Giving them an earful

Published 12:00 am Sunday, August 9, 2015

By 10 a.m. Saturday the corn was bubbling in vats of hot water, all 100 ears.

Lining up at Ironton In Bloom’s table at the Ironton Farmers Market were shoppers waiting for volunteers to butter and salt them.

This was the second Saturday in the month and as always it was festival day where a featured produce is cooked and given away.

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“This has grown beyond my expectations,” said Ralph Kline, volunteer with IIB, taking a break from cooking.

This corn came from the alternative farm near Haverhill maintained by the Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization as part of its Life Diversion Program that works to place participants in job-re-entry positions.

The farm provides produce for the CAO’s senior and Headstart programs and the STAR Community Justice Center in Franklin Furnace.

“This has been so accepted by the community,” Kline said. “People will run here to get their vegetables for the week.”

The soggy and unpredictable summer has had its effect on the market, vendors say, but they still are able to provide a wide selection of produce.

“It’s been very good here,” Becky Wiseman said. “Even though the weather has been uncooperative sometimes.”

Tammy Hanshaw said the recent Taste of Ironton event helped the market vendors.

“A lot of customers said they would like to see more of that,” Hanshaw said. “Things have been going pretty good.”