Winter Market pt. 3

Tomorrow is the 3rd installment of the Oxford Farmers' Market Uptown's Winter Market. Starting at 9:30 am saturday Jan 21st in the public parking lot at Main and Church Sts. There will be several farmers and bakers selling what they have.

We are planning to go though, the last market we made under $200. I feel if we cannot make at least $300 per market it is really not worth going, but in this case we are fostering a brand new market so I make an exception for this market. And besides, in the past if we made $25 from produce sales in December or January that was considered good. Of course in years past we had nothing to sell by this point in the year. But last year, anticipating a winter market, we grew a lot more storable produce like winter squash, taters, garlic, onions, carrots, parsnips, etc.. so we have things to sell tomorrow.

What will we be bringing?:
Garlic powder
Garlic
Beets
Carrots
Parsnips
Fingerling and red potatoes
Tomato juice
Apple sauce
Popcorn (this makes the best popcorn!)
Maybe a few winter squash
Red onions
Yellow Onions
Roasted squash seeds (like pumpkin seeds only better)


I don't think we will have much to sell come the Feb. market but I also am predicting we will be getting cold stormy weather by than (or maybe it will be summery by than and 70˚F and sunny-Who knows anymore). From looking at what is left of our stored produce we will not have much in a month. The winter squash is wanting to rot so we have been cleaning, cooking and freezing a lot of questionable squash. Oh, and baking piles of squash seeds. (I have found pumpkin seeds are about the worst tasting of the winter squash seeds. Acorn squash seeds are the best, IMO). I doubt if the remainder will last another 4 weeks. I have noticed even the squashes in Kroger's and Wal-mart are rotting so it must be that time of year already. The potatoes are in short supply as are the carrots and parsnips but we have enough for this market.

My main reason for going to market is to talk to the S***** about joining their cow share program and getting raw milk starting in March or April. It will cost $50 up front plus $4 a gallon for the milk. Raw milk is so much better than the pasteurized pus and drug tainted crap we are offered. Probably will also buy a piece of pastured beef like some sort of steak.

The weather tomorrow is supposed to be rainy but we may luck out and have the rain gone by 9am. At least it will be warm-highs in the low 50's in the morning and than temps dropping through the day. if this were a normal January the temps could have been hovering around 0˚F as the 3rd week of Jan is generally the coldest weekend of the year.

Weather is a huge factor with outdoor markets. If it is rainy, too cold, too warm, too windy than your sales are affected negatively and you could damage product or equipment. I do not like selling outside in bad weather but part of being a business is being there during business hours so it is part of the job to sell in driving rain storms or 105˚F afternoons or, in the case of winter sales, a snowfall.

But in any kind of weather we are darned lucky to have a year round market for our products and the foodies of the greater Oxford, OH area are darned lucky to have a central market to shop for local foods all winter long.