I've been getting questions from folks as summer warms up as to whether or not I'll ever be doing any farmers markets again in the future.  For now, no.  I'm happy with the way our new CSA program is working, and I hope you are too.  I've found it to be far less labor-intensive and time-consuming than markets are.  And my favorite part?  No wasted food.

Food waste is the #1 contributor to climate change within our food system.  More so than growing methods, distribution practices, or packaging.  With my current system, nothing leaves the farm if it doesn't have a destined eater.  If you don't want it, it can hang out in the ground until next week, or I can find another buyer.  If that doesn't happen, it can go to a food pantry or I can even invite non-profit gleaning crews that will come pick unwanted produce to help feed the hungry.  Worst case scenario it just gets turned back into the ground to help feed the next crop without wasting the time, labor and fuel to cart it around hoping someone shows up to buy it.

I always felt gut-punched every single week at how incredibly wasteful markets can be.  After sitting out in the heat half the day, what's left is often not even fit to donate, let alone sell elsewhere.  A fair portion of what's brought to market is inevitably going to get damaged by shoppers.  Every local market I'm familiar with mandates that tables must still look full up until the end of the day, making it required to waste a significant amount of product.  Hang out for a bit after a market closes & watch it all get broken down.  You'll be flabbergasted at the volume of perishable food of all types that gets tossed back into trucks, with nowhere to go.  Yes, it can be composted rather than tossed in a landfill, but you're still looking at a tremendous waste of resources.  Was it a slow day?  It'll be ten times worse.  Multiply that by the estimated 8600 markets across the country, and that's a heartbreaking amount of food that goes to waste just to put on a pretty show.  Any farmer worth her salt is also going to work the cost of that wasted product into her market prices, making your food more expensive than it needs to be.  I'm not trying to trash farmers markets or make anyone feel guilty for shopping at them - but at what cost?  There is much room for improvement.

So reach around and give yourself a pat on the back for participating in a less wasteful, more environmentally friendly method of obtaining your food.  My goal is to run a zero-waste farm.  I'm not 100% there, but I feel a few giant steps closer without farmers markets. 

Spring feels like it's finally within sight, just over the horizon.  Lots of new plantings went in last week before the rains returned again.  Lots of greenhouse planting on tap for next week.  I haven't planted much of anything in the big greenhouse yet.  Why the wait?  Isn't a greenhouse for winter-sown plantings?  After so many recent water woes, I've decided my greenhouse space is more valuable as a dry space than a warm place.  It does feel very odd to be putting in field plantings before greenhouse plantings.  Holding back that dry space for long wet spells seems the wiser course now, in order to stay on top of the planting schedule.

Mostly I'm just so very hungry for real fresh live food.  I feel like a walking advertisement for the value in eating off my farm, where the food is clean from chemicals and still vibrant with life when you get it.  I have been eating supermarket food since September, and my body knows it.  That food is dead.  I go to the grocery store and I'm shocked that anyone has the audacity to charge good money for this junk.  Much of it is rotten within a day or two of purchase; other items survive a disturbingly long time in my fridge.  I don't feel nourished from it.  I haven't been eating anywhere near as much fresh produce as usual because it all turns me off and none of it tastes right.  I've been sick more often this one winter than I've been in decades.  There's something missing in it all that my body is craving so hard, the weeds outside are looking really good about now.

So April, please hurry up an deliver your lovely living shoots and greens.  I'd give almost anything for a real, crisp radish that's not a sad, spongy imposter which bounces off the floor when dropped.  Enough sunshine to make a tulip or two brightly bloom wouldn't hurt, either!  If you want your share of life-giving food (and flowers), CSA memberships are still available.  This is a market-style membership program where you choose what, how much, when, and where you get it.  The West Raleigh location is almost full, so don't delay if that's your pickup location of choice!

The farm will be closed until further notice due to damages from Hurricane Florence.  While my house and the farm's infrastructure are fine, all crops for the fall and winter have been lost.  I'm working to get things up and running again as soon as possible, and hope to see harvests rolling in again by early spring of next year.

I started growing a few flowers last year, which has elicited reactions ranging from confusion to rage.  I started growing them because they make me happy.  When asked, if I give this as an explanation, I get blank stares.  Every time.  Okay, for better or worse we do live in a culture that values profit and productivity over squishy concepts like happiness.  I continue to hear quite a bit of pushback over the flowers, so here's your explanation in profit-and-productivity language.

I have spent many hours over the past two winters analyzing the cost that goes into producing every vegetable that I grow.  The cost of seed and plants, soil inputs, what I call field rent (the amount of space a crop takes up + the amount of time that crop is in the ground), the cost and maintenance of machinery and infrastructure.  The cost of my labor.  I also need to consider the inevitable crop losses.  I don't get federal subsidies for growing produce.  I don't qualify for crop insurance if it all goes south.  I don't get paid for unsold produce on slow weeks when no one's interested in buying.  I don't get paid leave or sick days.  I personally assume 100% of the risk.  These factors need to be considered in the cost of my produce as well.

