Smiling Coyote Farm offers the best in fresh produce, artisan spices, and custom tea blends at the Canyon Farmers Market each Saturday morning from 8:00 am until Noon through October 10th. Now, in addition to the farmers market, select Smiling Coyote spice blends are available in Maxwell's Market at Maxwell's Pumpkin Farm.

Maxwell's opens tomorrow, Saturday, September 26th, and continues through Sunday, November 1st.

Hours are:

Fridays: 5 pm - 9 pm
Saturdays: 10 am - 9 pm
Sundays: 1 pm – 9 pm

Come on out, bring the kids, and have some fun!

Greek food has always held a great fascination for us. In one sense, it's the genesis of "Western" cuisine. In another, Greek food represents a complex fusion of Mediterranean, Mid-Eastern, and Central European cooking. Rustic and simple, unpretentious, Greek cuisine is "real food." We like that.

So... It's "Greek Week" around here. Reading about it, writing about it, eating it, thinking and talking about it.

One, quite enjoyable, activity undertaken: Delving back into The Glorious Foods of Greece by Diane Kochilas. Diane is quite active on television, as a teacher and culinary tour guide, as well as on facebook. Re-reading this seminal work was an immense pleasure.

The Glorious Foods of Greece is a wonderful read for one thing, as are all her books, and Diane's talent as an author is no less obvious than her passion for the subject of Greek food. She tells the story of traditional Greek fare--the kind enjoyed for hundreds, if not thousands, of…

Ready for the Farmers Market: A recent photo.
Canyon, Texas is a small university town near Amarillo, Texas and Palo Duro Canyon State Park in the Texas Panhandle. Its renovated 1909 courthouse is the backdrop for the farmers market and our booth.
The courthouse square is alive; an active place. And, especially so early Saturday morning when Smiling Coyote, along with our other vendors, is setting it up for market.
Look for the Smiling Coyote!

Quick update: Change in Market Dates.

Due to a multiplicity of conflicts after the start of the school year for both vendors and customers, the Canyon Farmers Market will not be open on first / third Tuesdays for the remainder of the season.

We've enjoyed the evening markets but the conflicts for those with school age children are understandable and unavoidable. We look forward to being back on the square in the evenings in 2016.

There is no change in the Saturday morning markets. Those dates continued as scheduled through October 10th from 8 am to Noon. We're looking forward to seeing you there!

We expect to be busy this weekend and next week with three Canyon Farmers Market days coming up in quick succession. Markets are held every Saturday morning and in the evening on the first and third Tuesday. Smiling Coyote Farm, along with many other local providers of produce, canned and baked goods, and hand crafted items, is there to share our passion for freshness and flavor.

Markets are held on the square in Canyon, TX just south of the 1909 courthouse along 5th avenue between 15th and 16th streets. It's lovely location--classic small town America. If you're familiar with the area, it's held along 5th avenue between Sayakomarn's Restaurant and Palace Coffee Company.

We highly recommend both of the locally owned businesses mentioned above. Sayokomarn's, in our opinion, serves the best plate of food in town. Our favorite is the Spicy Panang--usually tofu but sometimes chicken. Palace Coffee is the best coffee house in the US. Yes, really. Just go there. You'l…

"Yes, we do," we replied.

The question put to us was from a fellow vendor at the Canyon Farmer's Market a week or so ago, "Do you take special requests?"

Pear Preserves and Apple Butter Custom herb / spice blends are a pleasure to create. Whether we process to your specifications, use a classic formula, or a create a unique blend together, we are passionate about our spices and providing you with the freshest, best quality blends imaginable.

And, we provide "bulk" amounts of our bottled blends, on request, as well. Our Holiday Blend for canning and baking is especially popular this time of year.

One of the fringe benefits of creating custom blends is getting to taste the results. Old Fashioned Pear Preserves from Sheri's Country Cupboard, and Apple Butter from Conant's Country Kitchen are two recent examples.

These are just delicious. The blends are used with great care creating subtlety and enhancing, rather than overpowering, the flavors of …

Most of us who keep and cook with fresh herbs have, at one time or another, pulled a damp, slimy, grayish black mass of something that was once basil from the refrigerator. With one simple trick, that will never happen again.

We discussed how to store and keep fresh herbs fresh previously in "Keeping it Fresh." This post is specifically about one of our very favorite fresh herbs (basil) and how to keep it absolutely vibrant in your kitchen.
The basil in the photo above looks as fresh as if it were picked today. It wasn't; not at all. It was picked over a week ago and it should last another week if we let it. But we probably won't. We'll use it before then and enjoy it tremendously.

When we sell basil at the Canyon Farmers Market, we cut the stems, wrap the stem ends in paper toweling, and keep the stems damp in just an inch or so of water. The reason we do that is so, when customers get home with their basil, it's easy to keep it fresh. Very easy.

That's …