yesterday, after i did the westerly market, i took a few moments for myself, and sat in a spot overlooking a small marina, and the ocean. it felt so good to be there, and the view was so tranquil. i felt that that was a real gift to myself.
earlier, at the market, i was talking to the woman next to me, who also sells produce. she's older, and i asked her for how long she's been a farmer. she said forever, since she grew up on a farm and she's been doing her own after that. i asked her how she liked farming, and she said that sometimes it gets really crazy, like around corn time, but in general, she said she likes being with her vegetables, nobody telling her what to do, working to her own rythm. i really like this aspect too. i guess it's one of the best things about working for yourself.
i was also asking her about something that's been challenging me lately: working in the sun and heat. i find it hard to be out in the field between 11am and 4pm, on hot sunny days. it feels like life drains right out of me, after about 1 hr in the sun. i wear a hat, and drink plenty of water, but still, i have a hard time. working early in the morning, and late in the afternoon feels so different, so much better. this woman said that she has the same problem, and many other women farmers do too. she thinks it's a woman thing, which i can't really comment on, except to say that ed does seem to do much better in the sun than i, he actually enjoys it....
so i didn't really get any resolution to this yet. obviously, i can't not be in the sun between 11 and 4, that would take out the whole day pretty much. i'm going to try working in short spurts and then going in the shade for a break; and maybe i'll drink lemon water, or water with a splash of cider vinegar instead of just plain, maybe that will be more refreshing. if anyone has any other ideas, let me know.
ed and i have been talking everyday, trying to figure out how to best divide the tasks that need to be done, inside and outside. i guess this is a challenge with working for yourself. the stuff is always there, you can never leave the work at "work". it takes discipline, planning what to do every day, and knowing when you've done enough, knowing when it's time to relax. ed's a really good planner, and he's a really hard worker (too hard sometimes). i work differently that he, i go with my feelings more, and that makes it harder to plan. so we're working with our differences, trying to make things go as smoothly as possible.
one thing that we've been doing is sitting down, just the two of us, every morning and going over the things that need to be done that day. this has helped eliminate a lot of misunderstanding, and lessened my stress considerably. we put all the tasks down on a piece of paper and then divide them. we put the stuff that has to be done in the field, and also the house stuff, like cooking, laundry, etc. i always felt like that stuff was invisible, and i was the one that was responsible for doing it. so now ed's been taking on more of the house stuff, like dishes, laundry (i'm too attached to the cooking to let him have it, but maybe he can do the chopping for me...), and this frees me up to take on more outside stuff.
things get really crazy especially on the weekend when we have two markets in a row, so being organized is really important. speaking of markets, we're doing well. we sell more and more with each market, and right now we've reached the limit of what we can sell. ed plowed another field, and we're getting it ready to plant more vegetables. we want to have more variety and more quantity. people seem to really want our stuff. last saturday, at the storrs market, i sold out in the first 45 minutes. it was crazy, i had a mob of people at my table, and i could not keep up with all of them. when everything was gone, i called ed, who was home with the kids, and told him to pick more stuff, and he said we don't have any more. he was eventually able to pick some beets and onions, and brought them to the market (which is 5 min from our house, fortunately), and even as he got there, people came back to the table, and we sold everything before we even had a chance to bunch them the way we usually do. it was crazy. other markets have picked up too, not that dramatically, slowly but consistently. that's why we need to plow more field, and grow more stuff. we'll see how much we can do before we reach our own limits.
peace
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