Wednesday, May 19, 2010

First Gridley Farmer’s Market



Hello from Windmill Farm. Tuesday was the first night of the 2010 season for the Gridley Farmer’s Market. It has moved from being downtown Gridley to the parking lot of Ace Hardware right off of Highway 99. The vendors all believe that the attendance will be much better with the exposure to the large numbers of cars going by Hwy 99.
It was fun seeing all our friends that we had not seen since last October with the last market day. I personally did not sell anything from our garden, but went to help and support my friend Tina, owner of Happy Chick Farm to sell her eggs. The display was so cute, straw in a bushel barrel with a mound high of farm fresh eggs. You pick your own to put in your egg carton which seems to be a lot of fun for people to do or their children to do.
Next week, my produce will be ready for our first week of deliveries to my CSA garden members. The cherries are ripe, along with Swiss chard, kale, beets, radishes, lots of lettuce, onions, potatoes, snow peas, rosemary, basil, possibly some potatoes and parsley. My farm fresh, free range eggs will be available and if I ever run out during the 2010 garden season, then Happy Chick Farm, will provide the fresh eggs. I have some roses and hydrangeas blooming for a fresh flower arrangement. I also have the partnership with Douglass Ranch, who raises grass fed, no hormone beef; and Llano Seco Organic sausage and bacon. Gosh, if we ever had some really warm days, we might get the rest of the garden moving. I have never seen so long of a spring here in Gridley. Usually at this time, I would be complaining about the heat!!
Windmill Farm hosted a local garden club last Sunday and we all had a wonderful afternoon. It is always fun to have people share and appreciate our gardening efforts and it is also helpful to have others make suggestions to solve some plant problems.
If we have enough cherries after we provide our CSA members with their shares, I hope to sell some at the Farmer’s Market and at my roadside stand. Frank and I have eaten so many; we both got a stomach ache last night. We have put our netting over the trees so we do not loose so many to the crows. If they would just eat the whole cherry, I wouldn’t mind, but they peck at it once and then move on to another cherry, wasting so many to rot. Bella, our cutie German shepherd who is now over a year old and weighs about 70 lbs keeps getting caught in the netting when we are up in the tree picking. Dogs are so helpful in the garden!! Bella and Annie both love it right after the garden has been watered. They just look for the mud puddles. After I garden, I wash up at the faucet and both of the dogs just stand next to me because they know they will be next to be washed down from the dirt and mud.
Life is great here at Windmill Farm.

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