I’ve got a Halloween treat for you - something by a
talented new writer!
One of our young vendors, Mabel Brubacker, recently sent me
this remembrance of the 2015 growing season which I think you will enjoy. (She wrote this while on a trip out west - that's her at the Grand Canyon.)
It might be hard to
create a clear picture with a blurry mixture of planting, weeding, harvesting
and selling in my memory, so maybe I'll just write about each activity, which
repeated itself throughout the summer and is mostly all we did!
We had a wet year which
made planting hard and gave the weeds the upper hand, but all in all we had a
pretty good year for produce. Every few weeks we started another setting of
3-4,000 plants. David and Matthew did most of that, filling the trays with dirt
and planting a seed in each pot, then Dad kept the plants watered till they
were ready to be transplanted into the plastic mulch in the produce field. That
was a long job for the whole crew! One person would punch holes in the plastic,
some would plant the seedlings into the holes, others followed up with water,
and then finally a large handful of dirt went around the plants.
Weeding seemed never
ending and a losing battle this year with all the rain, and the weeds did get
the upper hand, despite the hours upon hours we spent trying to subdue them.
Often it was so wet they just transplanted themselves after we hoed them out
and continued growing. Then produce picking days...morning to night days, busy
with picking the veggies, washing them and packing them into crates. We had the
whole nine yards at one time or the other.
Market days are work and
kept us hopping too: three days a week each to Springfield and Webb City... but
selling is the rewarding part of raising produce - piling the fruit of your
labors on the tables and watching happy customers choose what's most appealing
to them and walk away with a bagful! The market in Webb City is my
favorite!
And we girls also do some
baking...I enjoy baking and started off doing it myself and selling in
Springfield. We prefer to use whole wheat flour and started off with mostly
that kind of baked goods, but when the main baker in the Webb City market retired
we started baking for that market. My sisters began helping since I couldn't
do it all anymore. We also decided to make things with white flour since the many
of the customers seem to prefer that. I still make whole wheat bread and that
sells more by far than the white bread. I also use whole wheat flour in the
cinnamon rolls and cheese breads I make. Ruth has mastered the cookies, Sarah
makes pies and quick breads, and Mary does the cakes, bars and pumpkin rolls.
Those sell like hot cakes!
So that's what we've been
busy with, in addition to daily housework, canning and freezing fruits and
vegetables.
In October produce season
was slowing, but we stayed busy getting ready for our long trip to the west coast
for the wedding. (Mabel’s brother Lloyd was married last week.) It feels good to have most of the things
wrapped up we'd been hoping to.
The winter squash are all
harvested and most of the produce patches plowed down. We worked up some
Concord grapes the other week, mostly into juice, then last week we got our
yearly apple order from Waverly, and put up 75 gallons of cider, some
applesauce, and pie filling.
Mabel is part of Harmony Hill Farm near Wentworth. Like our
other farmers, the Brubackers work very hard but love what they do. Many of us will
be happy to see them tomorrow after their two week absence for the wedding.
Another vendor we’ll welcome back tomorrow is Cottage Small
Coffee Roasters. We’ve been missing Josh and Genevieve Moore and their
excellent coffee beans most of the summer while they secured a new roaster. Finally,
they’re back!
Tomorrow is our last Cooking for a Cause of the Season. It
benefits the Joplin Humane Society. Pancakes, grilled ham and eggs to order.
The Mayfields from Ozark are playing. AND it’s Halloween so
everyone who shows up in a costume gets a free mini-bag of kettle corn! (Alright, even kids in regular clothes are
going to get a bag too.)
Don’t forget that Tuesday markets are done for the season. Next
Saturday we start our Christkindlmarket so expect to see lots of gift ideas, as well as many of our regular
vendors loaded with produce, baked goods, eggs, meats and other goodies. We’ll
also have a new vendor with cracked pecans that she’s harvesting just for you
this week. Watch for details in next week’s column.
