Boy, I like Farmer's Market Day!

Typically life is busy at home. The gardens are enjoyable AND time consuming. Pulling weeds or collecting seeds, though, are only conversations with my garden. Saturdays, after running helter skelter getting ready, are spent chatting with faces I recognize, meeting new faces...getting paid; it's wonderful! The carry over benefit is that customers at the Farmer's Market come visit our store during the week and my life conversation with the garden expands and I have humans to enjoy as well. (yes, my children and husband are human.....and I see them every day)

Getting paid is neat, too. I am not being funny. Really. Getting paid is neat. All year long is spent with different kinds of tasks to make the greenhouse and gardens more beautiful and productive. The question:

"What is going to make this year better than last? What veggies fed us best, sold the best, grew the best? What area on the property is going to be changed? (we have a little bit over an acre to feed us, make beautiful and bring in income)

Example:
Last year we used way too much garden space for brassicas that we struggle to grow every year. Do we want to spend time figuring out how to make broccoli grow or should we plant more crops that we KNOW do well, feed us and sell? We had like 4 stinking rows planted with cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts. The broccoli and cauliflower produced so little and I spent SOOOooooo much time hand picking caterpillars and beginning my every morning with coffee & vehement disgust, the decision we reached to NOT plant brassicas was quick and easy. Dig it?

Winter time is spent planting new beds inside, evaluating best use of space, inventorying, cleaning the store, planning spring time etc... On the way to spring, seeds are started for seedling sales, for starts in our own gardens... Spring comes and beds outside are prepared, new beds are turned and amended for plants, the question of what is going to make this year better than last is applied always.

So when summer comes along and we are harvesting the firsts from the gardens; the snow peas, baby patty pans and zucchinis, making little bouquets of edible flowers and culinary herbs, it is immensely satisfying and life affirming to receive, in exchange for our labors, money to pay the electric bill.