Farmers Market late August/early September 2011

Freshly washed Melons

Eugene sorting and pricing melons the day before market

Melons and more packed and ready to go on the Van, the night before Farmers Market

Melons at Market!

Heirloom mater and jalapenos

Pearl Onions

Mini peppers

Another satisfied Melon customer

Boulder Belt and the Choice Food Pantry

Many years ago when I was still on the Oxford farmers Market Uptown governing board I made the suggestion that we should figure out a way to get the left over food that farmers have at the end of every market to people who need food, i.e. a food pantry. Everyone on the board thought that was a great idea and voted it in. And we thought from there it would be easy to set up a system to get food from market to the needy.

Not so. It seems that at the time none of the local food pantries around Oxford (there were two at the time-family Resources and the Food Pantry of St Mary's/St Vincent dePaul. These merged in 2007 to form The Choice Pantry) had much, if any, refrigeration and were not open on Saturdays and had no real way to deal with perishable fresh foods. There also was no one to pick up the food and take it where it needed to go.

The first couple of years were hit and miss. It was obvious it was up to the farmers market to get things together such as coolers and humans to get the job done and this happened (we have a really great support system and community with this market). But it was not possible to find people every week to pick up food from the vendors and take it to the food pantry location and I know on at least one occasion the food pantry forgot about the Saturday delivery and the volunteers had no way to deliver the food. And there was also the issue that the needy people who were getting this food were not familiar with much of the produce being donated like arugula, heirloom tomatoes, specialty peppers, eggplant, daikon, fennel, etc., etc.. So they were not using the food and it often went to waste.

But that was 4 or 5 years ago. Than in 2007 the two pantries merged into Choice Pantry, run by St Mary's Catholic Church. They are well run and have refrigeration (because they knew about us farmers when they set this new pantry up and made sure they could utilize us). And they have Miami students hold classes to teach the food needy about cooking, nutrition, etc., so these people can use the food from the farmers market (more utilization). And we have Mike coming by just about every Saturday at noon to gather together food that would other wise be wasted (okay not exactly wasted as we and most other farmers at the market would do something like compost the produce or feed it to livestock-it would not be land filled in most cases) and he takes that food to the pantry for distribution that very day (unlike the past where the fresh food would sit around until Monday before distribution). It has become a very workable system.

So we have been donating a lot of food most weeks. Most weeks the pantry gets about 3 bushels of food. I think there have been only 2 or 3 weeks where we did not have much of anything left to give (and what we had was probably too weird for the food pantry-we do grow and sell a lot of unusual varieties). Over the season we have probably donated more than a ton of food.

It feels good to be able to do good works but it sure ain't easy to get these good works started up. But happily, in Oxford, OH they have it figured out.

Feburary Farmers Market

A line of folks waiting to buy organic meat from the Filbrun's

We did the February edition of the Oxford Winter Market Series last weekend. We missed the January edition because it was way to cold to have produce out doors without it freezing and being ruined. The weather profits predicted a not too bad day. The reality was a cold, windy day with snow/ice pelting us until about noon when it cleared up a bit. The temperature was warm enough to not worry about the spud or spring mix freezing but cold and nasty enough to keep the crowds down a bit. We were still able to sell out of all leafy greens and around 98% of the red onions, 90% of the leeks and about 1/2 the parsnips along with a lot of garlic. I was also able to buy lots of pastured eggs and organic meat the few minutes we were not busy.
All in all a good if windy and damp market

From left to right Artistry farm with goat cheese, art and goat's milk soap, Tahapsia'a farm (sorry for bad spelling) selling fine hand made soaps and other body care and Greenbrier farm selling hand crafted pastas

Eugene selling produce to our Buddy Scott

Happy but chilly OFMU regulars

Getting Ready for a Winter Market

We have a farmers market this coming Saturday so we have spent the week getting ready for it. Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning we harvested greens. During the main growing season we would not think of harvesting so far away from a market but in winter cold gets in the way and if you can get a day of two of above freezing weather a week or less before the farmers market you harvest on those days. We can get away with this because we have found in winter, greens (and everything else) last a lot longer than thing harvested the rest of the year. My theory is that the bacteria that is on all fresh produce and will eventually cause it to rot is dormant in the winter. This means that lettuce that might last a week after harvest in summer will last about 3 weeks after harvest in winter. The other thing we have noted is in winter it is best to harvest greens late in the day. During the other seasons these are best harvested early in the morning. Winter is a backwards time to grow and harvest things.

On Monday I was making sure we have enough dried herbs and garlic powder ready to go. In doing that I discovered to forgotten products in the freezer-dried apples and dried cherry tomatoes. So I made up about 10 bags of each. Now we have two new products to offer at the farmers market and to the farm Share folks in April. Along with the tomatoes and apples I found we were short on dried basil and catnip so I made up more of those.

Wednesday I spent time going through all our table signs and tossing out what we no longer needed and making new signs for products that did not have a sign or things with a new price (we lowered a couple of prices) or new products. That took more time Than I though because the printer decided it did not want to print card stock paper (I have had this argument before with the printer and thought I had resolved it). Eventually I won the argument and got around to printing the pages I needed.

