By Lois Baxter

Special to The Weekly

Welcome to the Farmers Market Corner. This is a great time of year for enjoying fresh, local produce, baked goods, dairy, meat and more at local farmers markets. During the 2014 growing season, we wanted to share information with readers of The Weekly about the many farmers markets in this area. Each week, vendors or customers from local farmers markets will share tips about unfamiliar foods you can find at your local markets, fun recipes to try with seasonally available produce, and highlights about specific farms you can learn about at the markets.

Did you know there are 12 farmers markets in Penobscot County? Find out which ones they are at the Maine Federation of Farmers Markets at mainefarmersmarkets.org/shoppers/.

Three of those local markets offer a 25 percent matching discount for customers paying with SNAP/EBT (sponsored by Food AND Medicine). They are Bangor Farmers Market, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sundays at Harlow Street parking lot across from the library, which will close on Sunday, Nov. 23, but will reopen an indoor market 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, at the Sea Dog on the first and third Sundays of the month and continue to offer the SNAP Program; Ohio Street Farmers Market, 2-6 p.m. Wednesdays at the Bangor Grange across from Finson Road, which will close Wednesday, Nov. 26; and Brewer Farmers Market, 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays at the Brewer Auditorium parking lot, Wilson Street.

The food item of the week is cranberries. What would Thanksgiving be like without cranberries?

Those little red berries that show up in sauce, breads and pies at your annual feast are certainly in abundance this time of year. They are actually a fruit and contain Vitamin C, fiber and manganese. And, we are told to drink lots of cranberry juice when a urinary tract infection strikes.

There are many ways to use this colorful fruit — juiced, whole and jellied sauce, dried in salads, and cooked into breads and cookies.

I hope you get to enjoy some while they are plentiful. They also can be frozen and used all winter.

This week’s recipe makes a great addition to a holiday meal and comes from the recipes I’ve collected over the years:

Cranberry Nut Bread

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

¾ cup orange juice

1 tablespoon grated orange peel

2 Tablespoons shortening

1 egg, well beaten

1½ cups coarsely chopped cranberries

½ cup nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch by 5-inch loaf pan. Mix together dry ingredients. Stir in orange juice, orange peel, shortening and egg. Mix until well blended. Stir in cranberries and nuts. Spread in loaf pan. Bake 55 minutes.

Lois Baxter volunteers at Food AND Medicine, a nonprofit organization at 20 Ivers St. in Brewer. For information, contact fam@foodandmedicine.org or 989-5860, or visit foodandmedicine.org.