This Week's Honeystone Candle Special...

You've probably heard the saying "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb".  Be prepared for both with Honeystone's pure beeswax candles...

Lions and Lambs are on sale this Saturday!

Lions & Lambs

Add sweetness and light to your day or night.

Honeystone Candles: one natural golden colour, one exquisite honey aroma, and over 200 original designs!

FAQ #2: The Mandala Lady

Customer: Do you use a computer program to create your designs?

The Mandala Lady:

Each mandala is hand-drawn using paper and pencil. For the Symmetry and Hyperbolic Tessellation mandalas, I made a graph to put under my paper which allows me to free-hand draw while maintaining symmetry, giving it a more organic look and feel. I scan the drawing into my computer and then trace/draw it into Illustrator. Once drawn into Illustrator, I can then reproduce it as individual prints to color, make it into a greeting card, or put it into a coloring book.

When I’m ready to color or paint it, I print it onto artist quality paper.

Pencil sketch of the "Echo" mandala over hyperbolic tessellation graph

February 23 Vendor List

This list of vendors and their booth number can change from week to week, so please check the list each week.

Alsea Acres	6
The Bread Board	5
Buster's Treats	9
Claude Winter	20
Creperie du Lys	32/34*
Crooked Furrow Farm	33*
CSC Youth Garden	35*
Denison Farms LLC	11
Earth Rising	36*
Filberts R Us	3
Four Generation Crafts	27
Gathering Together Farm	7
Given Back Bird Houses	25
Green Gables	18/19
Heavenly Harvest Horseshoe Lake Farm	15
Hentze Family Farm	26, 28
Honey Tree Apiaries	29
Honeystone Candles	16
Kat's Kreations	4
The Mandala Lady	8
The Mushroomery	22
My Pharm	2
Northwest Natural Beef	21
Norton Creek Products	1
Pacific Sourdough	30,31
Pine Needle Baskets	24
SoupCycle	10
Specially Made	17
Sweet Home Farms	23
Timberwolf Farm	23
Wilt Farms Inc/Sunset Valley Organics	12/13
Wood Family Farm	14
Zia Southwest Cuisine	37/38*

* Outside the hall

Nest Browsing Sale from Given Back Bird Houses

It's early spring, and little birds have begun browsing homes for nesting possibilities.

Mention this blog to take $5 off
the item of your choice and
oblige your avian friends
with some exciting new real estate options!

Flat Top Bird House

Lighten Up w/Honeystone Special

Does it feel like dark February is creeping by?  Lighten up with a delightful wee turtle from the Honeystone collection.

This Saturday, save $1 on all turtles.

Please note how the turtle is heading straight for lettuce
which was grown by our Market neighbor Heavenly Harvest Farms!

Recipe: Roasted Butternut Squash

Here's a quick and easy recipe from Denison Farms, Booth #11, for Roasted Butternut Squash.

We're nearing the end of the season for Winter Squash, so come to the market and pick up a few before they're all gone!

Roasted Butternut Squash

• Start with 1 butternut squash
• Peel and cut into 1-inch cubes
• Place squash cubes in a large roasting pan
• Coat with a little olive oil (about 1 Tbs.), and 1 tsp. salt
• Roast uncovered in a 350 degree oven for about 1 hour, or until the squash pieces are tender and most of the liquid has cooked off
• Stir the squash cubes with a large spatula. Then increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees and continue roasting for another 20 - 30 minutes, stirring once after 15 minutes until the edges of some of the squash pieces are a little browned

 No need to add sugar, as the squash is naturally sweet, and roasting intensifies the sweetness!

A Drawing by Daniel Conan Young:

FAQ: The Mandala Lady

Here's a FAQ from a customer to The Mandala Lady...


Customer:  Do you create your own designs?



Of all the questions I'm asked, this is the one I'm asked the most. The answer is: Yes, I do.


Most of my design ideas come from patterns I see in nature, architecture, geometry, and from my dreams. I keep a sketch book by my bed so that when I wake up from a dream with a mandala design in it, I can quickly sketch it out so I'll remember it.

