Summer Vegetables, Fresh Flowers, Dance for Kids and Music by Alexander’s Ragtime Brass at Saturday’s Riverwalk Market Fair

Fresh summer vegetables and flowers, music by Alexander’s Ragtime Brass Band, and dance for kids are just part of the fun this Saturday, August 31 at Northfield’s Riverwalk Market Fair. 

Seasonal Produce From Local Farmers, Artisan Foods, Art and Fine Craft

Most summer produce is currently available.  Expect to find fresh flowers, kale, zucchini, summer squash, carrots, onions, broccoli, potatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, green beans, hot peppers, bell peppers, cabbage, melons, tomatoes, and eggs grown by local farmers. Artisan foods include a variety of fresh-baked breads, pastries, tarts and quiches from Ruthie’s Kitchen, Martha’s Eats and Treats, Crack of Dawn Artisan Breads, and Rebecca’s Greek Kouzina.  Maria’s Taco Hut serves freshly made and wholesome Mexican food.

Watercolors, photographs, handcrafted leather goods, ceramics, glass art, hand crafted accessories, and jewelry are among the art and fine crafts for sale.  (For a complete list of the vendors scheduled for this Saturday visit www.RiverwalkMarketFair.org.)

Tomatoes, Melons, Corn, and Fruit Fly advise from Straight River Produce

“Don’t put them in the refrigerator,” Candace Knutson says to each customer as she bags up their tomatoes. Candace is the Riverwalk face of Straight River Produce, which is operated by Bill Hein of Faribault.  Her table is covered in tomatoes. “Eat the red one first and let the one with a bit of yellow at the stem end ripen on your counter for a few days and you’ll have tomatoes all week.”  She’s got a remedy for the fruit flies that hover around the tomatoes too – a pungent vinegar-based potion that attracts the pests to a quick end.  Straight River Produce has a bumper crop of tomatoes coming in over the next few weeks, as well as corn and sweet melons with your choice of orange or green flesh.  http://straightriverfarm.com and Facebook: StraightRiverFarm.

Featured Artist Barbara Zaveruha of Prairie Creek Pottery

Among Barbara’s best selling pottery are large and small square platters with perfect impressions of native and imported prairie grasses.  Big Bluestem, Switchgrass, Side Oats Grama, and Smooth Brome, are captured in the wet clay and highlighted with darker iron oxide to show a detailed image of each delicate grass.  The key, says Barbara, is apply just the right amount of iron oxide.  Too much muddies the impression and not enough allows it to disappear into the background of the earth-toned glaze.  “The grasses make the best impression when they are freshly picked.”  Captured in the finished ceramic plate they look like they might still sway in the breeze.  http://zaveruha.com

Alexander’s Ragtime Brass and Dance for Kids by Division Street Dance.

Faribault’s Alexander’s Ragtime Brass, featuring two trumpets, a French horn, a valve trombone and a tuba, plays music ranging from the Baroque period to modern jazz.  If the members look familiar, you may also have seen them playing a different style of music as the Faribault Brass Quintet.  This small reprise of the hugely fun Vintage Band Festival will be a brass band treat.

Emily Boyd has been dancing since she could walk, so it seems only right that she should operate the Division Street Dance Studio in Northfield.  Emily, an Owatonna native, and some of her students will lead dance and movement-based activities for young people, and do a little performing, as well.  A graduate of St. Olaf College, Emily is a member of the Minneapolis-based Ethnic Dance Theater, one of the few dance companies in the US dedicated to the preservation of world music, song, and dance. http://www.divisionstreetdance.com

About Riverwalk Market Fair

Riverwalk Market Fair is a Saturday open-air market located on Bridge Square in historic downtown Northfield.  This one-of-a-kind European-style market is open Saturdays from June through October. Each Saturday features a different combination of organic and sustainably grown produce from local farmers, artisan foods, seasonal flowers and a juried selection of the region’s top art and fine crafts including ceramics, art works, prints, photography, glasswork, textiles, wearable art, garden sculpture and hand-crafted jewelry.  Hours are 9 am to 1 pm rain or shine.  For more information, visit Riverwalk Market Fair at www.RiverwalkMarketFair.org.