On these Saturdays I get up early; don clothing that does not have coffee stains, dirty handprints on the butt and a minimum of wrinkles. I get in the car just as Scott Simon begins Weekend Edition on NPR. This time of year there may be a few dollars in my pocket for a yard sale on the way. It is a nice drive in.
May is the month when the farmer's market is open every Saturday. This Saturday will be the first weekend I will be able to go. I live in a very agricultural region of the state. There are farmstands everywhere. But I have to drive an hour to find a farmer's market. For me the farmer's market is not just a place to find seedlings or goat cheese. It is community. I meet up with friends, strike up conversations with complete strangers about things like cucumber beetles. There is one farmer who is a walking gardening encyclopedia and will give short tutorials on any seedling you buy from him. The rhythm of the growing season is noted by the coming and going of what the farmer's sell and which farmer's are selling their wares that day. There is one farmer who sells just seedlings and the apple farmer still has months to go.
This weekend I will ask the pork lady how much she charges for a half a pig. We are on the fence as to whether we will grow a pig this year. Hubby may have a a summer teaching position this summer. Teen has a full summer of camps and invitations. We are trying to gauge whether it is truly cost effective for us. When we grew our first pig we had a source of slop from a local restaurant. Last year we spent a lot more money on feed.
I am also on the lookout for a sixpack of nasturtiums for my new planter:)
Do you have a farmer's market near you?
4 comments:
Actually we do have one but it's way downtown about 20 miles from me so I haven't been there in years..
I usually order a whole pig from a butcher shop that's also a long ways from my house but I'm lucky that I have my brother in law bring it to us when it's ready.. he drives into town every day for work so its not out of his way.
We also have a few trucks parked on different roads that sell veggies and melons..
Ummm... I have the same one you do, but I don't know where it is. Orono? Can you let me know? I'd love to go this year. I've never frequented a farmer's market - just individual farmer's stands. Thanks!
Ps I love your tulips!
We have a brand new one starting four miles from the house and I'll be vending there and in charge of events. I'm both excited and scared to death! Within 10 mile there is a second farmer's market and two farm stands but honestly all three use trucked in produce and that isn't really what I want in a farmer stand. I want local and only local which is what the new farmer's market will be. We won't have bananas or tomatoes in June (like both farmstands) but we will have lettuce and radishes next week and week by week more vegies that were grown in this county.
I can't raise a pig in the village but I can connect with a very nice gentleman in Holland a few miles away who will raise one for me and keeps a very nice establishment that I can visit. That works just fine for me.
I am looking for a good farmers market but now I have a garden I hope I won't need too much later in the summer.
Beautiful tulips in your header. I have always dreamed of working in a bookstore but I think I would spend more than I earned.
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