Here's a design that came as a simple idea (circled in green) in a dream I had recently. The pink circled area shows where I expanded and developed it further.

Maureen Frank
The Mandala Lady
Booth #8

Recipe: White Chocolate, Blueberry and Strawberry Rocky Road

From vendor: Wilt Farms Inc/Sunset Valley Organicx - Booth #12/13

White chocolate, blueberry and strawberry rocky road

slightly adapted from the always wonderful Donna Hay Magazine

800g white chocolate, chopped
2½ cups quartered white marshmallows
½ cup chopped dried apples
1 ¾ cups (192g) sweetened dried blueberries *
1 cup freeze-dried strawberries, sliced lengthwise *

Very lightly butter a 20x30cm (8x12in) baking pan and line it with foil (the butter will keep the foil from sliding around the pan).

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water
 – do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water – 
and cook until chocolate is melted and smooth.

Remove from the heat, add the marshmallow, dried apples and blueberries – keep some of the blueberries for decoration – and stir until well combined.

Pour mixture into prepared pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle with the dried strawberries and reserved blueberries.

Set aside until firm, 2-3 hours
(the recipe calls for placing the pan in the refrigerator but I chose not to).
Cut into pieces, remove the foil and serve.

Makes 25.

* Check out Wilt Farms Inc/Sunset Valley Organics booth for these items.

Did you know Sunset Valley Organic's
products are GMO free?

February 16 Vendor List

This list of vendors and their booth number can change from week to week, so please check the list each week.

Alsea Acres	6
Buster's Treats	9
Claude Winter	20
Creperie du Lys	32/34*
Crooked Furrow Farm	33*
CSC Youth Garden	35*
Denison Farms LLC	11
Earth Rising	36*
Filberts R Us Krazy Lady Farms	3
Four Generation Crafts	27
Gathering Together Farm	7
Given Back Bird Houses	4
Glass by Debra Klang Dan Young	25
Green Gables	18/19
Heavenly Harvest Horseshoe Lake Farm	15
Honeystone Candles	16
MudMom	28
My Pharm	2
Northwest Natural Beef	21
Norton Creek Products	1
Olsen Honey Farms	29
Pacific Sourdough	30,31
Pine Needle Baskets	24
SoupCycle	10
Specially Made	17
Sweet Home Farms	23
The Bread Board	5
The Mandala Lady	8
The Mushroomery	22
Timberwolf Farm	26
Wilt Farms Inc/Sunset Valley Organics	12/13
Wood Family Farm	14
Zia Southwest Cuisine	37/38*

* Outside the hall

Recipe: Oyster Mushroom Omelet

With the blue oyster mushrooms now available at The Mushroomery (booth #22), they offer us this wonderful mushroom omelet recipe.

The blue oysters are organically grown and are considered an all-purpose mushroom. They have a meaty texture and wonderful "mushroom flavor" that goes great with any meal.

Oyster Mushroom Omelet
1 cup fresh oyster mushrooms
4 eggs
2 tablespoons butter or 2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup grated jack cheese
¼ cup grated cheddar cheese
1 green onion chopped
1/4 cup Chopped green and red peppers

Sauté mushrooms in the butter or olive oil for 10 minutes on medium heat. Add peppers and onion and continue to sauté  until. Cook on low heat stirring frequently until eggs are just about done. Add cheese, fold in half and cook about 5 minutes.

"Getting to Market"...

     I knew when my booth partner was in my driveway at 6:45 am this morning because I could hear the sound of her car engine (the legendary 1985 Subaru BRAT mini-pickup) reverberating through 2 shut doors and back to the inner recesses of my farmhouse.
     “Okay”, she said nervously, helping me pack my gear in the pickup bed as it rocketed away.
     “It’s sucking air this morning. There are leaking issues that I can’t deal with until tomorrow”.
     “I like it” I shouted above the machine-gun fire under the hood. “It’s exactly the sound you hear from the little putt-putt bumper cars at the county fair”.
     The BRAT is always good for a discussion either coming or going from the Corvallis Indoor Winter Market. I’ve watched as total strangers stop her at intersections to ask her for the vehicles stats, or the Police wave to her on Highway 99 as though she’s traveling through time.
     “It’s still working!” one woman squealed the first time we turned homeward from the Fairgrounds.
     “How in the world did you ever manage to get it to DO that?”
     “Do what?”
     “RUN”
     Approximately 45 minutes later we were sailing into the Benton County Fairgrounds parking lot with all the grace and elegance of a battleship trying to park off shore at Sea World. A small group of college students paused in their discussion to stare at us with that peculiar mixture of scorn and pity for us and our death-farting contraption that only college students can manage.
     My hearing, my blood oxygen level and my self-respect all returned to me at approximately 12:45 pm...just in time to re-pack and putt-putt-putt back home.