Today I went and bought a ream of paper so I can print out some more brochures and Farm Share Program fliers (which are about half way done). I also wrote and sent out an email to my 300+ subscribers alerting them to this market.

Tomorrow we will put spring mix, mizuna, baby lettuce into 6oz and 1/2 pound bags and about 100 pounds of parsnips into 1 and 5 pound bags. We also need to grade the leeks and put the small ones into bunches of 2 and 3. Than turnips and potatoes will need to be boxed up. That should take the two of us about 1/2 the day. But when it is all done we should be ready for a cold winter market.

The rest of the year we would easily do all of this work in about a day (actually about 3 or 4 times this much work) but cold weather really slows down the harvest

This and That

So it's December and it is cold and dreary with a bit of snow. Not much going on in the market garden. Lots of things under double row cover we are hoping are not getting too damaged by low temps around 23F. We did have the kale in a hoop house bite the dust. No one put a row cover over top and it all got frosted. I doubt it's dead but it likely won't produce leaves until mid Feb. In the past the kale has done just fine with no row cover in a hoop house but in the past the kale was started outside and was toughened up by being exposed to the elements. This kale was started in a hoop house and was very delicate and could not take the cold. Learn something new, next time make sure the kale inside has lots of protection or do not start kale in a hoop house, start it outdoors and move a house over top in November.

We entertain ourselves with bad TV, cleaning popcorn, making beer, making cider, cleaning and cutting up the last of the peppers and freezing them. Pretty mundane stuff.

I have found myself spending more and more time on FaceBook. I love FaceBook. Through it I have found so many people I had lost contact with from as far back as high school. FYI I still see a lot of my high school friends as I still live in the same area where I grew up. But a lot of people got out of the great Oxford Metroplex. FB has been an incredible tool for connecting. It also is a great time waster. I have started a farm and have a super power, both take time. But time is something I have at the moment.

I have started working on a web page for our CSA/Farm Share Program. We don't like the term CSA as it either represents us as supporters of the Confederate States of America (which we are not, being born and bred Yankees) or it is simply a bad description of selling food shares. So we prefer "Farm Share". Any Hoo, I have started working on an informational page about the farm share program which will commence the first week of April. That outta keep me busy for a few days. So far, I have gotten the thing about 20% done and lost everything. That's okay, it was all replaced by better copy and design. If everything goes right, I should have it functional by the end of this week

Eugene and Lucy At Market

I realize I have not posted anything for a while but it has been nutz busy what with harvesting, fall planting, weeding, tilling, marketing, the new windows (which are just about all done-just have a bit of caulking to do and a final coat of paint) and putting up food (I have a 5 gallon pot of tomato puree cooking down to sauce which I will can tomorrow). So for enjoyment are photos of us boulder beltians at the Oxford Saturday farmers Market Aug 16th

Here I am selling fresh produce to Dixie Utter, one of my teachers from High School. She taught English and speech at Talawanda High School for years and years. I took her speech class back in 1979 and that class has served me well as I have had many opportunities to do public speaking over the past 25 years.

Eugene showing off some of our heirloom tomatoes.
photo by Nellie Bly Cogan

A Short Tuesday

Yesterday, being Tuesday meant we had a farmers market in Oxford. So we got up early and did a lot of harvesting, washing, bagging and bunching in order to get various produce items ready for market before 2:30pm.

Around noon a woman stopped looking for berries. She wanted to know if we were open and I said no. She wanted to look around the store to see what we had to offer and I told because we are not open on Tuesdays I did not have the sales floor set up. that most things were stored away in the back but that I could still sell her what ever it was she wanted. She wanted strawberries and red raspberries so I grabbed her a box of each and she went on her way. I continued getting things ready for market.

It was good she stopped and bought some berries as we have a lot of raspberries and they are showing no sing of letting up. every day dither Eugene of I go our to pick the berries and we say "well tomorrow there should be less. It looks like they are beginning to slack off." And the next day we go out and pick more than the day before. We were thinking when the Japanese beetles exploded, which they have done in the past 5 days, they would damage most of the berries and we would have less to pick. That has not happened yet. I am not complaining, the raspberries have been great sellers and will likely allow us to either buy another vehicle (we only have one-the market van and that does not get the best gas mileage in the world) or put a new roof on the barn so it quits leaking when it rains. maybe both if they keep on keeping on.

Any way, at 2:45 I go up to the garden to see what Eugen was doing and to tell him it is time to wrap up his project so we can go to Oxford for the farmers market. he's picking raspberries and still has 6 empty 1/2 pint tills (what we call the berry boxes). So I pick up a till and start to fill it with the biggest and best tasting raspberries we have so far harvested from these bushes (it seems every day they get better). 20 minutes later we have the the 6 tills filled and go back to the store to wrap them and put them in the fridge. Than I quickly load the coolers and crates in the van. I run into the house to change and notice it is after 3pm-we are officially running late. I yell at Eugene to stop whatever he is doing (piddling around) and come in the house and get some dry and clean cloths on (it was hot and very humid so we were both sopping wet after picking berries). We get dressed and in the van and are about ready to leave when Pekar stops by to tell us about his upcoming Birthday party this Saturday. This is a party I have gone to for at least 15 years but over the years it has drawn in more and more people I do not know or want to hang with (a lot of neo-cons and cops). Add to that that our buddy Chuck is having one of his annual parties the same night and he has a pool and a lot of old hippy liberals, most of whom I have known for a couple of decades. So we had to tell Pekar we probably would not make his party. Chuck's party is a lot more fun, better food, better conversation and a pool.

