saturday winter market

in my previous post, i say 'let the growing season begin.' however, i am not sure it ever ended. yesterday was the once a month winter market at oakmont. what did we have to sell in the middle february?? well, besides lots of meat, bird seed, wheat berries and a few winter squash, we had greens, greens and more greens. we took with us to market about 8lbs of salad mix, 2lbs of spinach and 2lbs of arugula. (remember, greens don't weigh very much. there was a mountain, not hill, of salad mix on the kitchen table on friday.) we also had bags of swiss chard, mustard greens, vitamin greens and cilantro. the spinach and mustard have been growing outside all winter under 2 layers of clear plastic, the rest has been growing in the greenhouse. altogether, we took 70 some bags (of varying weights) of greens to market with us. we came back with...10 bags. that is pretty impressive in my book. so when i say 'let the growing season begin,' when did it end?? it is awesome to be growing greens in the winter because people want them. market was buzzing yesterday. there were 4 farmer vendors at market (plus a vendor with pies and one with candles). everyone had great products to sell. and there were people there who wanted our products. and it is the middle of february (and cold and windy yesterday). it was such a great sight to see so much activity at market and such a desire for what we took the time to grow, wash and package for them.

one of the sessions i went to at the growers conference was talking about growing greens in the winter. he said, if you can, grow them because people want them. and he was right. he also said that the good old days of farmers working their asses off from march through october is over. i would agree with that. yes, i have had a couple of chances to take time off work this winter, but when i am at work, i am working. we don't sit around wondering what to do next. we catch up from last year, prepare for this year and continue with growing (on a smaller scale) and winter markets.