There is a razor-thin profit margin on most vegetables.  A small number are fairly profitable.  Most barely pay for themselves.  Some I lose money on, even in the best of seasons.  All of them need to be grown to create a market draw that keeps you coming back to buy every week.  Overall, I am not charging you what it actually costs me to grow a fair amount of your food.

Money is a touchy thing to talk about with the people who buy from me.  All say they want to see a farmer earn a decent living, but most will balk at the idea of costlier food.  And I don't want good food to be so expensive that only an elite few can afford it.  So let's go back to those flowers.  When I run the numbers on the flowers, a financial advisor might consider me insane for not throwing the vegetable side of things out the window, and just growing flowers.  Flowers pay the bills.  Flowers are absorbing the actual cost of your food. 

That flowers make me happy, and make me happy to share them with you - I'd like that to be enough.  If you think that''s silly, so be it.  It's food for my soul, and for many others.  If you don't want them, that's fine, no one's forcing you to buy them.  Do keep in mind that those flowers are subsidizing the real cost of your food.  And perhaps thank that flower-buyer next to you at the market for helping to pay for your produce.

Did you get outside for a bit this morning?  The sauna has dissipated, at least for a little while.  It actually felt cool for the first time in an eon this morning.  There was a delicious breeze, the sky was bluer than blue, it was in the 60s and it was not at all humid.  After months of working in hot soggy "air you can wear," it felt like everything heaven ever promised.

This week is one of those rare serendipitous weeks that are hard to come by in August.  It's a fair bit cooler.  The steam machine has backed way off.  No rain for a few weeks now, which means I have all the fall and winter crop plots - almost an acre - nicely worked up and weed-free.  It will continue to be dry; I like that for planting the cool-season crops.  I'd rather gently irrigate where I need it than see bruising thunderstorms pound the seedlings to a pulp and wash out all the little tiny shallowly planted root and greens seeds. 

The hot steamy weather has made it tough to get anything started in the ground so far; anything I've planted has wilted as soon as it germinates, despite my best efforts.  It's just been too hot; the soil will burn bare feet, which means the soil far too hot to support little seedlings of just about any kind.  Nor have I been able to move most of a few thousand veggie starts out of the shade, let alone into the field. 

A break in the weather means this week is THAT week.  I'm betting I won't get another near-perfect chance.  It all has to happen now, or we won't have much to eat for the next six months.  Timing is everything in farming, especially when trying to grow through the back half of the year.  There will be no deliveries, pick-ups, or markets this week.  All attention is going towards getting the cool-season crops planted, transplanted, happy and hale in the ground.   

Thanks as always for your business, and for your patient understanding.  We'll see you all again the week of August 29th.

I made a substantial addition to our laying flock in May to try and meet the increased demand from you for eggs.  The little girls are about three months old now, and recently moved from their enclosed brooder house to the 'Big Girls' yard where they are learning the finer points of scratching, running, foraging, and cackling from their older sisters.  The move involved more than a little running, swearing, sweating, and lunging - catching young flighty chickens is not one of my favorite activities - a new Olympic sport, maybe?  Everyone is settled in together nicely now, though we do have about another three months before the new girls start producing eggs.

I take a break every year for a week or two towards the end of the summer, and we're coming up on that time.  From about April through early August, this is a six and a half day per week sun-up to sun-down job, and farmers need vacations too!  The crop mix is in transition, I need a little extra time to make sure the fall and winter plantings get completed, and maybe most importantly I need a little extra time to just lay flat on the floor, do nothing, and breathe after a long summer.  Just a heads up; that break is coming up soon.

The Sungolds are rapidly dwindling, just a very few pints available this week.  We should have another round of cantaloupes and Sensation melons in a little while from a later planting; none this week.  No sweet Italian peppers this week unless you want them green - the plants are loaded down with green fruit, but I am still waiting on them to ripen to red.  Peppers have a tendency to come and go in short flushes over the course of their season; there will be plenty more in a bit.  Down to the last of the stored gold potatoes and sweet onions; I expect to be sold out by the end of the week.  Still oodles of okra, which unlike the rest of us, thrives on high heat and humidity.   Thanks as always for your business, stay cool, and have a great week!

One of the more rewarding parts of my job are the little things you all share with me, whether it's a family recipe, a story, a photo, or best of all, seeing the children I've helped feed over the years suddenly shoot up from toddlers in strollers to outstretching their parents.  A wonderful soul shared the photo up above with me last weekend.  It sums up everything I've been trying to say here for the last ten years.  I can get fairly long-winded in this space at times.  I have absolutely nothing to add to that beautiful note. 