So we got rid of Pekar and got on the road and got to Oxford right around 4pm (so not late). The weather was becoming changeable and the winds were gusting up to 30mph. this was making it hard for Kim Traylor to keep her jewelry from falling to the ground and the Ison's had their shelter damaged when the wind caught it and moved it several feet. We got set up and started selling produce to the public all the while keeping an eye to the sky. Around 6pm, just as our business was really picking up, the sky was looking pretty black and officer Butts, one of the OPD, came by and suggested strongly we close up the market as there was a severe storm coming towards Oxford and was about 15 miles west of us. So everyone packed up their stuff and we all traded food. We got some Lamb and an orange bread and gave out boxes of raspberries in exchange. I dunno where the other went after the short market but we went to the Smokin' Ox for a draft beer and light conversation. while we were there it started raining and the winds came up a bit and it even thundered a little but looking at a weather radar we saw the big storm missed Oxford. it went about 1/2 mile to the south. So it turned out we did not need to tear down early. We justified doing so by telling ourselves it was just rainy enough to keep everyone indoors and we would not have sold anything. After the beer we left the restaurant and headed home and had an early night.

Scenes From Last Saturday's Farmers Market

Pictures I took this past Saturday of what was going on in and around my market stall at The Oxford Farmers Market Uptown. You just might see yourself or a friend.

A Farmers or Crafters Market?

Eugene finishing setting up the market stand. We brought a lot of lettuce, that's what's in most of the bags.

Yesterday was farmers market day in Oxford (as well as Miami U's graduation-congrats to any graduates who are reading this). It was a beautiful sunny morning but the market was pretty dead early on. And even in mid morning when the attendance got better not a lot of produce was selling.

The market had 27 vendors yesterday and only 2 of us, Locust Run and Boulder Belt, were selling vegetables plus Downing's which has cider and apple butter and will soon have fruits and veggies. We also had two meat vendors, 5 people selling plants and 1 selling goat cheese. So we have 11 farmer types selling at this market out of 27, a farming minority at the farmers market. You would think that with so few produce vendors at this market we would both sell out. That did not happen for any of us. All of us took quite a bit of produce home. I did hear the craft people did great sales, though.

I have noticed since last year when several people on the board decided that there should be more crafters at this market (which I hesitate to call a farmers market any longer) the ratio of craft people and bakers to farmers is skewed away from this market being farmer friendly. When I helped to create this market we established a rule that there could be one craft vendor for every 5 (or maybe 7) farmers. We made this rule to ensure that this farmers market would be a FARMER'S market and not be taken over by the arts and crafts crowd. Last year with a new bunch of people on the board that rule was tossed out and "Artist Alley" was created. Now we had a market that had about as many crafters as farmers. Not a good trend in my mind, and I did question this move with several board members and felt like I was blown off by them.

Move forward to 2008 and now we have more crafters than farmers and we also have space issues in the spot where the market is held due to a building going up next door. This has lost us about 7 spaces. So far this season every space has been filled and I know that there are at least 4 farmers who will be coming in later on this season. Will the board tell the crafters there is no space for them (after they have paid their annual fee?) or will the growers be left out? It's gotta go one way or the other (unless the market is moved to larger quarters) because space is very limited.

My issue is that we created a market for farmers to sell their wares when the Oxford Uptown farmers market was born. And now it seems that this market is becoming a weekly craft show. I have read of several markets that went this direction and eventually the farmers were kicked out. I do not want this to happen in Oxford. I do know when you have too many crafters people going to the market start spending their money on the craft items and do not spend their money with the farmers and quickly the situation is a winner for the crafters and a losing one for the farmers. I was hoping this was not going to happen in Oxford but from the looks of things I do not see encouraging things for us growers. Hopefully this will change and what I have been seeing is the strange buying patterns of Oxford's Graduation/Mother's Day weekend and in the coming weeks/months people will be coming to the farmers market to buy food

Eugene and I are lucky because we have a store here on the farm and after 2 years the locals are finding us and shopping here. Sales are up 500% so far this year. The store is not yet supporting itself but it is going in the right direction. As the industrial food system continues to fail I expect we will get a lot more business and in a couple of years will be able to quit going to the Saturday market altogether (man it will be nice not to have to get up at 4:30am in order to get to market by 7am, which we rarely do. We seem to always be late). We plan on sticking with the Tuesday market which, so far, does not have this out of whack farmer to crafter ratio problem. And since I still have a lot of influence with this market, should not for many years to come. I love going to the Tuesday market because it is so laid back and it has a wonderful mix of vendors, all of whom I like a lot. Oh and I don't have to get up at 4:30 am to get there on time.

I just may have to run for the OFMU board this fall, even though we really cannot afford the gasoline to get to Oxford for the meetings. But something has to be done to get the board away from this craft takeover of the farmers market and back in the farmers' corner. Otherwise, we growers may well lose what should be a spectacular market for us.

