First Farmer’s Market Today!

How the farm looked yesterday after harvest.

This afternoon, we’ll do our first ever farmer’s market, in Jamaica Plain, at the Loring-Greenough House, from 2-7pm.  In the raging heat.

I’m as nervous as a kid on the first day of kindergarten.

Yesterday, Noah and I went up to the farm to harvest. I’d originally planned to pick this morning, but we’re in the midst of a heat wave, and it made sense to try to get the greens picked before they got really heated up.  They’ll actually be fresher this way (staying in our new coolers overnight), than if I’d picked them today.

This morning, I need to load up the car and see if everything will fit (and still fit Kira and Noah, whom I’m dragging along with me).  It’s supposed to be in the mid- to upper-90s today, so it could seem like a long afternoon.  I have no idea if customers will actually come out to brave the heat.

Selling greens is particularly challenging on hot days, because they tend to wilt in the heat (as do the farmers).  But we’ve got everything on ice right now, so we’ll do our best to keep it all perky.

This early in the season, our harvest is still very small.  Here’s what we’ll have today:

• snow peas (4-5 pints)
• garlic scapes (4-5 bundles)
• 9 bunches of kale
• 5 bunches of chard
• 14 heads up lettuce
• 3 bunches of lavender

It’s not a lot, but it’s a start.  Hopefully people won’t be too shy to visit a small farm stand like ours (at most markets, customers tend to flock to the larger, multi-tent, overflowing stands).  It’d be very, very good to sell out, but I really don’t know what to expect.

If you’re around JP this afternoon, I hope you’ll come by and chat.  (And check out our tiny lending library, too.)  (And buy some veggies.)