Month: May 2006

Finding the perfect produce

Just thought I’d share the quick draft of the feature I wrote to go along with the pictures below:

Finding the perfect produce
Jonathan Blundell
Staff writer
Ask any vender or buyer at the Downtown Waxahachie Farmer’s Market on how to pick the perfect produce and you’re sure to get any number of answers.
Nancy Edwards, who traveled to the Saturday morning market from southern Ellis County, said her decisions are based primarily on feel.
“I feel all my fruits and vegetables to find the best one,” Edwards said. “The only thing I’ve ever found to shake is a honeydew melon. A produce man told me that once. He said you should shake it and if you hear the seeds rattle, you’ve found a good melon.”
“There’s probably five different ways people will say you should use to pick out the perfect cantaloupe or other produce,” Richard Davis, a vender from Venus said.
Davis has been selling his home grown produce at the weekly market for the past two years.
He started selling his produce from his home and at a similar market in Mansfield three years ago.
“My garden has grown from three-quarters of an acre, to one acre, to two acres,” Davis said. “And I plan on adding more and expanding it sometime in the future.”
Davis brings his bell peppers, banana peppers, greens, onions, cucumbers and other produce from his home and has a second vender selling at other farmer markets in the area.
Davis also buys some of his produce from other local farmers.
“Growing fruits and vegetables is just in my blood,” Davis said. “I just love growing stuff. We’ve had enough produce that we’ve even sold some of our produce to wholesalers in Dallas as well.”
For Tommy Jones of Waxahachie, the Farmers’ Market has been something he and his wife have enjoyed doing for fun.
The couple owns 22 acres on Youngblood, a well as a small garden in Palmer.
By noon on Saturday, the couple had already sold nearly two truckloads of fruits and vegetables.
“We’re plum of plums,” Jones said as he took inventory of the few baskets of fruits and vegetables remaining.
Jones and his wife Shirley have been growing their own produce for a number of years and started selling their goods at the Farmers’ Market three years ago.
“It’s just something fun to do,” Jones said. “We grow so much that our family can’t eat it all and this is a great place to sell the leftovers.”
Jones brings zucchini, squash, peaches, greens, plums and more to keep a variety of fresh goods available for buyers.
And as for that perfect peach, Jones said it’s all about the smell.
“I look for a certain smell when I’m picking a perfect peach,” Jones said. “It’s got to have that perfect smell and no blemishes.”
The Downtown Waxahachie Farmers’ Market is open to the public every Saturday, now through October 29 on the downtown square.
Venders begin arriving at 7 a.m. for check-in and the sale is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., rain or shine.
More information and a venders’ application is available on the city’s website at www.waxahachie.com.

Shots fired at Capital – maybe

Common Sense reports:

Gunfire at the Capitol
Not since Rep. Roger Griswold attacked Rep. Mathew Lyons on the floor of the House of Representatives with his hickory cane has there been such a ruckus on Capitol Hill.
Half an hour ago, someone reported what they thought were gunshots in the parking garage of the Sam Rayburn office building for members of Congress. The scene is now loaded with ambulances and SWAT teams and the Capitol Police are investigating. No one appears to be injured and no one appears to be in custody.
Indeed, no one is sure if a gun was actually fired. On the bright side, these are known unknowns.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Michigan, was conducting a House Intelligence Committee hearing at the time.
Hoekstra interrupted a witness to tell those at the hearing to remain in the room and said doors must be closed.
“It’s a little unsettling to get a Blackberry message put in front of you that says there’s gunfire in the building,” he said.

He’s just rubbing it in our faces that he has a Blackberry and we don’t. I will continue to make light of this situation until reports come in that there was actually an incident.

Perry used to jumping fences

From the WDL:

The Daily Life
From STAFF REPORTS
Thursday, May 25, 2006 3:07 PM CDT
EDITOR’S NOTE: “The Daily Life,” compiled by staff writers Eric Lidji and Jonathan Blundell appears each Tuesday and Thursday sharing observations of everyday life in Waxahachie.
As Congress debates constructing a fence across the U.S. Mexico border, they might need to be mindful of this bit from Gov. Rick Perry’s history.
While campaigning for state Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, nearly 15 years ago, Perry, then agricultural commissioner, landed his personal plane at O’Brien Airpark in Lancaster.
After a long day of campaigning, Pitts and Perry returned to find the airport had closed for the evening, with the airplane left sitting on the runway.
To get to his plane, Perry jumped the fence and had Pitts shine his headlights to light the runway for take-off.
“This just goes to show you how hard this governor works for Texas and the people of Texas,” Pitts said to a Waxahachie crowd gathered Tuesday for the signing of House Bill 2.
Halfway through the story, Pitts, a Waxahachie-based attorney, was interrupted by Perry who jokingly asked whether or not there was a statute of limitations involved.
The question should be whether Perry’s hair – long noticed for its impeccable appearance – remained in perfect form as he jumped the fence and took off into the night sky.
Have a tale from daily life around Waxahachie? E-mail: life@waxahachiedailylight.com