Baker, artisans going to business extravaganza

Some of Southeast Missouri's best products -- from baskets in a kit to vegetables grown without soil -- will be showcased early next month at the Best of Missouri Market at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.

Four area businesses will be represented at the Oct. 6-7 extravaganza, which is expected to attract thousands of visitors to browse through stands filled with vegetables, pottery, flowers, baskets, herbs, nuts, candies, meats, jewelry and baked goods.

Area participants are:

My Daddy's Cheesecake, 111 N. Main, Cape Girardeau. Veteran baker Wes Kinsey will be making his sixth trip to the market since purchasing My Daddy's Cheesecake.

Showme Fresh Farms, just north of Cape Girardeau, a new addition to the market. Octavia Scharenborg produces vegetables and herbs using hydroponics.

Touch from the Heart studio, featuring pottery created by Mary Jane Moyers in her Marble Hill studio.

Wild Pony Baskets, near Blodgett, which offers a new series of basket-weaving kits along with other basketry by Ruth Andre.

The local merchants will join more than 100 Missouri food producers and artisans for the 10th annual Best of Missouri Market, said Heather L. Kemper, a spokesperson for the Botanical Garden. Food producers, farmers and artisans are selected by invitation to display their products for annual sale in the park.

"It's a great opportunity to show your products to a big audience," said Kinsey, who added that as many as 15,000 people attend the market in a single day. A master baker for the past two decades, Kinsey purchased My Daddy's Cheesecake in 1996. The business was established more than a decade ago by another chef, Tom Harte, who still enjoys spending time in the kitchen.

Kinsey will take a number of My Daddy's treats to the market, including Gooey Louie, premium pecans and chocolate held together with caramel; Hello Daddy, an amalgamation of coconut, chocolate and walnuts; Terrific Toffee, chunks of toffee and lots of nuts; and Mississippi Mud, a dark chocolate cheesecake. He will also debut My Daddy's new pumpkin cheesecake, jalapeno cheesecake and pumpkin muffins.

Moyers is looking forward to her first appearance in the event.

"I started making pottery in kindergarten," she said. "What began as an early hobby is now a business."

Moyers creates impressions with indigenous leaves from Missouri onto functional stoneware such as mugs and flowerpots. Touch from the Heart was established in 1986, but Moyers has been designing and creating pottery for almost 20 years.

Learned from Indians

Ruth and Tom Andre have been making baskets since moving to the Blodgett area from Baha, Calif. While living in the Baha region, Ruth Andre learned from the Oaxian Indians the art of making things of beauty from materials with little or no value.

A bumper crop of gourds was the impetus for Wild Pony Baskets. "We grew six acres of gourds," she said. Ruth combined gourds with the ancient art of coiled pine needle basketry, that she calls "gourd-weaving." She has found a market for the gourd weavings at art galleries across the country.

In addition to demonstrating gourd-weaving at Best of Missouri, Ruth Andre will also present a newly released series of basket-weaving kits. Each kit includes precut ready-to-wave rolled paper, paper-covered wire, clothespins and step-by-step photo instructions.

Scharenborg helps her parents operate the family's 216-acre farm just north of Cape Girardeau. "We do row cropping and raise cattle," she said, "but my real agriculture love is my 3,400-square-foot greenhouse."

The greenhouse, located on County Road 640, is open Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Hydroponic farming has been Scharenborg's dream since she attended an agriculture expo in Memphis while in high school. That dream became a reality last year.

Among Showme Fresh Farms' products are gourmet greens and herbs such as thyme and sweet basil.

rowen@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 133