Tomorrow is opening day for the 2018 farmers market season and I cannot wait! Although to be completely honest, it’s more of a nervous excitement. I am a little worried that those visiting the market the first few Saturdays will be unimpressed by our spread, but I promise if you bear with us, we will not disappoint. Usually, Mother Nature is the one we blame when we are forced to plant later than we planned, but I think this year, it is was Jack Frost who overstayed his welcome. Even though we are a few weeks behind with our produce, we still have a lot of new and exciting things planned for this season
The ironic part of all of this is that during the off-season Dad built the hoop house in order to have produce earlier. However, we decided to get those plants from a greenhouse rather than start them from seed and it wasn’t until early May that we were able to pick them up.
Anyway, along with the hoop house we also added a few more garden plots (more than doubling the amount of plants we can grow). All this extra space allows us to experiment with different gardening techniques; I plan on sharing more on those once everything starts producing.
I realize that our greens are probably what makes us unique, so this year we are fully embracing it! I’m not talking anything too crazy, but we have expanded it to include different varieties and few new additions. We are hoping to have more lettuce and salad mix-ins to do our own salad mix (to be called “market mix”) that may vary week-to-week. We will also have some new produce along with all of your favorites. I would go into detail and tell you all the different types, but I think I learned my lesson last year! I don’t want to jinx it.
For those of you who enjoy Mom’s hydrangeas, you’ll be happy to know that we plan on having different types of flowers. I’m sure some of you missed the zinnias that our market neighbor previously sold, I know I did! However, if he returns this summer we will not encroach on his business. Therefore, we’ll either sell premade bouquets or sell our flowers outside of market.
That brings me to my next news bulletin, this year we are planning on working with Fromme Fresh (my brother’s farm/business). They are wanting to create weekly baskets and we will be supplementing some of their produce.We are still working out the details, so I will share more on that later. Last year we tried to provide produce outside of market days, but it was a little to hard to arrange. The hope is that by going through Fromme Fresh it will be easier for us to get our produce to the customer through their deliveries and pickup locations. If you want to learn more about them check out their Facebook page, Fromme Fresh, LLC.
I hope everyone makes it out to the Jasper Indiana Farmers Market at least once this market season. However if you come in the first few weeks, promise me you’ll come back later in the season to get a feel for what the market is really like. If you don’t live around here then please check out your local farmers market. There is nothing better than fresh- picked, local produce–except for perhaps the stories you get to hear about that produce from the grower. Can’t wait to catch up with everyone at the market, see you there!
Fromme Fresh 