Selling Out

Wow - what a crazy month! I can't believe it's Memorial Day already. The season has started off with a tremendous bang this year. I guess the local food movement has really taken hold in Saratoga Springs; we've had some of the busiest markets ever. In fact, the past two Saturdays have grossed more in sales than any of our previous markets - ever. We have had a hard time keeping up with demand, selling out of most produce well before the end of market. Fortunately, with all the warm weather our production has finally started to kick in and this past week we at least had salad mix until the closing bell.

We have had a nice selection of spring crops to offer: lettuce, spinach, arugula, baby boc choi, stir-fry greens, salad turnips, radishes, broccolini, cilantro, sprouts, and shiitake mushrooms. We should continue to have most of these crops for the next few weeks, although broccolini may be about done - with the summer heat it all budded at once. Snap peas, scallions, and escarole are still a few weeks away.
Apparently, everyone in Saratoga is also putting in a garden this year. Plant sales have been incredible so far. In the past two weeks we have sold over a thousand tomato plants - which is far more than we've ever sold in the past. Sales have also been vigorous for peppers, eggplant, lettuce, and herbs. We really appreciate and thank all our dedicated customers for coming out and supporting the market and our farm. The market has been crowded and hectic this year, making it difficult to give customers the attention and service that we ideally like to provide - thanks for your patience and understanding.

Back on the farm, things have been busy too. Due to our abbreviated season this year, we have really tried to scale back on labor, to reduce costs and balance out our reduced income. Thankfully, Martin B. has returned for a third season and is doing a great job keeping the farm going. So far between the two of us, we have managed to keep up with all the greenhouse seedings, transplanting, and harvesting. Unfortunately, there has not been much time for weeding, and this has finally started to catch up to us - maybe this week...

Finally today I had a chance to do some much needed mowing. This is actually a pleasant way to spend a Sunday - there is a certain Zen quality to the slow progression back and forth through the tall fields (despite the diesel fumes). Below is a photo of an absolutely beautiful field of flowering vetch, just before I mowed it. This is the same field that was 'frost seeded' to clover and and annual rye in March. The vetch was seeded in the late fall the previous October and I didn't think too much of it had made it though the winter, but wonder of wonders, it all took off later in the spring. I did not find too much evidence of the clover/rye, but that's okay, vetch makes a pretty nice fallow season crop as well. I hated to mow it, it was so nice to look at, but I was afraid to let it go to seed and potentially become a weed problem in future seasons.

Mowing also gives you a chance to see things on the farm that you would not ordinarily see. While mowing an adjacent area I narrowly just missed running over this little guy...

Thank God I saw him in time... the Wood Turtle is one of my all time favorite creatures. They spend some of their lives in water, and some on land, thus the name. Unfortunately, they love to wander around in the tall grass on a warm summer afternoon. We figure this guy we 15 to 20 years old, based on the rings of his shell.

Well that's all for now. Enjoy the summer weather, walk bare foot through some tall grass, just watch out for the mower.