I did make it to the market over the past few weeks, despite being deep in the midst of workshopping my play at the Huntington Theatre Company. On each Thursday so far, sales have continued to climb–we’ve had good weather for the market and we’ve been picking more and more produce.
On July 12th, we added mustard greens, zucchini, and sweet cubanelle peppers to the mix (plus lots more garlic). Last week, on the 19th, we added sweet bell peppers and hot serano and jalapeno peppers, tavera green beans, and some potatoes. And the basil bunches grow larger and larger. Last week, I actually had to use all three tables to set up our stand, we had so much stuff to sell. And the good news is that we managed to sell most of it.
On the 12th, we had a new neighbor, as Boston Main Streets intern Meaghan Overton set up next to us, to conduct a survey of the market customers. It was great fun chatting with her, and I very much look forward to seeing the results of the data she was gathering. Finding ways to increase the traffic at the market is important to all the vendors, and having real, meaningful numbers should help.
We continue to check books out from our lending library. About half of the books are now out–I’m hoping that some will start to come back soon. One of the great pleasures of being at the market is interacting with return customers (especially when they tell me how much they enjoyed the veggies they bought the previous week).
Back at home our garlic is now curing nicely on the wall of our back porch. I love the way it looks and smells. We harvested about 250 heads of garlic, and our customers really like them. I don’t think they’ll last long.
Tomorrow looks to be the first market day for us with inclement weather–we’re expecting rain and thunderstorms. I’ll have to figure out how much to adjust the amount of produce that I pick and bring to market. I’ve got my fingers crossed that maybe it won’t be too bad and some people will still come out to buy our vegetables.