See you at the farmer’s market

My homemade lotions and salves are selling very well at the three farmers’markets I have been vending at. I made a dream salve before the full moon that helps a person to have nice dreams and sleep well. That sold out fast. I am making this salve by the moon cycles. I made the first batch by the full moon and will make the next batch on the new moon. I should have made more of it, but I didn’t know how well it would go over. It sold out bam. I also was experimenting making a heating lotion. It does work, only it looks like green baby poop. I’m using it myself as I think it is too ugly to sell.

This is such a busy time of year. My eleven-year-old son Timmy and I are going to pick pears and plums today. It is not easy getting to the pear tree. It is across the road from our house and on a hill and we have to walk through prickly trees to get to the pear tree. If we don’t get the pears today, I am afraid the cows will get through the fence and eat all of them. It is humid and I know that the pears are all ripe. The plums are beautiful this year. I flavored apple cider vinegar with the wild plums and added basil, fennel and rosemary to enhance it. I will strain off the plums and herbs in two weeks and then it will be ready to bottle and sell.

I am getting ready to go to the Farmers’ Market in Owatonna tomorrow. I missed it last week as it was raining. I can’t let the labels get wet that I have on my products as the ink runs and they get ruined. I was at the market there two weeks ago and set my table up by a woman that was soliciting people to sign a petition so she can open an animal shelter in Bixby, Minnesota. She was also selling sweet corn, tomatoes and watermelon. The people in charge of the Owatonna Farmers’ Market don’t like this woman, as her produce is clearly not from her farm. No one else is selling watermelon, as the summer has been so cold and overcast, that the melons are not
ripening. This woman also buys produce from other vendors who have questioned where her produce comes from and then she resells the produce from these vendors. This woman speaks nonstop about her cause to save the animals in Steele County. She also talks constantly about the many people who have done her wrong and the grudges she holds and how she is going payback this or that person. She has a gravelly voice from smoking, is small and wiry and has a constant companion of little Pomeranian dog. The dog is very well behaved and cute as can be. He is the best part about her but I am going to make sure that I don’t have my table near her this coming weekend.

This woman is an exception, as most of the vendors at the Farmer’s Markets are some of the most innovative and creative people around. At the Austin Farmers’ Market one of the vendors who has worked at Hormel Foods for thirty years sells beautiful potatoes, onions and cabbages. He is so proud of his large white baking potatoes. Every week he walks over to my table to show me how beautiful they are. They really are the most beautiful potatoes that I have seen at any market. He holds them carefully and is in awe that he actually grew such beautiful white potatoes.

I grew potatoes this year, but I am not selling them at the markets. If I had started selling my produce ten years ago at the markets, then I could sell my potatoes, but people seek out the same vendors every time that they come to the market and won’t buy from someone who is new. I have to build up my clientele and then they might purchase potatoes from me. I really don’t care, as I will eat my potatoes myself or give them to my children. The summer is ending quickly and I have only a few more weeks of selling at the farmers’ markets. It has been a lot of fun and I am learning so much.