July 30, 2015

Good morning, Boy Howdy!!! if you haven’t been to market lately, I suggest you come down. The last three weeks of July has been it has hit critical mass and has been a real happening place.

It seems like every week we are getting new vendors and the patron attendance is way up too. The Market opens at 9 AM and it is a steady stream of folks all the way up to closing at noon. It is sooooo cool how we now have 4 vendors that are growing veggies. This has made it so we do not sell out of veggies in the first hour. This is AWESOME.!!! Imagine a farmers' market that has plenty of veggies. I like it!!!

This past week end was Viva Big Bend and the market lived up to the expectations from years past numbers for market visitors.

It also is real cool how Tom Curry got a bunch of friends to drop by the market and jam. The live music was to die for. Having music at market really does add a hole new dimension to the market. It invites folks to just come and hang out.

Deb and I have been doing the farmers market since 2004 and it is soooo cool to see the vision of a fun robust and growing market come true. This “train” has been a long time coming!!!! It is like we are all one huge family. I like it!!!

Last week before we cleaned up the back part of the court yard, we filled up the court yard with vendors and the place looked a bit crowded. There was around 20 vendors. This week we added another canopy on the east side of the market and it made for a ton of extra space for vendors. Last count on Saturday we had 27 vendors with room for more!! I look forward to getting all the spaces in the courtyard filled so that when we make the move and close off east Murphy Street there are several vendors out front.

These are exciting times!!!

The cucurbits are hanging in there. I had ordered some of the Pyganic pyrethrin spray and it just was not coming. So I went back to the order receipt to see what was up. Well hidden under the order status , I might say in very small obscure letters was a link to click where it said back ordered in large letters with no time given when it would be shipped. Their price (which may be why it is back ordered) was too good to pass up. So I went to Johnny's and ordered it. I will ,eventually, have two bottles of the stuff and hope it lives up to its billing. Really do not need hype. The cloud of cucumber beetles grow and they are moving into less desirable munching. Patience.

Even with the hoard of beetles the garden is producing quite well. I did dig up a sweet that looked like the ground was beginning to crack from tubers expansion. When I harvested them, they were much smaller than what I had hoped for. I may try part of the bed towards the back and see if that makes a deference.

Welllll what with the surplus of veggies especially the toms I am adding two items to the canned good offerings. The first offering is a salsa. I think it has a pretty good balance of heat to flavor but then again it has been said my tastes are suspect. I stand by it tastes pretty good. Secondly I have canned tomatoes. These are organic culture toms with no salt added to the processing. Salt (sodium) free is difficult to find on the open market.

Lastly it was a wonderful surprise to get .37 in the rain gauge during the early ours of the morn and it was equally surprising to get another .32 in the afternoon. I went ahead and watered none the less and feel I got some real nice deep watering for the roots. Sigh life is good!