This has been quite a week. The berry harvest unceremoniously ended itself in a big hurry, which meant that instead of the 70 baskets for sale available at the 7/18 Farmer’s Market, we had only 24 for sale on 7/22. But with the heat, that’s how it goes.
The Farmer’s Market is a fickle and unpredictable entity. At the last writing, sales for our first Tuesday market attendance were a dismal less-than-forty-dollars. Quite possibly our worst sales day ever! Last night we attended our second Tuesday market, and decided to only sell blackberries on account of logistical constraints. We set a record for sales, coming very close to two hundred dollars! We went to the market with between 60 and 70 baskets of berries, and sold about 2/3 of that. Some baskets we traded for other goods at the market, and the surplus has been brought to my regular workplace today for discount sale.
It must be summer, I can’t remember what I did 2 days ago. We are in full "Farmer’s Market Mode" now, having attended the first Tuesday evening market (for us) last night. It was disappointing sales-wise; the holiday caused a poor turnout. Our farming partner Drew went to the market for the first time to pinch-hit for Ken, who had some knee surgery Monday. Ken is fine and so is his knee, but lifting crates and trailer hitches is out for a few market days. It’s too bad so few people bought produce, because we have some spectacular items coming into season. One particularly appealing specimen was the 1.75 pound orange tomato of uncertain origin, although other growers have deemed it to be of the "Pincushion" variety. The tomatoes are really, really good, and the plants are loaded with unripe fruit. We have been eating delicious cucumber, tomato and basil salads with balsamic vinegar and olive oil for days…..tasty.