I'm comin' in!

So, I have decided to change things up a bit this year. Normally I do a couple of craft shows early in the year; the first one is always at the end of February, and then one in March, one in April and then the outdoor Freight House Farmers' Market starts the first weekend in May and runs through the end of October. I wanted to cut back on the craft shows; I'm not giving them up all together, but just rearranging things a bit so that my income is more consistent and things are not so frantic in the fall, thus making me less crazy during the busy Craft show season....my husband would argue that my special kind of crazy has nothing to do with the craft shows...I digress. I have a plan. What I have decided to do is to start selling at the farmers' market right away...I actually started last week....sorry that I did not inform you of my plans in a more timely manner..now you are caught up. You may be wondering if I have lost my mind. A farmers' market in January, in Iowa? Why, yes, my friends, we have an INDOOR market here. I will certainly miss being outside all summer long, but when I weighed it out, there were just too many positives to pass up the chance to move inside. And I do have a pretty nice view of the outside from my space inside.

I bought myself a sweet little refrigerator off of Craigslist for my eggs (don't you just love Craigslist....minus the murder thing, of course, but still..). No more schlepping coolers full of ice and trying to maintain the proper temperature when it's 90 degrees outside in August. No more trying to hold onto a canopy that decides that it wants to fly with the wind. No more setting up and tearing down every day.  I set up my booth inside, I bring fresh eggs and baked goods every Saturday and Tuesday and bring home whatever is left, and done!
You may be wondering: what can you get at a farmers' market in the dead of winter?
Well...almost anything you can get in the summer. Of course, this time of year most of the produce is not local...as I mentioned, it's January, in Iowa..but it's still colorful and yummy.

There are lots of baked goods. Including my own cookies, Salted Nut Rolls and jam....which I neglected to photograph.

Handmade soaps.

 And pasta.

Olive oils.

 And local honey.

I love these repurposed wool items.

...especially these adorable little birds. I need a whole flock of the chickens that she makes for my Christmas tree next year.

Beside my normal wares of handspun yarn, eggs, baked goods, salted nut rolls and handmade clay figurines, I am partnering with my friend Lori, from Sommarang Farm in Wisconsin, to sell her roving and raw fleece at market.

 Come on, spinners, you know you want some!

Also, you may find my friend Cassie from Farm Genevieve in a booth next to me soon, she will be selling her handspun yarn, hooked rugs and other fiber art. We are just going to have a little fiber fiesta going on down there every Saturday and Tuesday.......but not this Tuesday,
because.....

 "Potentially Historic Snowstorm Expected through Wednesday
Two rounds of snow will affect eastern Iowa, northwest Illinois and northeast Missouri early this week.


 A major winter storm system will begin to impact the region late Tuesday morning into Wednesday, with the heaviest snowfall expected from midday Tuesday through about daybreak Wednesday. Snowfall  amounts of 10 to 16 inches are possible. To the southeast, totals of 16 to 20 inches are possible. In addition to the high snowfall totals, winds will increase to 20 to 35 mph with gusts up to 45 mph from Tuesday night into Wednesday resulting in considerable blowing and drifting snow, especially in open and rural areas. Visibilities will likely be reduced in whiteout conditions and snow drifts may reach several feet high.


Putting the two events together, 60 hour snowfall totals ending at 6 pm Wednesday will range from 7 to 23 inches from northwest to southeast. Some of these totals will approach historic events for both 24 hour snowfalls and storm total snowfalls. For more information on local snowfall records, see the latest public information statement here.


Frigid temperatures will surge in behind the storm with wind chill values mainly between 0° and -25° from Wednesday morning through early Friday."

OK then...I am guessing that the groundhog is not even going to come out of hibernation on Wednesday, let alone see his shadow! Stay warm, my friends!

Koi shopping-it's not for sissies.

Typically on Friday, I watch the weather forecast closely to determine whether or not I should proceed with baking and preparation for Saturday's farmers' market. I generally attend market every Saturday unless the weather is truly horrid-if there is too much rain baked goods and yarn just don't fare very well for some strange reason. Last Friday, the weather guessers were calling for rain on Saturday. Initially, the rain chances looked small so I wasn't very concerned, but as the day progressed the rain chances increased with each new forecast. I checked the radar for the last time at 2 AM Saturday and the predicted rain chances for the rest of the day Saturday was 100%.....100% all day...that didn't sound like great market weather. I made the decision to skip market.

