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.