FreeCycling

Freecycle for those who do not know is a web/email based system for people to use to get rid of things they do not need or find things they do need all the while keeping useful objects out of the landfill. You will find offers for about anything on Freecycle and requests to match.

I have been subscribed to 3 local lists (Preble County, Oxford, Richmond, IN) for several years but rarely make use of Freecycle. but this week I did. On Monday I gave away a sewing machine to a woman who lives near the old farm who will be making lab robes for military veterans along with clothes for her new Grandbaby who was threatening to enter the world while she picked up the sewing machine. So an object that was simply gathering dust in the store is now been given a good home.

Tuesday Stewie, a black and white domestic short hair cat, from Hamilton came to live with us. Since Navin died I have slowly realizing I need another cat. Trina is a great cat and getting better all the time but she does not like to be held and is pretty useless for hunting since she was declawed by her former people. So when a plea came over the Freecycle list that Stewie needed a home I replied after thinking about it for a week.

I would like to say Stewie is a great cat (he is very handsome) but ever since he got here he has freaked out and has been in hiding. He did eat all the cat food put out for both of them over night so we know his appetite is good. Trina is pretty freaked herself over the new cat. The dogs do not seem to realize there is another animal in the house. That, or they just don't care.

So That is my FreeCycle adventure for this week. If you want to live a greener life (and this is Earthweek after all, a great time to start one's journey down a green road) click on the link in the title of this post and that will take you to the main FreeCycle site where you can find a group or 5 in your area and start reducing, reusing and recycling.

March Winter Market

Eugene selling produce to happy shoppers

We did a farmers market last Saturday, March 15, the Ides of March. Fortunately no ancient Roman rulers were dispatched at the market.

It was the quietest of the winter markets despite the weather being almost decent. It was a bit below freezing with a thick fog but compared to the heavy snows and very cold, windy weather the other winter markets have had, this was almost nice. But despite the nearly decent weather there was still the fact that Miami University had just started Spring Break and that tends to drain a large percentage of the population of Oxford.

Pia Terranova Selling her incredible artisan breads to hoards of eager customers

That said, we were able to sell a lot of food and made nearly as much as the February market even though we had fewer items to sell. Unlike the last market, we had almost no greens for this market because the voles helped themselves to the spinach under row cover and most of the other greens we have been picking over winter have decided it is spring in the hoop houses and have gone to seed. The winter spring mix was at it's end. We did get several pounds of it for market but that was the last cutting of that bed. Pity, as that also means we go without salad for a bit. We harvested twice as many leeks as the Feb market and sold all but 5 and we had scallions which we did not have at any of the other winter markets.

Seth Filbrun selling organic and pastured meat to a steady line of people

I have been impressed with all the vendors this market brings out in the winter. There are 4 of us growing and selling produce, 2 bread makers, 1 meat seller, 2 soap makers, a potter, a cheese maker and a couple of folks selling a hodgepodge of stuff from eggs to cat toys. There was even a goat in attendance (a kid really). I believe there were ten stalls at this last market. We have a group that is getting good at having things to sell all winter long. This is especially tricky for us produce growers with out using heated greenhouses, which is very expensive. But we have 2 farms, us and Locust Run/Harv Roehling that are very good at season extension and winter growing.

The next, and last, winter market should have more people and a lot more greens as we have been planting a lot of head lettuce (something like 8 different heirlooms), arugula, spinach and spring mix along with radishes and scallions for April. We may also have asparagus and chives, ready to go by than. After that market we start our regular season two weeks later on May 3rd.

Wm G Owsley's Obit.

Here is my father's obit, I am not sure who wrote it but it looks like, his widow, Rebecca, writing style. It sums up nicely a well spent life.

William Gardner Owsley, 83, passed away peacefully at 4 o’clock Sunday, January 27, 2008, without regret, surrounded by family, at his Point Lookout home near Au Gres, Michigan .

Bill, also known to some old friends as “Owl,” was born July 28, 1924, in Idaho Falls, Idaho, to Merritt Miner Owsley, a Montana born-rancher in Mud Lake, Idaho, and Ada Heath Owsley, of Ionia, Michigan.

Bill returned to Ionia with his mother to enter school, often summering in Idaho and working with his dad. He graduated from Ionia High School in 1942. At I.H.S. he was a member of the track team, and as captain of the struggling football team once inspired his teammates by playing most of the game with a broken collarbone (they lost anyway).



He entered University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he completed his first year of college as a philosophy major before joining the Marines in February 1943, spending most of his World War II service as a radio operator in the Pacific Theater. He served for a time with a member of the Navaho “code talkers.” He never forgot the Morse code he learned and used, and often amused children and friends by tapping out their names or funny phrases.

After his discharge at the end of the war, he returned to the University of Michigan, where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. In 1947 he married Marjorie Rutherford, of Lansing. Upon earning his undergraduate degree, Bill and his new wife took the accumulated savings from his service years and spent a year in Paris, France, hanging out with other Americans in Paris (including Art Buchwald and William Styron), and soaking up European culture. After returning from France, Bill embarked upon a program in Fine Arts, studying art history and painting, completing a master’s degree in Fine Arts in 1953.