Our tomatoes are done for the summer, except for the Sungold cherry tomatoes.  I know, tomato season always seems too short.  The reality of it is that we live in a hot, wet, humid climate.  Hot, wet, and humid are the perfect conditions for plant disease spores to breed.  I do my best to make sure we start with the healthiest possible plants, and give the soil everything a plant could possibly want.  Short of moving to a drier climate, or using a lot of nasty fungicides (I don't want to eat that either), we usually get a 6-8 week harvest period.  We got seven weeks of tomatoes this year; right on average, and I think it was a pretty good haul for what was an incredibly wet July.

A few watermelons this week; mostly 'Orangeglo' watermelons and a few reds.  Still lots of cantaloupes and 'Sensation' melons.  Drowning in eggplant and okra!  August's offerings can get a little light as most of our attention is turning towards getting fall and winter crops established - always a bit of a trick in the murky heat of late summer - so we all have good things to eat for the back half of the year.

Last but not least, would you like to take a survey?  The Midtown Farmers Market really wants to hear from you!  Complete their quick and painless one-page survey, and they'll put you in a drawing to win $50 in market bucks plus a $150 North Hills Mall gift card!  Sweet!!  Click on this link and make your voice heard! Thanks as always for your business, and have a great week!

The peppers are starting to come in with the heat of summer.  We often lose up to 50% of our peppers due to sunscald - there's just never enough foliage on the plants to prevent the fruits from getting burn spots.  It's the kind of heat only mad dogs and Englishmen venture out in lately, and nobody should be out there without a little protection from the mid-day sun.  So we made our peppers some hats last week out of shade cloth and piping.  Will it work?  We'll see, but it never hurts to try.

Our cucumber vines withered up into little dry crisps this weekend, and the beans may well go on hiatus for a bit.  Most warm-weather crops are fruiting crops, which means they produce a blossom, which needs to be pollinated, then set fruit.  That whole process gets aborted when temperatures rise too high, and especially when it never cools off at night (fun fact: did you know plants do most of their growing at night?)  We are definitely careening into the late summer crops: peppers, eggplant, melons, and okra, which can continue to set new blooms and fruits even when it's steamier than a sauna out there.  Still plenty of tomatoes, especially the tangy orange 'Kelloggs Breakfast,' juicy red 'Big Beefs,' and sweet pink "Mariannas Peace', but we aren't seeing any new green fruit set.  This could be the last week to get tomatoes in bulk quantities if you're looking to squirrel some away for the winter, or just stuff your face with tomatoes (and that's OK). 

Lots of new crops this week, many of which may be new to you, so a little explanation would probably be a good idea:

• 'Sensation' melons have a very soft white flesh, the flavor reminds me of the best perfectly ripe pear you ever ate with just a hint of cinnamon. 
• Sweet Italian peppers, also called Marconi peppers, are a long, tapered horn-shaped pepper.  They are just as sweet (if not sweeter) than a red bell pepper, with slightly thinner walls.  We love these for stir-fries and sautes. 
• We grew 'Aji Dulce' peppers at the persistent request of a regular customer (ask and you shall/maybe/sometimes receive!)  These are a small chinense variety of pepper that look exactly like habaneras, have no heat, but lots of flavor.  They're traditionally used to make a Caribbean sofrito, a sauteed mixture of the peppers, onion, and garlic, which is used to flavor everything from rice and beans, to meats, or veggies. 
• After sorting through all our stored onions, we also have a few cases of small baby sized sweet onions, about the size of pearl onions.  These would be perfect threaded onto skewers for grilled kabobs, dropped whole into stews, or just chomped down as is for all our fellow onion fans.

I think that's the run-down on the 'weird' crops for now.  We still have plenty of regular ol' tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes if that's your preference, but I do like to mix things up when I can get away with it!

One last note - did I mention it's a little toasty out there?  We need to pick as early in the day as possible to make sure your veggies get in out of the hot field to maintain good quality.  I'll admit we also like to preserve our own hides and get inside before the hottest part of the day as well.  For those of you who prefer to place pre-orders, you can help us out by getting your orders in a little earlier than usual, so we know what we need to have on hand for you.  We do love early birds!

Thanks as always for your business, and have a great week!

okra blossom

A big thank you to all who came out for the Tomato Tribute last Saturday at the Midtown Farmers Market.  Before dawn on Saturday morning we stacked the truck as high as we dared with crate after crate of tomatoes, drove into Raleigh ever so carefully, and you cleaned us out of nearly every tomato we brought to town.  That never happens!  We rejoiced in packing up and driving home a nearly empty truck on Saturday afternoon (then took a nap).  We still have a lot of tomatoes; I picked another truckload of tomatoes this morning, but we are starting to see them slip past their peak point.  What looks like a lot of green fruit left on the vines can ripen in a heartbeat through these dog days of summer.  Remember to eat your fill before they're gone!

