Trip to the Farmer’s Market
May 31, 2009 by Eliza Ferree
Filed under Family, Parenting
Yesterday we stopped off at our local Farmer’s Market and had a ton of fun. The kids have never been to one of these, I did once when I was in my early twenties but I’ve never lived near an area that did it ever since that time. So hearing they had one in town until the end of May meant we had to at least check it out. I imagined all those fresh fruits and veggies but didn’t expect everything.
IMG: Elizabeth Ferree
When we told the kids where we were going we were asked questions such as:
“Will we see cows? What about sheep? Can they let us visit their farm? Oh can we just buy a farm from them?”
Yes, the kids know how much I really, really want to live on a farm. I’d love to raise a few animals, have fresh eggs, have goat’s milk and try my hand at gardening. I would love to live away from the city with some property. I have never been one to live near the city, traffic scares me and I hate driving. We did answer each of their questions, but more kept coming. As we pulled in they couldn’t get out of the car fast enough.
To be fair this was not a farmer’s market like I thought, maybe they all went on vacation or couldn’t make it this month. But there were about 7-10 little tents set up, some had vegetables, jams, plants, seedlings, soaps, etc. We bought two of the homemade jams, one strawberry and the other Hot Pepper Jam and they gave us a huge bag of spicy spinach leaves (which I have no clue how to use), another we bought 5 little plants (peppers, jalapeno, tomato and some others that had no names). We also stopped by and bought a few homemade muffins and honey sticks. Before leaving the hubby had to stop off at the beef tent and bought $50 worth of meat, we ate a few sirloins last night and while I’m not much of a red meat fan I certainly loved these.
IMG: Elizabeth Ferree
My son (SoccerBoy) insisted on this little guy that got broke during their drive out here and looked very sad. Honestly I don’t know if it’ll make it but he insisted we could try because no one else would. It already had a pepper on it. Anyone know how to help this little guy?
So hopefully our beautiful vegetable plants grow and produce something. I never can get them to grow from seeds. The kids though had full bellies and can’t wait to go back. Next time we were told they’ll have even more tomatoes, so we are already looking at recipes to use with tomatoes. I better end this my biscuits just finished baking and I want to use that Hot Pepper Jam. Yummy, smells good.
Eliza, replant the pepper in a larger pot, I’d say like an 18 inch pot, then fill with potting soil, make a well in the center, remove the pepper plant, and submerge it in the soil. Pat firm. Water. Then, place in a protected spot until it perks up again. You can plant some flowers around the sides, like Marigold which will call bees to the plant, so that you end up with more than one pepper. You can also grow tomatoes in big pots on the patio.
I’m glad that you had fun at the market. I wonder if they have any other markets within your area. Do you have a Certified Farmer’s Market association anywhere near you? They’d have a list.
I love farmer’s markets! Sounds like you had a good time! I hope your pepper plant makes it. Looks like they let him dry out too much. It might come out of it if you water it well, and get it replanted in it’s permanent home as soon as possible (like Michelle said above). I’m like your son, I’m a sucker for sad looking plants in the Spring:-)
just updating, that little pepper stem (base) sprouted lots of little green leaves. However the pepper did die, this looks to be thriving.