Daughter Margaret was born in 1950, and son Scott was born in 1955 after Bill began teaching at Monticello College in Alton, Illinois. He later taught one year at Berea College, in Berea, Ky., before beginning his career at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, teaching more than 30 years in the architecture department. Daughter Lucy was born in Oxford in 1963.

To family and friends, his students, colleagues, total strangers, and especially children, Bill was a storyteller, playmate, mentor, challenger, talker, animal lover, and first, foremost and always, a teacher to all. He was a prolific painter, and continued to create and show his work throughout his life. In all his relationships, he guided individuals to discover the delight in their own creativity, of whatever sort. In addition to his classes in the architecture department, Bill taught several large sections of a popular art survey course to thousands of students. This meant that eventually Bill encountered former students everywhere he went, all over the world.

In 1971 Bill married Rebecca McNamara, bringing together his children and her son Stephen and daughter Heather (and two dogs, three cats, a couple of gerbils, a tank of guppies, a newt, and ultimately a horse) and sharing an historic 1867 house that was perpetually under restoration. Summers were spent at Point Lookout in the AuGres area, near where Bill always had vacationed as a youth with his family. In 1964, he purchased the property that would become his home after retirement in 1989.

Although he traveled extensively during these years, it was at Point Lookout where he and all the family always returned and felt most at home. The open-door policy at Point Lookout welcomed dozens of visitors over the years, from friends of the children and grandchildren to former students to fellow travelers and former colleagues and neighbors.

The last decade of Bill’s life was spent cultivating his pleasures and passions, old and new. He re-built the family cottage to include the heart of the original structure which housed so many memories, and to accommodate new experiences as well. The rooms were never big enough to hold all the books, but always big enough to hold everyone who wanted to be there. He loved summers swimming and sailing Lake Huron, and quiet winters of cross country skiing around the Point. Did a summer day ever arrive on the beach at 4 p.m. when he didn’t say, “Well, the sun’s over the yard-arm somewhere. Can I get anyone a beer?” He loved the walks, and the woods, and the sounds of the wind across the water, his family and friends and continuing interest in ideas. He loved life. He only half-jokingly requested that his tombstone inscription be, “Lucky Guy!”

He is survived by his wife, Rebecca, his children Margaret (Richard) Marting, Scott Owsley, Lucy Owsley (Eugene) Goodman, Heather McNamara (Greg) Seaman, and Stephen McNamara, and grandchildren Caroline Marting, William Marting, Coolie Calihan, and Brenna Seaman.

Visitation with family members will be 2-5 and 7-9 p.m. Friday at R.O. Savage Funeral Chapel, Standish. There will be a memorial service Saturday at Grace Episcopal Church, Standish.


In lieu of flowers, the family suggests those wishing to make a memorial donation consider The Point Lookout Memorial Fund or the Miami University Art Museum Sterling Cook fund.

Winter Market Woes

It's cold here and has been since early Saturday morning which meant we missed a farmers market. We have a policy on outdoor winter markets, if it is not going to get any warmer than 25F than we will not attend. This is because 2 years ago we stood outside selling produce at a winter market where the temps started around 11F and got up to around 20F by the end of the market. We were freezing and not happy but got even more unhappy the next day when we discovered everything we had taken to market had frozen at market and now was only good for compost. So we composted all our remaining potatoes, carrots, turnips and winter squash that year and did no more winter markets that year because we were not set up for winter growing and had no greens thus nothing to sell.

This year we do have hoop houses set up and things growing in the houses but still decided not to go and lose a bunch of produce in miserable cold windy weather. Fortunately we did not harvest much for this market as we did not think we would go to market until Friday afternoon when the weather prophets changed the forecast and implied that the cold front had slowed down and would not be hitting the Miami Valley until mid morning or later Saturday. They were quite wrong on that and by 8am Saturday it was around 15F and dropping. I believe it was a few degrees warmer in Oxford where the farmers market is held. But not warm enough to keep produce from freezing.

Such are the problems of trying to have a winter market out doors-too often the weather makes it hard participate. It sure would be sweet if the Oxford Farmers market Uptown board got the money and resources together to build an indoor year round market. We could easily do two markets a week in winter and it would be nice to be able to go year round without worrying about losing product to the cold

Snowy Market

That's me at market in front of our stand
(Photo Courtesy of Deb's Key West Wine & Garden)

What a winter market we had on Saturday. It was snowing hard through the entire market making displaying our wares a bit tricky. We opted for keeping as much as possible in coolers out of the snow. we had a list of what we had for people to read and choose from. I was rather amazed at how many people showed up to buy. The Oxford Uptown market has quite a few intrepid customers who will come out in any weather.

The day started for us in the store packing everything into coolers and boxes lined with toweling. We did not want to risk bringing home frozen produce that would than have to be tossed on the compost pile. This happened to us last year-we went to a sub freezing market laid our wares out on our tables like it was warm out and lost all our remaining potatoes and winter squash to the cold. And the thing of it was we did not know the stuff had frozen for 36 hours as that is how long it took for the damage to show. So we thought we were alright when we unloaded the van. After figuring out we had lost about 3/4 of our winter's stock of food we vowed never again will we go to a winter market and allow our food to freeze. So now we take measures to keep things warmish.

