A Slow Hoeliday Weekend

On Saturday I sold out at the market by 11. There were five other strawberry vendors who all sold out first. Next time this happens, I think I'll take advantage of being last and raise my price a dollar a quart.

I put an ad in the paper for Saturday & Sunday. Unfortunately there were two typos: U-Pick Strawberry's, instead of ies. & then the road name was misspelled. I don't care too much about the berry typo, but the road name does not auto correct on map searches. I've been trying to call to complain but the classifieds line has been tied up for hours. I think they know I'm gunning for them.

The U-Pick opened on Sunday and has been going for two days now. The traffic is half of what I wish it would be: 10 cars each day. I've asked each how they heard about us and most have said from signs I've put on the nearby roads. A few people have called from the newspaper ad, but they have yet to show up. I intend to put more signs up as they seem to really be working and I'll need more people yet or the strawberries will outgrow the pickers. I was afraid to whisper before, but now I'm looking for a megaphone.

We had a casualty Sunday morning. Within an hour of setting up the tent and stand the wind picked up and snapped the legs off it. It's unfortunate, but another vendor at the market foretold this happening saying, "O, a camping tent. I've seen a fair few of those fold over themselves." The Farmette's mother bought it for us and we're sad to have lost it, especially since the next tier of tents is three times the price.

My hay fever has been horrendous recently and I rubbed the skin around my eyes raw yesterday. Very unenjoyable. But it led me to write this haiku:

Spring is beautiful

But these are tears of hatred

Emphasis on hay

I bought jars for strawberry jam. I joined an internet game forum in middle school and while we've all outgrown that game, there's still about thirty of us posting together. They've been asking me for my honey for a year now, demanding I mail it to Australia, Canada, England, Sweden, &c. So my plan is to make it a honey jar & strawberry jam combo package. I'll be using the "bads," all the berries with bug bites or sun spots for the jam. They're still good and delicious, but I can't sell them. Every four or five quarts of good berries produces one bad quart, so I have plenty to use.

I've been extra busy the past three weeks and have had very little time off, but now that U-Pick has begun I find myself in an odd position: I'm working, but I'm not actively doing anything. I tried working in the field between customers but I missed two because of it. They pulled up to the stand, stood around for a minute, and then drove away before I could get to them. This down time led to the haiku mentioned earlier, and now this post. Tomorrow I'll be back to picking as many berries as I can though in preparation for the downtown Wednesday market.

A Helping Hoe

I'm so bad at updating and there's so very much to update about so I'll try my best to be brief.

My cousin got hitched a couple weekends ago and the whole Honest Farmer family was in town for it. My parents and sisters helped my in the field two afternoons and had a great time. While digging holes for tomato transplants one sister yelped at every new bug she encountered: grubs, caterpillars, worms, spiders. She was very brave and I was proud of her conquering her tiny many-limbed fears. We were all fortunate the gnats weren't out in swarms.

Speaking of swarms, I found one near my hives on a dead thorn bush as I was looking for shovels. I offered my mother a chance at helping me catch the bees but she said it was a man's job and volunteered hers. We geared up and gave it a go but the bush was at the top of a steep ditch slope and it wasn't easy. Somehow bees kept flying into my helmet and eventually the Big B (my assistant) was holding the hive and holding the back of my helmet closed while I shook thousands of bees off their prickly perch and onto the frames.

Normally swarming bees are docile; these were not. They took to the skies around us and I will admit now that I kept my cool despite bees in the helmet mostly to save face in front of the big guy helping me. It took two tries to get the queen in the box. Also, the swarm was huge: 30k strong probably. At least three times larger than any other swarm I've seen. Thanks B—we did good with those monsters.

The parents stayed an extra week to help on the farm and we got the brambles completely trellised (a huge and ancient box to check off on that to-do list) and also picked the first strawberries and sold at both the major markets I'm attending this year. Mom found a fantastic strawberry table cloth for the booth, and the Honest Farmette made two Berry Best Farm t-shirts and a cloth banner for the booth. Thanks to these ladies I look like I belong at these big-league markets.

The strawberries are coming on faster every day. Four flats have been picked so far this season but I'm picking tomorrow with the Farmette for Wednesday morning's market and I'm hoping for at least four, hopefully 6. Soon I won't have a choice but to open it up for U-pick. I'm playing it by ear and keeping closed lips right now. So many people have been asking already I have no worries about too little too late in terms of advertising. I imagine if I put a single sign just down the road that sees .5 cars per minute I'll be picked out by hour's end.

And because this is Spring, my favorite malady is back: hay fever. I now look like bandit at all times while outside. I don't think it's necessarily a bad look for me, and it certainly works to keep my allergies under control, but I realized as I pulled open the front doors at the bank today that there's a time and a place for everything.

The upcoming crops to be added to the list are: snow/snap peas, spinach, & lettuce. Also, the blackberries have flowers on them and I look forward to them producing for the first time.