Dan Conan Young
Saturday February 9th 2013

Special Pricing on Votive Candles This Week

Honeystone Candles has a special on Votive Candles this week.

• Pure beeswax
• Practical
• Affordable
• Each votive candle burns 5-7 hours

Brighten your long winter nights with the sweet light of Honeystone pure beeswax candles.

Special pricing this week only

Buy 4 and get 1 free!

What a deal!

Come check out all of Bertie's amazing beeswax items in booth #16.

Hello from Given Back Bird Houses!

This week we will bring our original design Pollinator Houses to the Corvallis area for the first time. These small replicas of our bird houses are works of art suitable for the finest gardens, yet still remain ideal natural critter habitats. Pollinating insects such as Butterflies, Moths, Lady bugs, Carpenter bees and Mason Bees will love these homes. Given Back Pollinator houses all have multiple holes of varying lengths to ensure the perfect conditions for your garden's pollinators. Each one is hand made, numbered, signed & dated, and indicates what type of wood it is made from.

Click image for larger view

Plus, we'll also have one of our unique Given Back Bat Houses this week. These are usually ordered by commission only, but - by popular demand, we have started bringing one out each time. This week's Bat House is made from drifted Cedar, with a twisted, old Salaal 'tree' out front. The face is polished smooth and coated and buffed with "Superior Wood Treatment" from Bertie at Honeystone Candles. Bats need dead wood habitats as much as the birds and the bees, and will love finding one in your yard.

Lastly, we'll have a whole assortment of our famous Songbird houses in all our signature styles and sizes. We look forward seeing familiar faces & hearing stories of who moved into your bird houses over the past year.

Amen & Maria Fisher

Given Back bird houses: What wild birds want

www.GivenBackBirdHouses.com

Click image for larger view

Click image for larger view

The Mandala Lady Market Painting

With all the great produce, flowers, food, and artisan products being great reasons for coming to the market each week...The Mandala Lady gives you yet another. Come watch her make progress on a watercolor painting that she works on only during the market. This is after 3 Saturdays of painting.

February 9 Vendor List

This list of vendors and their booth number can change from week to week, so please check the list each week.

Alsea Acres	6
Buster's Treats	9
Claude Winter	20
Creperie du Lys	32/34*
Crooked Furrow Farm	33*
CSC Youth Garden	35*
Denison Farms LLC	11
Earth Rising	36*
Filberts R Us/Krazy Lady Farms	3
Four Generation Crafts	27
Gathering Together Farm	7
Glass by Debra Klang & Dan Young	25
Green Gables	18/19
Heavenly Harvest and Horseshoe Lake Farm	15
Hentze Family Farm & Pure Pepper	26/28
Honeystone Candles	16
MudMom	5
My Pharm	2
Northwest Natural Beef	21
Norton Creek Products	1
Olsen Honey Farms	29
Pacific Sourdough	30,31
Pine Needle Baskets	24
Rockferrets by Design	4
Specially Made	17
Sweet Home Farms	10
The Mandala Lady	8
The Mushroomery	22
Timberwolf Farm	23
Wilt Farms Inc/Sunset Valley Organics	12/13
Wood Family Farm	14
Zia Southwest Cuisine	37/38*

* Outside the hall

Honeystone Specials This Week

Valentine's Day is Thursday of next week, and Honeystone can help you celebrate with the sweetness and light of pure beeswax!

This week, three of our popular heart designs are discounted up to 20%.