Got things packed they way we wanted and loaded the van and got on the dry roads at 7:30 am so we could get down to the Streits for our milk before the market and the snow. Got to the Streits and got our milk and as we were loading that into the van I noticed a snow flake lazily drifting through the air. A second later i noticed a million of its' brethren and the snow storm was on. By the time we got out to St Rt 73 (3 minutes) the roads were beginning to become covered and all the black Angus cows we passed were white on top. We drove towards Oxford wondering if we should just continue north on 127 and go home as the snow was coming down hard and fast. But when we came to the fork in the road where 127 peels off of St Rt 73 we went left and on to Oxford and the Winter Market.

Drove up and down the hills and curves of St RT 73 (one of the most dangerous roads in Ohio) talking of other snow storms and all the times I had to deal with 73 in bad conditions (my family used to live in a subdivision that was on the highway). We were able to traverse the road with no problems though I believe if we had tried to drive it a half hour later we would have had problems what with our vehicle being a Dodge Cargo van with rear wheel drive and not the newest tires in the world. Granted, we did have a lot of weight in the back due to the produce.

So got to the top of 73 where it meets Patterson Ave in Oxford and turned right so we could get to High street and got up the high Street hill swimmingly and pulled into the snow covered parking lot where we hold the market. Eugene cursed himself for not bringing a snow shovel. But soon enough, several snow shovels showed up and people were clearing the snow away (or trying to, it was snowing hard so all progress was soon covered). The shovel crew was a mix of farmers, kids, customers and market volunteers and between them all they kept the footing in good shape for everyone.

Getting the way cleared for shoppers
(Photo Courtesy of Deb's Key West Wine & Garden)

Snow on the shelters over each stall was an issue unless you had an older and more expensive model EZUp. I noticed our EZUp and one other that is the same year and kind had no problems shedding snow but all the cheapo EZUps people buy at Sam's Club and Wal-Mart were having some snow issues and had to be continually cleared. The EZ Up knock offs were even worse. The good news is as far as I know no one lost their shelters due to the snow loads. And we needed the shelters, otherwise all our food would have been covered under 3 to 4 inches of snow (maybe more). As it was, there was a good wind so quite a bit of snow did drift onto everyone's items unless they were tarped. Scott Downing's apples were covered in a nice blanket of snow (which could not have been good for the apples. I suppose they will make then into cider if they did get frost damage) and his honey jars were getting drifted in. At our stand the cash drawer started to fill up with snow and I had to abandon our tally sheet when it got too wet to be written upon (the pen would go right through the paper). But other than the tally sheet and some wet bills we had things well covered so nothing was harmed.

I thought I was going to be cold at market. I had good boots and a hat but had forgotten gloves. Not an issue as it turned out. For some reason, my hands were toasty warm through out the market. Maybe this was because the day before I spent several hours washing the leafy greens in freezing salt water to get the dirt and slugs off of the food before packing and selling it (nothing like a 3" slug crawling out of one salad...) so my hands were used to the cold. I dunno. I do know I had no need for gloves which is good as they tend to get in the way for me and make it hard to pick things up.

Chicken was a hot seller. Sold out of all that we brought (2 roasters and 5 Cornish hens). Leeks also sold well but we still have a lot of them (I believe we brought around 100 of them and sold 3/4). Butternut squash is always a good seller for us. we also sold a lot of arugula, all the red mustard, about half the spring mix (I don't know why this doesn't sell better, its' great salad. So much better than organic mixes at the grocery), almost all the spinach (which I thought would sell out), most of the salad radishes but none of the cooking radishes (probably because they were displayed badly so no one knew we had them), a lot of potatoes sold but few sweet potatoes (again because they were displayed badly).

At 11:30 we quickly packed up, drove over to UDF to get some gasoline than we slowly drove home via the back roads we always take. We had a bad problem with the wipers icing over and becoming useless. We stopped 3 times to clear them between Oxford and Eaton. And cleared them twice while in Eaton buying beer and dog food and picking up the mail. Finally got home and unloaded the van and than watched the people sliding up the 40' Pitch. That was great as it became a communal event. As a vehicle got stuck on the pitch people behind them would get out of their cars and help push the vehicles up the hill. It was good to get home before the roads got really bad.

The rest of the day I napped-Once I got home and unloaded I found that I was pretty exhausted

The 2007 Season Was a Good One

Our regular marketing season is over for 2007 and it was a good one. Despite drought, high heat, insect hoards and other environmental ills we had a great season. The garden produced well for us (thanx to drip irrigation and a lot of skill, especially on Eugene's part) and we broke our one day sales record at least 5 times this season. We did not break our yearly sales records due to slow sales in July and early August but we are working on that.

I give a big round of applause to Larry the OFMU manager. He did a really nice job of managing the Saturday market. I had my doubts about him early on when our sales were lagging, lots of changes were made to the Saturday market that involved craft people setting up and selling and it seemed that the attendance was down. I was against this letting a lot of crafter/artisans set up at market idea due to horror stories from other market farmers about how the artisans took over the farmers market and pushed the farmers out completely. But, after watching how the market grew because of craft vendors I am not as against this idea any longer. Still, I must take a wait and see attitude as the artisans could usurp the market from us farmers 5 or 10 years down the line. For now, the artists nicely fill space and attract customers to the market (though food is definitely the main reason for going to the farmers market).

