celebrating

We had a beautiful equinox celebration last week. It was at Anita and Brian's, and there weren't many of us there, which felt just perfect. Anita set a table out in the field, and the kids decorated it with fresh flowers. Brian made a huge bonfire and everyone brought food to share. I think everyone there brought food which they had grown, which was really cool. Alice had some amazing baked beans, which I'm going to have to grow next year. They were so tasty! I made gypsy soup and a radish salad on the side. Anita made a kick-ass pesto, and mashed potatoes with leeks and kale. I got to meet the owner of Beltane farm, whose goat cheese I've been eating for years. He brought some fresh chevre to the party.

It got dark soon after we started eating, and it just felt so nice to be sitting out there in the open, enjoying good food, great friends, and a beautiful roaring fire. I love fire!

This weekend I will be preparing for aiyana's birthday party, which we're having on monday. I let her decide who to invite, and it's definitely a weird mix of people, but that's a reflection of her craziness and loveliness, which I love to honor.

Other than that, things are good. my field looks beautiful. I love going out there every day and taking care of it. The season's definitely winding down, and one of our markets already ended last weekend. It was a great market, in Ashford, and I'd love to do it again next season. We were told that our farm was a great addition to it, and that it drew in quite a few people. I feel that we built a pretty solid base of customers there this seasons, who appreciated our vegetables, and came back regularly.

The Westerly market will also be ending soon. I don't think we'll be going back there next season though. We did as well as in Ashford financially speaking, but I feel that it has a lot less potential for the future. Most people who come there are on vacation, and by the time they get to appreciate our stuff, it's time for them to go home. So it's hard to build a solid base of regulars... This is also the only market where it seems that people want to get their food cheap, value price over quality or any other consideration. I had a woman last week telling me "there's no competition here" and when I asked her what she meant she said that my prices were the same as the guy next to me, and I told her that's because we both work as hard, and we're not going to undercut each other. That's not what we're about. but I'm not sure she got it. Many people are too caught up in the supermarket model to be able to understand how a small farm operates.

Storrs farmers market, our biggest one, will be going into November, which I'm happy about. we do really well there, and have lots of regular customers, and it's also the closest market to our house, literally half a mile away.

there are 2 winter markets i know of, that we could potentially be part of, but i think we'll hold off on that this year; we'll have enough going on with getting the house ready to move into, and getting our field prepped for next season to worry about winter markets. we're getting a greenhouse soon though, which is very exciting, since we'll be able to start seedlings for next season as early as december....

peace