• Floating Hearts boxed set of candles, now $6  ($1.50 off)
• Interlocked Celtic Hearts candle,  now $7  (($1.50 off)
• Sweet Heart treasure box, now $6  ($1.50 off)

No calories!  Gluten free!  The perfect gift!

Sweet Heart Treasure Box

Floating Heart Candles

Celtic Heart Candle

From Vendor: Daniel Conan Young

February 2, 2013

This is my 3rd Saturday working at the Corvallis Indoor Winter Market and you'd think I’d be going on at length about the incredible produce, or the flower and plant starts that are pushing more and more into evidence, but what really struck my attention this week is the redheads.

Now there are red-haired vendors that already sell at the Market: Jennifer at the Mushroomery has that delicate red-gold in long dreads. She looks like a cross between a dreamy beauty in a Pre-Raphaelite painting and a stage manager at the Reggae music festival. And Suzanne, over at Krazy Woman Ranch has a passel of young’uns in her booth with that flame-colored hair that can’t be caught in a bottle of dye, unlike Elizabeth the MudMom who laughed when I commented on her strawberry-blond tresses and said “yeah, I’m a redhead this month."

And the customers! Most of them look like survivors of a Viking invasion. Or some kind of invasion – maybe the Martians are actually all good-looking Celtic types with hair like a sunset painted by Titian or Turner. We come in peace from the Morgo Theta galaxy-please sell us many rutabagas and hazelnuts that we may create fresh rocket fuel for our hover craft.

Now that I’m thoroughly paranoid about it, next week I’ll be checking eye colors.

Daniel Conan Young

Barbarian Studio

FAQ: Pine Needle Baskets

Here's an FAQ from a customer to Oregon Hand-Crafted Pine Needle Baskets...

Customer:  Why are Pine Needle Baskets so Expensive?

One of the main reasons pine needle baskets cost so much is because they take a lot of time to make.  It’s hard work and doing a quality piece takes lots of time and practice.  It’s not only coiling the piece, but all the work just getting to that point in the process.

click for larger view

Material costs are pricey.  Pine Needles cost about $20.00 per pound, if you have to purchase them. Although I gather my own needles, going to pick them up has costs involved including time, labor and gas (to get to the trees).  Sorting and cleaning needles takes considerable time and space as well. 

I also gather, dry and slice my own black walnuts. If I were to purchase the sliced black walnuts, they would cost $.75 each. The cost of wood (if used) is minimal, but holes must be drilled (very time consuming). If flowers are used, they must be grown or purchased, pressed and dried then decoupaged to the wood.

click for larger view

Baskets with large agates in the bottom require seed bead bezels around the agates which are hand-made. I can make about 1-1/2 inches an hour and most bezels are 12-20 inches.

Many other items are needed to complete the basket as well: sewing needles, various types of threads (I use mostly artificial sinew), gages to keep the coils even, embellishments such as rocks, beads, and the list goes on and on.

click for larger view

After the pine needles are cleaned and sorted, they need to be soaked in hot water for at least 30 minutes before the ends can be removed.  Removing the ends is incredibly time consuming, as this is done by hand one bunch at a time. After all the preparation work is complete an average basket takes 6-8 hours of coiling. Then baskets must be dried usually overnight.  If the basket is to have a finish, to give it strength, durability and a longer life it must be applied and an additional drying time is required. 

This is a quick overview of what it takes to prepare and make a pine needle piece. I hope this helps to explain some of the steps a coiler must do to create such a beautiful basket.

Each basket has a little bit of my heart and soul.

Jan Bullock

Oregon Hand-Crafted Pine Needle Baskets

FAQ: SoupCycle

As part of an on-going series, we'll present FAQs to vendors from customers. Here's a question for SoupCycle.

Customer: What is SoupCycle all about?
Kim Thackray of SoupCycle: our 2 minute video explains it best...

Honeystone: This Week's Special

This week's special from Honeystone is beeswax-based lip balm. It is available in two varieties - shea butter and lanolin.  Save this Saturday and get 2 tubes for $4.

Keep your lips eminently kissable!  Remember that Valentine's Day is coming up!