tomorrow. French Creek Breads will feature European and American style breads and pastries. Here is their bread menu. Live music tomorrow: Robin Stone will be playing from 11:30am-1:30pm. Listenhere. FREE PARKING! We have saved a limited number of parking spaces for shoppers of Downtown Farmers Market on Rockwell Avenue between Ontario and East Roadway. Featured Recipe: Organic Ginger Ale 1/4 cup organic ginger root 6 cups water 5 peaches (optional) 3/4 cup raw honey 1 quart seltzer water Boil water. Place ginger root in a glass or ceramic tea pot (coffee pots will also do) and pour the boiling water over the ginger root. Cover and steep for 10 minutes. Pour and strain the ginger root infusion into another glass or ceramic tea pot. Add raw honey and stir. Let cool at room temperature. Hint: Prepare ginger and honey infusion the day before. Place in the refrigerator with slice peaches overnight. Fill pitcher half-way with ice and top with seltzer water. Serve on a hot summer day! This recipe shared by Just Good Scents. The Cleveland Farmers Market Guild and Growhio have teamed up to bring you thiscollection of recipes featuring ingredients from your favorite Cleveland area farmers markets. Please feel free to send your own market recipes to downtownclevelandmarket@gmail.com and we'll share them on this page. Cleveland's Food Justice Hero: Councilman Joe Cimperman Check out this Q&A with Councilman Cimperman as he discusses his efforts in bringing "food justice" to Cleveland's neighborhoods. Fundraiser: Support Growhio while enjoying delicious Ohio wines! What: $20 proceeds to benefit Growhio, will help continue efforts to advance the region's local food economy and to connect you to the region's amazing local food resources for buying, eating and growing local. Also, at 7:00pm a "No Cook Fresh Prep Produce Demo" by Arabelle Rome of Acenda Yoga and at 7:30pm, a screening of Growhio's Local Food Video. Who: Growhio and Visible Voice Books When: Tuesday, August 9 from 6:00-8:00pm Where: Visible Voice Books, 1023 Kenilworth Avenue in Tremont   Furnished Market Booth Space is available for start-up fruit and vegetable farmers at the following farmers' markets: Broadway Coit Road Downtown Cleveland Gordon Square Kamm's Corners Lakewood Tremont Sign up to participate or visit Growhio.org for more information. Are you interested in becoming a vendor at DFM? Emaildowntownclevelandmarket@gmail.com for more information.   About Downtown Farmers Market: Each Friday, look forward to delicious prepared foods for lunch as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, meat, cheese, spices, coffee, salsas, chocolate and baked goods to take home. Here's a complete list of vendors that you'll find at the market tomorrow: Por-Bar Farms: Heirloom and organic vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers Woolf Farms: Peaches and corn HAPI Fresh: Vegetables including Bok Choy, carrots, cabbage, and Asian eggplant Judy’s Oasis: Middle Eastern Cuisine, including hoomus, meat pies, falafel and prepared foods for lunch No Whey Chocolates: Vegan, whey-free chocolate candies and chocolate-covered fruit Blaze Gourmet: Exotic hot sauces, salsas, rubs, BBQ sauces, and drink mixes The Beanery at Urban Homestead: Locally roasted coffee, featuring on-site beverages and beans to-go SpiceHound: High quality spices, herbs, chilies, and natural salts Plant Kingdom Bakery:Vegan, organic and gluten-free snacks and bakery Ohio City Pasta: Hand-crafted pasta Ohio Farm Direct: Organic, grassfed cheese Jorgensen Apiary’s: Homemade honeys, jams, preserves and beeswax products Just Good Scents: Locally made teas, honeys, and other aromatherapy items French Creek Bakery: Artisan breads and pastries The Nosh Box: A mix of midwestern comfort food with a Tex/Mex kick Publish Ohio: Cleveland-area prints, postcards and photos Come down on your lunch hour and stop by Judy's Oasis for a Middle Eastern meal including Falafel sandwiches & meat pies, or Frickaccio's for pizza bagels and pepperoni rolls or visit one of the food trucks (Dim and Den Sum and The Nosh Box). Just make sure you save enough time during lunch to visit all of your favorite vendors, enjoy the fresh air, listen to the live music, and maybe even picnic in the grass!

Follow Downtown Farmers Market! Facebook | Twitter | Blogspot For more information, please contact: Ashley Shaw, Market Manager Downtown Farmers Market at Public Square downtownclevelandmarket@gmail.com (440)-821-0254