The Weblog
The local foods movement is alive and well in Champaign County! Here are some updates on other projects while we finalize our virtual market:
Local Producers Map:
Our local producers map is ready for publication and you will soon be able to find it on gochampaign.com. Copies will be distributed around the community, in the local telephone book, and other “hangouts”. The guide lists the location and contact information for nearly 50 local producers within our county. The map was a project of the Local Food Council and printed with the help of some local sponsors including the Monument Square District, Champaign Bank, the Community Improvement Corporation, the Chamber of Commerce, the Farm Bureau and others. It is a great start to finding a local source for Champaign County’s finest!
Today’s Weblog!
Brought to you by our friends at Valley View Farms!
Shary and I want to let our fellow market members know about our current offerings. Valley View Woodlands (also known as Marc and Shary Stadler) had a very productive maple syrup season this spring. Many factors came together in our beautiful woods to create a near record year of delicious syrup. The success story goes back to the summer of 2018, when we had plenty of warm days and a lot of moisture. The sugar maples produced a heavy leaf load, each one a miniature factory, turning sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into sugars which would be stored in the tree the following autumn. Then at the end of winter we had a number of days perfect for sap production: cold nights below freezing and warm days above freezing. The trees pumped out gallons of sweet sap, sometimes filling our five-gallon buckets in a day! Then the boiling starts. It takes at least 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup!
This year we were able to produce early-season gold syrup along with amber and dark. Early gold, which has a light color and delicate flavor, is very weather-dependent, and not available every year. All three grades are currently offered for sale on the market. We are often asked what our favorite grade is. We love all three! We cherish the gold, as it has a vanilla-caramel flavor and it not available every year. The amber has a wonderful balanced flavor, and the dark is very rich and robust. You can find our syrup in beautiful glass bottles (that showcase just how beautiful our syrup is) and larger plastic jugs.
We have pawpaw trees for sale! Last fall, our fellow market members had a chance to purchase fresh pawpaws from our “patch” (also known as an orchard) which is one of the largest in the United States. America’s “forgotten fruit” is being rediscovered, and people are raving about the tropical banana-mango flavor of this native tree. Spring is the perfect time to plant pawpaw trees. Plant them in your yard for a bounty of delicious fruit. While pawpaws should be mulched and receive regular watering, the trees don’t need any special care, unlike apples and other common fruit. Pawpaws are not self-fruitful, so you need two different varieties to cross-pollinate. We currently offer two varieties, Sunflower and NC-1. We also offer seedlings (ungrafted trees grown from seed) at a reduced price. The trees should be planted between 8 and 30 feet apart. The trees are in tall “tree pots” and are approximately 18” tall. Grafted trees will usually produce fruit in three to five years. Seedlings will take an extra two to three years to produce fruit. And with seedlings you can never be sure of the size or quality of the fruit.
If market members have any questions about our maple syrup or pawpaw trees, they can contact us via email or phone:
937-215-0329
marc@stadler.com
Thank you,
Marc