 |
| Editor’s
NOTE:
We serve a diverse audience of readers engaged
in regenerative, organic and sustainable agriculture
at many levels for many reasons. We want to hear
from you about the issues that are important to
your life and work, and your vision for agriculture
that builds a strong future.
We run selected comments from readers in this
space. Please tell us who you are, with name,
address and phone number for verification. Sending
correspondence to us conveys a right to us to
publish it as is, or in a form edited for length
and/or style. Opinions expressed in this space
do not necessarily represent the perspective of
The New Farm® or The Rodale Institute®.
If you have something important to say about
agriculture in a sustainable global food system,
please -- speak
to us.
NF
|
|
Dear New Farm,
Our farm (Callahan's Produce) in Port Angeles, Washington
is doing pretty well. We just started going to one of our
local farmer's markets in September (we have two here in Port
Angeles). At first it seemed like a lot of bother having to
pick everything and get the tables and the canopy ready. Most
things here at the farm are U-pick. But getting the customers
here wasn’t enough. We had to go to them.
Our Port Angeles downtown market is open Wednesday afternoon
(not through the winter) and Saturday 10-2 (year ’round).
It seemed like so many of the vendors have regulars, people
who come only to their stands, and come every week. Pretty
soon, we started getting more folks looking our produce over
and now we have some ‘regulars’, too. Our vendors
are so much fun, too, and even though we may all carry similar
products, new vendors are always welcome. And we sort of let
one another know if we brought something maybe they don’t
have, or if we run out we know another booth still has some.
I think the customers appreciate that too. It's a fun, social
time.
Food swapping is my favorite time! I love the huge snickerdoodle
cookies our one lady brings from 50 miles away in Port Townsend.
We have music and go and visit other booths. I’m so
glad we started going! Yes, it’s a lot of work, picking
and digging, cleaning and trimming, packaging and tying, loading
and unloading, setting up...but when customers come back and
tell you they want your carrots or loved your salad greens,
ask if you brought any of those great sweet snap peas, it’s
worth it. We do work hard, but we feel proud to offer great-tasting,
great-looking and great-for-you produce. We tell our customers
at the market about the farm, and that we are open seven days
a week and are only five minutes away from the downtown farmer's
market.
Our customer base has grown here at the farm, we know, just
from the two months we have done the market; it looks like
we are going to have to plant a whole lot more in 2005! I
have about 30 pounds of garlic and well, let's just say "hundreds"
of daffodils, tulips and iris to go in the ground in the next
few days. Anyone wishing to email us, don't expect a real
quick answer back; it's seed research time too. We have over
30 kinds of salad greens at this point, some of which we are
going to be “experimenting with winter-cropping”
in our southern-facing hot house. Here's to sore muscles and
dirty hands!
Cookie Callahan
Port Angeles, Washington
calsproduce@usintouch.com
|