The Tuesday market was not quite as good as past years as far as sales go but it was far better as far as farmer attendance. Not once did we have a week where we were the only people setting up. We always had at least 2 stands and usually 4 to 6 set up. There were a couple of weeks when no one came to market due to weather, but what can you do? I believe that next year the Tuesday market will do better than in the past. One thing I noticed this fall was that a lot of Miami Students are suddenly interested in local and organic food and were thrilled to find a farmers market that was open when they were awake (early Saturday mornings are not good for most undergrads and quite a few grad students).

The Tuesday market was a lot more fun than Saturday because it is smaller and far less busy. On Saturdays we would get to market set up for 15 to 20 minutes (a quick set up as we have around a ton of food to get out on the tables) and than do nothing but sell, sell, sell until after 11:30. No socializing with the other farmers, no buying from other farmers, just selling. And this is a good thing. But Tuesdays were a lot more laid back. we would show up around 4pm, haul our tables, shelter, produce, signs, etc., from the van to the grass and take about 20 minutes to set up (often making a couple of sales while setting up). We would get done with setting up and if there were no customers around (common) we would socialize with Debra and whomever else was there (Don, The Ellises, Dan the Tee Shirt man, J Harris). Around 5pm Eugene would be sent for malts at UDF as the three of us would get malts every Tuesday. I usually got a peanut butter malt made with chocolate milk. Debra would get a chocolate malt and Eugene got whatever was on sale. Some weeks we would be pretty busy during the market other weeks would would talk of all sorts of things from politics to opera to birding. And of course there was the 3rd of July market when we got removed from the park for the day so the City's Parks and Recreation Dept could have their 4th of July kids carnival on July 3rd without letting us Farmers know about the change (it's not like we didn't have a permit for that park for every Tuesday evening may through October). Yeah I am still pissed off about that glitch. but overall I am really pleased with both markets.

Now, if we can get the farm store off the ground we will be golden. The farm store, I am afraid, is not thriving the way the other markets are. I believe a lot of this has to do with lack of publicity. The people who need to know about us do not. The local population (PC/Eaton) simply does not care much about local and organic foods. Most seem to be very content to shop at the local Wal-Mart and eat awful processed food. I suppose in another 10 to 15 years the locals will realize that local and organic is the only safe way to eat. But for now, they do not. So I have to get the word out to people in the Dayton and Cincinnati areas that we exist and are well worth the effort to find. I don't know if paid ads are the way to go or to just depend on the local Harvest/New farm/Boulder Belt Website listings. I have recently found a great list serv called Cincinnati Locavores that is full of people seeking local foods. they only problem is few on the list seem willing to drive out to the farms to get food off season. They all want the food no more than 5 to 10 minutes away, just like Wal-Mart or Kroger's

As long as the FDA and USDA keep on providing all of us with scary suspect food I can see only growth for local food and that should mean better and better sales in 2008.

Full MOON Harvest Fest Pictures

Pictures from the Full MOON Festival held last Sunday in Oxford, OH. It was a really wonderful celebration of local foods. The purpose of this event was to raise awareness about the Miami Oxford Organic Network (MOON) and the fact we are trying to open a store in Oxford that will be a full service local foods store and co-op. Boulder Belt has been a full member since the inception of MOON which used to be the Miami/Whitewater OEFFA Chapter

Buying Cider

The Pumpkin painting area

Larry and Bernadette Whipping the crowd into a local foods frenzy

Smolder

The Weldons

3/4 of John Kogge and the Lonesome Stangers

These are regular customers of ours and yet I do not know their names. But than I can be a complete buffoon when it comes to remembering names. Sometimes I think we should all be required to wear name tags.

2nd to Last Saturday Market Day

This past weekend went by fast. We did two farmers markets in Oxford.

Saturday was the Uptown market that we have been going to for the past 3 years. It was one of the few gray and rainy markets we have had all year (a great thing about drought is lots and lots of sunny days. Makes doing outdoor markets easier). It was a cold one too, with a nice damp stiff breeze cutting through things. And because we are almost into November it was quite dark because the sun was still in the process of rising when we got there around 7:40am (market starts at 7:30am, we were late).

So we did not have high hopes for a good market. We were wrong, we had our second to best market ever by selling a lot of tomatoes, peppers, leeks, scallions, arugula, basil, potatoes, etc.. I believe the bulk of our sales happened in about 1.5 hours. It was intense. That's over $700 in sales in less than 2 hours. not bad. I suspect we will do better next year because the market will be better (it gets better every year and right now has the rare combination of a good manager and a good governing board and I believe Larry will be back next year to run the market and most the board members still have a year left in their reigns).

We went home via the Streits so we could pick up our raw milk for the week. Talk to Joe and Janet for about a half hour. Met a young hippie couple from Yellow Springs who were also picking up milk and other things. Eugene marveled over the fact these people drove over an hour to buy milk and other organic items. He forgot that were are doing the same thing to get raw milk (though we do live a lot closer to the Streits than the folks from YS) and if we did not raise most of our produce and poultry needs we too would drive hours to get the food we need.