When my sister, Marie, discovered that I would be playing hookie from market and would be free for the day, she asked if I would like to go along with her to get some Koi for her new pond. There was a shop located in Burlington, Iowa that she discovered on the Internet and she thought it might be a fun trip for us. Would I? Well, duh! Drive an hour and forty minutes to go and buy some fish? Of course! I am in!

I would just like to take this opportunity to point out that I am not just a slacker skipping work, we have indeed had a LOT of rain in Iowa. We don't grow rice here, so this field really shouldn't be this wet.

When I told my husband, Gary, what Marie and I were planning-we were going to Burlington to get fish and probably coming right back. He looked a bit sideways at me and chuckled, "You and Marie are going off together and you are only going one place and coming right back?" "Yes, well...probably" was my response. He laughed and said, "Well, I guess I will see you later tonight then." Why would he say that? It isn't like Marie and I ever get sidetracked on our adventures. Notice that in my original statement I did add "probably" as a qualifier.
We left my house around 7:30 AM. Marie wanted to get to our destination,Tender Top Water Gardens and Nursery, right when the shop opens for business at 9AM because she wanted to make sure she would get the best selection of fish.
When we arrived, we were surprised to find a beautiful old barn converted to a shop. It was surrounded by lovely gardens, water features and original wood, iron and glass artwork designed by the shop owners.
The gardens and ponds were so quiet, peaceful and serene. In retrospect it was probably so quiet because we were the only fools looking for plants and fish in the pouring rain on a Saturday morning..but still, it was quite lovely.

Something new to see around every turn.

Sue Kershner, the owner, was very helpful and friendly, but we also had lots of assistance from Salem, the Kershner's kitty.

Who doesn't love a poly dactyl kitty?

After spending an hour or so at Tender Tops, we pointed the car in the direction of home and hit the road again. Notice that I said, "pointed the car in the direction", that in no way implies that we were actually going straight home....after all, Marie was driving and she is given to bouts of A.D.O.S. (attention deficit....Ooooohhhh, shiny!). So, a few miles down the road I noticed a sign for a greenhouse, and it was right on the way soooo, why not stop? OK, admittedly I have a small case of A.D.O.S. myself.

We stopped at Barnyard Blooms. This is an adorable shop with antiques and gifts scattered about inside the two story barn and a nice selection of plants and flowers on the grounds.
I found this awesome enamelware colander hiding on a display in the shop. I am a bit obsessed with enamelware and this piece was one of my favorite colors, but I resisted the urge to buy it since I have sworn off shopping for a while...especially since I had skipped market for the day and was missing out on that income, but my very thoughtful sister surprised me by buying it for me : ). This was only the beginning of our unscheduled adventures along the way. There was a need to stop at Lowes-they have a large garden center and always have a sale rack in the back with plants that just need a bit of TLC....similar story with Menard's and Farm & Fleet. From the Farm & Fleet parking lot we noticed a sign across the way for Ritter's Garden Center...had to stop there too. Then there was Mairet's. "Hey didn't that used to be Hoop's Melon Shed? I wonder what is in there now...we better check it out!"

"Huffman's Farm Store?" "Sure, why not?"

By this point in time we were starting to get a little hungry, but we were having a hard time finding somewhere to get lunch. We passed a cute place in Wapello, Iowa and, as charming as it seemed, couldn't bring ourselves to eat there. Maybe it was the sign, "The Honey Hole Diner, Bait & Tackle". Call us crazy, as inticing as that sounded, we opted to pass.

We decided that it was probably time that we head for home and call it a day. By the time we got back, it was 4 PM...yes, we left at 7:30 AM and were "Just going to pick up fish." I later pointed out to Maire that: A) It took us longer to go to a town that is normally an hour and a half away than it takes to drive across the entire state of Iowa. B) We passed a couple of shopping malls along the route and never even thought of stopping at one, but we didn't miss a single garden center, farm store or greenhouse in our travels.

Oh, and we did actually find some Koi.
Here is Marie with some of her new little friends. Sorry for the misty picture but the camera lens was a bit foggy since, well, we were out in the rain all day....coincidentally, the 100% chance of rain here at home apparently never materialized into more than a few brief showers...looks like I could have gone to market after all...but look at all the fun I would have missed.

It's Friday afternoon, do you know where your kitchen table is?

I can rarely find my kitchen table on Fridays. I know where it is, really, I do. This table-clutter problem arises every Friday as it is my main "prep" day for Saturday's market, causing my kitchen to become enveloped in all things of a markety nature.