We're still getting socked with heavy rains nearly every night, and praying for a stretch of dry weather so we can get our fields cleaned up and turned over for planting to fall and winter crops in August.  I usually like to try and grow a quick cover crop in between the spring and fall crops; that window is closed and gone.  Now we are just hoping to be able to get it all in decent shape by the first of August or so - yikes - just two weeks away!  It doesn't take long for the ground to dry out enough to work it over when it's in the 90s every day, but we desperately need more than one or two days between torrential thunderstorms.  Not that I get to decide what the weather will bring, but given a choice between a dry summer or a wet one, I would choose a dry one every time.

Quite a few of you were asking about melons and sweet peppers last week - they'll be here soon!  I try to time these to ripen in August (or at least post-peak tomato season), because no one here wants to haul 500+ pounds of tomatoes out of the field one box at a time then lug another truckload or two of heavy watermelons in when the heat index has topped 100 by noon.  One heavy crop at a time, I say!  Both crops are shaping up nicely (though both could use less rain) and with a little luck should start appearing in a few weeks.

Thanks as always for your business, and have a great week!

I saw this article in the Washington Post two weeks ago, and it suddenly hit home.  That's why.  We've seen a dramatic downturn in our sales at both our farmers markets this year, but I've been struggling to figure out why.  I've heard the same from farmers all across our area.  Our crops are the same, we haven't had any major losses, we've been chugging along just the same as the past decade, but suddenly...you all just aren't into it?  What's going on?

I asked for your thoughts last week.  I got a lot of feedback - thank you! - from mostly those of you who already grocery shop with us on a weekly basis.  I would have loved to hear from some of our more casual, infrequent shoppers.  I'm still all ears if you'd care to put your two cents in. 

There is never one simple answer to a complex problem, but I think it boils down to largely one thing:  there are simply too many farmers markets in our wider community.  The number of markets have doubled in the past ten years, and someone is still forever trying to create new ones in every untouched corner.  Everyone wants a market they can get to within walking distance or a few minutes' drive from their home.  That's just not feasible.

There are not enough farmers to supply all these small local markets.  There are not enough patrons to supply all these small local markets.  The market customer shows up, expecting a dazzling array of produce, meats, bread, cheese, and more.  The farmer, who spent months in advance growing and preparing those items, the farmer who labored an 18-hour day the day before and stayed up til midnight making sure all was in order, the farmer who drove a long distance into town to get to the market, began to set up at 6am, and paid for the privilege of selling for four short hours, must have more than a handful of market patrons come buy their product in order to make all of that worthwhile. 

The one comment I heard from those of you who responded was "we want to see more produce, more food vendors."  I have repeatedly seen markets try to grow by adding additional farms and food vendors, only to watch most of them vanish within a few weeks or months because they are not pulling in the profits they need.  This is a tough business.  I desperately want to see the number of markets in Wake County downsized.  And please, for the love of carrots, stop opening new ones.  Tighten it up and run them well, and the customer will be happy, and the farmer will survive.

The article in the paper suggested that the boom days of farmers markets are over, and farmers need to diversify in order to stay in business.  We always have.  It is never a wise thing to put all your eggs in one basket, literally or proverbially.  A small farm will lose money hand over fist wholesaling to grocery stores.  The restaurant trade infuriates me - chefs want my best quality produce for the least amount of money, will never order consistently, and need the product delivered on a whim and a moment's notice to boot.  I understand why, I've worked in restaurants before, but I can't do that.  I love our CSA members, but we are forever shaving many tiny profits off the top with those discounts.

Farmers markets - strong, vibrant ones - remain our most profitable venue.  And even then we aren't exactly making a killing selling lettuce and tomatoes.  I don't do this for the money.  I do need to make a living.  It's still a business, and I need to turn a profit to remain viable. 

I will leave you with my favorite response that I received last week (edited for brevity):

I LOVE the North Hills market.  I am incredibly grateful to know the people who raise the plants and animals I eat. I cook almost all of our meals, and the freshness and quality can't be beat, but that's not why I do it (although it helps!). I do it because it feeds my soul as well as my body. It gives me joy to support my local community and people who grow food. It kills me how little respect farmers get in our culture at large when they (you) are quite literally responsible for keeping our bodies alive. And how people nickle and dime when it comes to food. It's going in your body. It's nourishing you and keeping you alive. Can people seriously not value that? I honestly don't think food costs enough. And I will always go to the market to buy food, not because it's a lifestyle choice or to socialize.

I think you and our community of farmers at the NH market are so wonderful, and I hope SO MUCH that the trend you're seeing from the article doesn't impact you in a negative way.

And very sincerely, thank you.

And thank you.  We hope to keep seeing you out there.