I love going to the farmer’s market and feeling the energy of the crowd, connecting with my favorite farmers, picking out the best produce, just generally enjoying the open air market. For the past two summers I’ve done most of my produce shopping there.
Today I realized as I drove to the market that there’s less I need to buy. That I now have to really think about what I need. And basically I don’t need to buy any veggies beyond garlic. Right now everything we need is being supplied by the garden. I have to consciously limit my purchases to fruit, cheese, bread, etc and be sure not to buy things that are already in oversupply in the garden.
It’s a strange transition to go through. One of my favorite farmers finally made their reappearance for the season this week and while I stopped to say hi, I couldn’t buy anything as all they had to sell was lettuce and onion – both of which we have in plenty. I stopped to chat with another favorite farmer and had to limit myself to strawberries and some grape sized new potatoes when usually I would have also bought radish, spinach, herbs or carrots. Instead I asked advice about how to tell when t harvest potatoes.
At the same time that I’m joyful that the garden is actually thriving and starting to feed us I’m also missing those relationships and connections. I don’t know what I’ll do next year when the cherry trees are bigger, the strawberry beds are mature and we’ve got raspberry canes. Thank goodness we can’t grow peaches or nectarines, I’m too lazy to make cheese or bread and that our asparagus is still a year or so away. At least I’ll still have an excuse to go to the market…
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In other news some sure signs of summer have arrived in the garden. I found the first of the potatoes by accident yesterday while pulling weeds. After finding one, I went on a hunt around the bases of the other flowering red potatoes. I’m not sure it’s the “right” way to harvest early potatoes, but it seems not to have hurt the plants and it yielded about 2 lbs of them from 5 hills. I sent half home with Megera as a thank you for weeding and we ate the rest tonight.
Today we picked and ate the first 4 cherry tomatoes of the year. Turns out the green tomatoes from the garden update turned yellow. In talking to my mom I realized that tomatoes that turn yellow are usually “yellow” varieties so I went and looked up Mirabelle. Turns out they were ripe! We munched on them standing in the garden this afternoon. Thanks to Denise for the starts from her greenhouse – they’re the only ones with green tomatoes so far.
And the broccoli is going gangbusters. There are about 6 heads out there ready to harvest and side shoots forming on the 4 heads we’ve already taken. Tonight we ate some purple sprouting broccoli with the potatoes and some grilled halibut (yum!) and later this week the rest will be blanched and frozen for this winter.
I never expected that almost everything I planted would do so well. I feel quite proud of what I’ve grown so far – to the point that I feel like perhaps I should stop talking about the successes and fill you in on some failures too?
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Yum, isn’t it great! I miss my farmer pals, but love eating from the garden. What variety of sprouting broccoli did you plant? I’m hoping to try that in the hoop house.
Ali
These are beautiful!! Congratulations on your bounty
I understand your dilemma; I’ve felt so invested in the success of the vendors at the market that it feels strange not to be buying from them as I used to. And Mirabelle! Aren’t they fabulous? I grew them for the first time last year and they were the best of the cherries with Super Snow White running a close second.
Yes! Please share your failures, too. As a newbie gardener with a very brown and dry thumb all of the garden sucesses everyone posts about make me feel like a loser gardener. I keep thinking ‘maybe next year’ stuff will grow well. I am beginning to think it has alot more to do with living in this climate and locale. It’s not very conducive to growing much of anything. sigh.
But I am wonderfully thrilled for you with all of your beautiful bounty. Your green thumb is glowing day-glo green! hehe
Ali – I’m actually not sure as I bought starts at the Seattle Tilth plant sale and they were simply marked “purple sprouting broccoli”. I doubt they were anything exotic, but it sure is delicious!
Robbyn – thanks!
Marcyincny – I completely agree about how strange it feels not to buy a little it from everyone the way I used to. And the Mirabelle’s were fantastic. I can’t wait until more of them ripen.
Twinville – a post just for you went up moments ago. Don’t feel bad about your failures – the only other time I tried this as an adult I killed everything but the tomatoes…
I’m jealous! You got a ripe tomato from my starts before I did.
I did go check our Mirabelle, though, and we have some pale yellow tomatoes. One of the brown cherries also appears to be almost ripe. I can’t wait.
I’m so happy to hear your garden is thriving and you’re already harvesting. I didn’t sign up for the CSA this year because I didn’t want to miss the freedom of going to the farmers’ market. You said it beautifully, the farmers, the open air, the discovery of something new. I long for a big garden but I’d be just like you and still want to go the market.
Glad you posted on the changing relationship with the farmer’s market. I feel the same way as my garden grows and my produce needs outside the backyard decline. That is partly why I am volunteering at the market this summer – so I can feel like I am still supporting them.
The garden looks great!