Some of the things that are obstructing the view to my table are the many jams and jellies that I make all year long. The jam usually lives in my pantry but being that I don't always remember things unless they are in plain sight the jam makes it's migration to the table on Friday so that I won't forget to load it...still not a guarantee. Much of the produce to make the jams is harvested from the trees and gardens on our property and then frozen or canned while it is in season. Our Rhubarb is growing fast and furious right now, so Wednesday I made a batch of fresh Strawberry Rhubarb Jam-one of my favorites. I was searching for other ways to use up some of my tart little rhubarb friends and came across a recipe for Blueberry Rhubarb jam...hmmm....interesting. When I mentioned to my dear husband that I thought I would try making the blueberry/rhubarb concoction for next weekend's market, he wrinkled his nose and with a look of great pain on his face said, "Ewww, you can't do that, blueberries and rhubarb don't belong together!" Well, he has been married to me long enough to know better-if you tell me it can't/shouldn't be done-it's getting done. Now he has sealed his fate, he will be eating blueberry rhubarb jam on his toast next week....I will let you know how that all turns out. In the mean time, I have a large collection of other flavors headed for market: Blueberry, pear butter, caramel apple, peach, pear, strawberry, apple pie, strawberry rhubarb...why is that any different than blueberry rhubarb?
Salted Nut Rolls also adorn my table, for the time being.

For the first few markets I only bake about 5 different varieties of cookies. Once the season gets fully underway I will have about 8 varieties plus "Puppy Chow" and some other snacks. I do all of my baking on Fridays because I am kind of a freshness nut...among other types of nuts that I have been called. Interestingly many of my neighbors 'happen' to stop by on Fridays...coincidence?
Fridays are impossibly busy and always fly by so quickly. Once the baking is done everything has to be labeled, the truck has to be loaded, any produce that I am taking needs to be harvested and cleaned, hand spun yarn gets boxed, clay figurines need to be packed and loaded and lastly, eggs are sorted and ready to put into the cooler in the morning. You may be wondering- if I am so busy why am I writing on my blog? Well...I have to do something while I am waiting for the oven timer to go off every ten minutes or so!

Incidentally, I am not very excited about the weather forecast for tomorrow morning-

Cloudy and 39 degrees by morning with winds at 15-25 miles per hour......I may be eating a lot of baked goods myself.

To market to market.......

Today was the opening day for the outdoor Freight House Farmers' Market. I sometimes do not relish getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturdays-even before my roosters have awakened, to load the truck, drive all the way downtown and get my booth set up before the sun comes up, but I must admit I was very excited this morning at the prospect of seeing my fellow vendors and my favorite customers again. There is always somewhat of a party atmosphere at market, especially so on opening day.

See, there was even a marching band performing!

Even some of the dogs got in on the celebration.....I am not sure what a dog has to do to get this number of Mardi Gras beads.....

One of the things that draws many people to the market is the endless array of goodies. Unfortunately, I am drawn to the goodies as well and I am forced to be in close proximity to them for a good portion of every Saturday. Most people gain extra weight in the winter, but I place the blame for my summer 'Farmer's Market 5' squarely on the shoulders (or pastries) of my market buddies....or ARE they my buddies???

Market generally turns into a 5 hour long brunch.
I guess you could eat healthy...if you wanted to.....but I don't eat meat so I clearly had no choice but the goodies.
My other downfall is the selection of beautiful plants that are available. I am probably safe for the short term since most of the bedding plants are not quite ready for sale..yet. I will be in HUGE trouble when my next door vendor returns with his Hostas. I am addicted to hostas and unfortunately there are thousands of varieties and even a few that I don't have..yet. Maybe...a few. There were lots of nice hanging baskets this week though.


It was also fun to see all of my canine friends again. There are three booths that sell gourmet doggie treats so there are a large number of dogs in attendance at the market. Like these three cuties.
Oops, four.
There are also ample opportunities for 'people watching'. It is one of the few places where you can see manly-men doing what they probably consider to be kind of unmanly-man stuff. Like carrying around baskets of pretty flowers for their wives....and looking SO excited about it.
Or walking his wife's cute little dog that happens to be sporting a John Deere tee-shirt and bandanna....maybe the John Deere tee-shirt was an attempt to 'man up' the little dog.

Or carrying a hot dog shaped balloon.........
Yep, I needed to see that again too....
I am really hoping that this guy is a hot dog vendor.

Thanks to all of my regular customers for making it a great day today and for finding me after the market shuffle.