the heat, a market and an interesting idea

Published
by
Steve
on June 29, 2008
in Lifestyle and farming
. 0 Comments

First, the idea: Sell everything you own, “your life” as some people call it, on an ebay auction and start over! A guy in Australia has apparently done that, and the auction ended today. The link is to his web site, where all the details are. Quite interesting. I practically did that, although it was more spread out over a few years and I kept some things. It would have been quite amazing to get rid of it all in one shot, though. The option is still there … I’d keep the motorcycle, though!

And, the heat. Today it is hot. Damn hot. The hottest day of the year so far. I’m fairing well in the cabin, but it is just on the verge of being uncomfortable. I need to move back up to the loft next to the big open window where the breeze is blowing in. The heat is making me sleepy.

The market on Saturday was a good one. We totally sold out! Everything we took! It all went!!! It was a great feeling. Every market gets better and I enjoy it more and more. I will definitely miss it. It’s such a great thing to do! Work all week, tending, prepping, growing, cultivating and then take all that hard work to market every Saturday and sell our wares directly to the people. There is nothing like it! It’s going well.

second farmer’s market

Published
by
Steve
on June 22, 2008
in Miscellany, Travel and farming
. 1 Comment

Yesterday was Plum Forest Farm’s second farmer’s market. And, I’m happy to report it was better than the first - for me and for Plum Forest Farm. Not that the first one was awful or really in any way “bad.” After reading the first market post again, I think it is easy to come away from it negatively. The first market was a good learning experience. This market was just better!

Aside from better sales, Rob shared with me the nifty method of keeping a running tally in my head of what a customer is buying, rather than trying to add everything up when they are done picking out their produce. It worked wonders! Duh. Sometimes I am so slow on the uptake. Doing this reduced my sucky math stress to nil! There were also fewer people browsing and more people buying.

garlic scapes

We were in a different and better spot at the market yesterday too. I didn’t think about until just now how our location might have affected sales. We were at the end of a table next to Seabreeze Farm on our right and Lavender Sisters on the left, closer to the sidewalk entrance of the market pavilion. On our side of the pavilion, anyway, we were the first and only produce vendor, I think. We ended up selling out of almost everything. Which, here’s the list of what we had:

  • Artichokes
  • Bok choi
  • Cauliflower
  • Kale
  • Salad mix
  • Garlic scapes
  • Patte D’Oie salad (pronounced pot dwah, a mix of beet greens and spinach)

The only item we didn’t sell completely was cauliflower. Of which, all the prettiest heads sold and only the floret pieces we chunked off from uglier overall heads didn’t sell. And they were pieces of cauliflower that even I wouldn’t buy, so it’s not a surprise they didn’t go. I was sort of surprised, though, because last week our cauliflower was the second thing to sell out (right after broccoli).

After the first market Rob mentioned the idea that our sales would hopefully be higher this week because people would remember us from the week before and might be more inclined to buy from us again, or buy for the first time if they didn’t last week. I think this idea, coupled with our location probably helped a lot.

All this farming and going to market stuff got me thinking yesterday about my experience at La Chalaguere in France. I went to the archives to see what I wrote and found that I really didn’t post much of anything to my blog. And, for as much as I think about the place and enjoyed my time there so much, it’s too bad that I didn’t share more about it!

Mainly why I was thinking about La Chalaguere is that this time a year ago I was there! It is satisfying to me to know that this time last year, what I’m doing now is what I hoped I would be doing at this time this year. The main things that are different this year versus this time last year is the scale/size of the farm, the location, the relative success at the farmer’s market, and the lack of a secret affair with a french farm girl … all of which I miss! :) A neat similar thing about Plum Forest, though, is Rob speaks fairly good French and we grow quite a few French varieties of vegetables.

