As the season picks up, I’ve been thinking a lot about…how short it is. Around here, we only have four months between last and first average frost dates, which means five months of fresh local veggies (six on the outside). This bothers me. Is eating locally-grown just a seasonal, novelty act…then it’s back to the supermarket for the rest of the year? I have all kinds of daydreams and plans for extending the season, most of them somewhat expensive and involved, like a large root cellar for a year-round supply. One of the things I have been doing, and decided today to make more…formal this year, is recommending customers to other local growers who offer things I don’t. For example, two spaces down at the market is a family farm, mother, father, daughter growing several acres of potatoes (in the pic, at last Saturday’s market they had stored spuds for eating and growing). It’s not a big operation, but they do offer 50lb bags in fall, a quantity I can’t provide at this point. I figure, anything that makes it easier for people to eat what they want, like truly local food, is…good! No tiny farm grows alone!!
Market & Stand
Found onions
There still wasn’t much to take to the farmers’ market today, mesclun and radishes both weren’t ready, so it was baby spinach, the last harvest of early lettuce, and this surprise crop, volunteer green onions sprouted from a few dozen of last year’s cooking onions that had been overlooked in the field. I made a last minute decision to harvest them at 6:30 am, just as we were about to leave. I pulled them up—no time to dig—and filled a bushel bin in just a few minutes. At the market, I explained how they were grown and that they’re stronger tasting than regular bunching onions grown from seed. They were snapped up in no time. One of the great things about taking fresh veggies that you’ve grown yourself to market is that you’re not forced to conform to standardized tastes and sizes and appearances. So long as quality and freshness are consistent, unusual offerings provide a cool extra bit of variety and freedom all around!
Farm stand to go…
Just on the other side of the greenhouse and the spring planting action, there’s the Farm Stand. A work in progress. It’s been a frame without a roof for some time now, extra lumber lying around gets in the way of mowing the grass, a bit of a picture of neglect, enhanced by rampant dandelions. There’s lots of work to do in the next couple of weeks to have it ready by the time the first field crops start coming in.
First day at the farmers’ market!
Up at 5 am, in the greenhouse at 5:30 to harvest more early lettuce and arugula. On the road by 6:30. Set up right at the 7 am opening. The photo is OK, though I find farmers’ market snapshots tend to look so stark and literal, they usually don’t capture the FEELING. Markets are fun because of the goods, you don’t expect a slick and snappy shopping mall presentation, your focus is on the food and crafts, and chatting with people. In pics, you see the mish-mash of basic tabletop presentation, but you don’t get the…experience. This one is a small market, 7 am-1 pm Saturdays, around 25 vendors, a dozen with fresh veggies, and usually about three hours of fairly packed traffic during the summer. Not like a big city market. I’m the only “certified organic” guy, and only one other stand has salad greens and a good selection of veggies beyond the standards. My stand is first on the right of the pic, with the newly repainted chalkboard and sharp new collapsing metal sawhorses debuting this season. I like the really basic display and circus-on-the-road feeling of setting up at 7, gone by 1:30. It was a good day, I was there mainly to show up, with only about 30lbs of the five-lettuce-and-arugula mix to sell (the first field crops won’t be ready for another couple of weeks). It was quiet, the cloudy, chilly weather didn’t help. Chatted with lots of regular customers, handed out some CSA flyers, and sold out by around 11… Fun!
First market!
First day of the year at the local farmers’ market. It’s held Saturdays, 7am to 1pm, from May through October. Today, there are four varieties of the early lettuce, only around 30 units. At this point in the season, it’s mainly being there that counts.
Opening soon!
The new farm stand, still under construction, should be open around June. It’s built mainly of rough-cut cedar from a local independent sawmill, with some old fence boards recycled as flooring.