Finally, got home around 2pm hungry and we still had to unload the van (which was not nearly as hard as loading at 6am because we had sold a lot of stuff and had around 15 empty crates), make lunch and get a nap. Together we unloaded the van and put food where it needed to go and than had tuna sandwiches and took a much needed nap (you would too if you had already worked a 8 hour day by 3pm). Eugene got up before me and went out to the garden to cover the few crops that were not already covered because frost was predicted for Sunday morning (and we did get a light frost, finally!). I got up as the sun was beginning to set, quite groggy from sleep. Fed the dogs because they demanded feeding and did not do a whole lot after that because Saturdays wipe me out.

Harvest MOON Festival

This is where we will be Sunday, You should be too.

Great Markets

Eugene selling a customer (and future customer) a butternut squash mere minutes before the crowds gathered

We have had a great late summer farmers market season. In all but one Saturday the last 4 weeks we have broken, no shattered, sales records. And that feels so good. Finally, after 14 years of learning how to do this we can make a decent living instead of just barely eking by. This does not mean we are getting rich, not by any means. But what we are doing is making close to minimum wage instead of making around $2.80 an hour, working 60+ hours a week.

The Saturday farmers market in Uptown Oxford is becoming THE place to be on Saturday mornings. Used to be we would get to market at 7:20am or so, get set up by 7:45am and not sell much of anything until around 9am. So I would wander around the market and talk to people and buy things like meat and eggs from other farmers. No more. Now we need to get there by 7:00am (this almost never happens) so we are pretty much ready to go when the bell is rung at 7:30 because the crowds will start to gather by 8:00am and by 8:30 the crowd is there enforce and the serious selling starts. I kinda miss not getting to talk to the other growers and vendors and it has become almost impossible to buy locally produced items I do not grow/make myself. Eggs are easy because Karen Baldwin is just two stands down from me and I can get over there before we are completely set up, say good morning and buy a dozen eggs and than get back to the stand. Buying meat form either the Filbruns or Bill Miller/Bob Harris is trickier because they are at the other side of the market and it can take me up to a half hour to get over there and back because I will pass by people with whom I want to chat for a few minutes. Repeat a minute or two of light conversation 10 times and one has eaten up a half hour.

What can I say, the farmers market is my social time. Or it was until things got much, much busier. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. I am in this business to make a living and a dead farmers market is no way to make a living. I have been there, done that and never want to repeat that again. It is great that the foot traffic through the market has increased about 100% over this time least year. We must get around 800 to 1000 people through the market these days vs around 450 to 600 last year. If things keep on going the way they are this market should get around 3000 people through in another year or two.

Kudos to the market board for making the market better each and every week and all the eaters who are waking up and smelling the fair trade coffee and buying local.

Tue Mkt Treated Badly by Oxford, OH

Yesterday I found out just how much Oxford, Ohio values is farmers markets-Very little.

Tuesday has been farmers market day in Uptown Oxford for the past 12 years-That's right, 12 years. We set up this market on the north side of the Memorial Park and have so for as long as he park has been in existance. We have filled out and filed with the city the proper permits to do this market legally.

And yet yesterday afternoon when we showed up in Oxford a 4:10 pm (we were a bit late as we were planting some sweet potato slips we had grown) the park was being used for a 3rd of July festival (why this was not done on the 4th is beyond me) put on by the Parks and Recreation folks. And the market was banned from setting up in he park. his would not have been so bad if someone from the Parks and Recreation dept had contacted either me or Debra Bowles about our site being used for the day. If they had we would have either cancelled or better yet, asked if we could be a part of the festivities-afterall what is more American than a farmers market? And I do not know why this did not happen as there has been a partnership formed between the P&R dept and OFMU, the Tuesday market's governing body. So in theory, if the P&R was really taking the farmers markets in Oxford seriously, we should have been involved in his event. Bu obviously the Oxford P&R (and I believe the City as well) are not taking the farmers markets in Oxford seriously and that is a shame as they are totally missing the point that farmers markets are always an asset.

Okay, so we get here, Debra sees us and tells us that we are to set up in the back of the public parking lot where we have our Saturday market. Don Schwab is already set up there. He tells us a tale of getting rudely kicked out of the park by the P&R people (who should be welcoming us, especially since they are stepping on our toes by usurping our rightful territory). I later find out that the City had made no contingency plan for the Tuesday market and wanted to just cancel us.

Fortunately Oxford has Diana Durr who runs the Visitors and Convention Bureau and is a champion of Farmers markets. She told the city they had to allow us to set up in he public lot since we had permits and OFMU does pay to use the lot. So she got them to okay the parking lot at the last minute and we were allowed to set up our market. She is also the only person to apologise for the mix up (which was not her fault). It would be nice to also get an apology from the P&R people where were less than pleasant to the Tuesday market and who also did not tell us that there would be a conflict. Wotta bunch of Maroons (as Bugs Bunny would say)

So here we are set up away from he festivities, barely allowed to set up our farmers market signs so that our public could find up now that we are a 1/2 block away from our normal haunts (and studies show moving a market just 100' will mean a major decrease in sales). The market was set up 45 minutes behind schedule and sales were slow-the slowest in 4 or 5 years. A few of our customers did indeed find us bu mos did not and so we pretty much wasted our time sitting out behind a big festival that we should have been included in had anyone associated with this event had a functioning brain.

Call me very pissed off about this whole thing