Anyhow … I’m not sure what else to post right now. I’m on the verge of writing a huge long rambling post, but I’ll save you from that. Today is Sunday and it’s gray and cool out and it’s a great day to just do nothin. There isn’t anything I have to do. Maybe a few things I feel like I should do. Definitely a thing or two I wish were easier to do (like see Dana). But I don’t think I’ll get to any of them! Maybe I’ll call my siblings and mom …

end of the day update: After thinking so much about La Chalaguere, I decided it was time to just call them! I fired up Skype and rang. I got to talk to Granville and Stella, but unfortunately missed Cia by just half and hour. It was really good to talk to them!

first farmer’s market

Published
by
Steve
on June 14, 2008
in farming
. 2 Comments

Today was Plum Forest Farm’s first market day in two years. It was a great experience!

No, I didn’t take any pictures … I did take my camera, but I was busy from the time I got there until after the market closed. Next Saturday I will get pictures …

I pretty much manned the stall the entire time. Greeting, smiling, weighing, changing money … and reminded a lot that my math SUCKS. But it’s one of the first times that I’ve felt even slightly stressed about it. And, the solution is to just have a small calculator on the stand. I’m so dependent on a calculator now. I don’t know what I would do if my mobile phone didn’t have one on it. Pretty sad. I’m talking addition here too, folks. It’s not that I can’t add, I just can’t do it quickly. Silly things like 6.00 + 3.25 + 2.75 + 2.50 = ? I mean, I did it on paper in less than a minute, but it seemed like an eternity and I still second-guessed myself. Or maybe I’m just being hard on myself again.

Apparently overall the market wasn’t that good. It was slow for everyone (I know this because Joanne is the farmer’s market manager). I can’t say that Plum Forest sold a lot, but Rob and Joanne seemed to think what we brought in wasn’t bad for a first market day and knowing that the whole market was slow today.

It was interesting watching people at the market, though. So many browsers. Many people would walk by the stand, look and keep walking. Our produce was gorgeous and our prices were great for organic produce. Really. I’m not just being biased. We easily had the best salad mix, the most beautiful and only bok choi and romaine lettuce. So many people just looked at it and moved on. We had broccoli and cauliflower and kale at the beginning, but they were all gone in the first hour. I guess now we know what people want at this time of year. That, and all the other farmers had salad mix and salad greens. Our mix was the best, though.

I just don’t know what people think, or how they make decisions on what to or what not to buy. I mean, yeah, I can understand a busy, overworked commuter may only be able to buy groceries late on the way home from work at thriftway. But the people at the market, I would hope, since they are smart enough to actually go to the market for the local produce, would be able to know a good price on excellent produce when they see one. For instance- we were selling heads of romaine lettuce, which isn’t very common at this time of year. We had BIG heads, these things were like a pound each. And we were selling them for $3.00 each. Thriftway had romaine heads, small, wilted, sitting on the shelf for days romaine for the same price. I can’t believe we didn’t sell out of them in ten minutes!

So why didn’t we? It might have had something to do with the particular variety. We aren’t growing the run-of-the-mill plain green romaine that every store in the country has. We have Forellenschluss Romaine - it’s Heirloom. It’s rare. It’s gourmet. Quoting from a seed catalog: “In Europe, this Austrian heirloom is called Forellenschluss romaine and is one of the most prized of all varieties.” But people don’t know it and it’s dappled leaves must leave people who don’t ask what it is thinking there’s something wrong with it. People don’t know it here and seemingly aren’t willing to try it. This can be resolved a bit by the farmer being at the market regularly. Six people bought these lettuce heads from us today and we think they’ll be satisfied. Our hope is they share it with friends and remember where they got it and send more people back. Or we’ll take more heads with us next week, and people who saw us the week before will remember and start to realize the lettuce heads are supposed to look like that and to ask about them.

There were also people who looked very confused and were mumbling to themselves. Sometimes I overheard them or they told me what they were thinking. Some didn’t remember what they had in their fridge and didn’t want to buy more salad when they might have some at home. I think people just need to pay better attention to what they’re eating! Since when is what we eat so unimportant? I’ve always known was in my fridge! Have more intention about it! If you’re going to the market, make a list! Geez! I might not remember I need salt or more sugar, but I know what’s fresh!

Anyway, it was a great experience at the market. Mildly frustrating, but great anyway. I’m looking forward to other market days and hope sales skyrocket as we do have some excellent stuff to sell!