Farmer's Market

[Marilyn]

So glad that I decided to visit the Farmer's Market yesterday. My little pot garden was a flop due to, I believe, too much fertilizer. I bought some fresh home grown tomatoes, squash (zuchinni and yellow straight neck), cucumbers and cantelope. They are all sooo good. My only regret is that I didn't buy more squash and cucumbers.

Today for Father's Day lunch Rex is having ham, grilled squash and onions, blackeyed peas, cucumber salad & cornbread. So, so good!! I'll have to go again next weekend. It's getting a little late for some of these veggies, but I'm sure they will have some a little longer.

[Janet]

I love going to the Farmers Market here too. Not only do they have all the fresh fruits and veggies, but quite a few booths that sell things misc. items. I didn't go this past Saturday because it was just too darn hot to be out walking around the town square.

[Marilyn]

Our farmer's market is pretty small. Only about 7 or 8 vendors. There was one mehennite or amish family selling bread and jelly's. I asked the price of a loaf of bread and it was $3. I didn't want one that bad. Their jars of jelly looked like they had seen a few Saturdays. I hadn't been to the market in a very long time though, and as I said the spring vegetable season is winding down, so when it was at it's peak, there may have been more vendors. I'll just have to keep going and see what it's like during the year.

It opens at 10 a.m. and I went just after it opened, so it wasn't too hot, yet.

[judy]

I am hoping to get to our Farmer's Market Saturday. It's in a round barn, so the heat isn't too bad. Somebody told me that they have organic fruit and veggies, which I want to try.

There are also other vendors inside and outside. It's very nice.

[HALEY]

I just went to Duda's farm stand its right down the road from work last Thursday when my mom had Micah. I got some watermelon and strawberries for my mom boy where they gooodddd!!

[DianaB]

Yumm!!! Everything sounds so good!!! We have a very small farmer's market on Tuesday's but I don't ususally go. What I need to do is go down and check the garden that Glen and the kids planted and see what's going on there!!!!

[gja1000]

I love farmer's markets!!! I haven't been yet since I've had tomatoes, squash, and peppers from my garden. And my hubby's friend has a stand at the farmers market so I get new potatoes, and watermelon from him.

[Marilyn]

Yesterday, I stopped at a little tent stand a family had on the side of the road and got some more squash. They had cucumbers, but they were too big to be really good ones. I'm going to keep my eyes open when I travel around for work and see what I can find. The home grown food is just sooo much better!!! They had dewberry jelly that they had made this past weekend. I started to buy some, but we're all on diets, and I don't know that we would have eaten a whole jar. We're not real big on jellies.

Gayle, I was wondering how your garden worked out. If you posted about it recently, I'd missed it until now.

[Shada]

With all this talk of Farmer's Market's...

Where are the carrots???
Seriously. I love carrots. But have never seen fresh carrots EVER at any roadside produce stand or Farmer's Market's. Why?? I want fresh carrots!!!!

Thankfully, right now I do have fresh green beans in my fridge that I will be cooking tonight! Yummy... first time eating them this season..

[gja1000]

Originally Posted by Marilyn

Gayle, I was wondering how your garden worked out. If you posted about it recently, I'd missed it until now.

Hi Marilyn,
I've been so busy this summer - plus trying to take some down time too - that I haven't updated about my garden.

It did pretty well for my first attempt is MANY years! I have tomatoes coming out my ears. Gary has developed hives from eating so many - he even had to go to the doctor to get some medicine - and he is NOT eating them any longer - but I still have too many. Wish you all were closer so I could give them to you.

My squash did well until we were gone the end of May/first of June. Maybe they got too much water, not sure. Anyway, my daughter still has squash so she has shared with me.

We have lots of jalapeno and bell peppers and a few banana and a hot cheery pepper.

My strawberries did great, I just didn't plant enough of them.

My herbs were good too. The parsley, oregano, basil, rosemary and bay leaves are still producing well. The cilantro is a cool weather plant and it went to seed at the first hint of heat.

My tomatoes grew over my eggplant and I've had 3 little eggplants which were good - and Gary doesn't like them anyway so it was perfect for me.

I'm getting ready to pull out 3 of my tomato plants - one that is dying, one that didn't produce any tomatoes and one that is a cherry tomatoes plant - to make room for fall tomatoes. They need to be planted in July, so I"m going to put them in before we leave again on vacation July 10th.

I'm also going to put in winter squash - but may wait till I get back - can't remember if it is supposed to go in in July or Aug. I'm going to do some summer squash also.

Anyway, it was a learning experience - I had 6 tomato plants and that was about 3 too many!

[DianaB]

It sounds like overall your garden was a success!!!

[Janet]

I loved having a garden and yours sounds really nice. I just don't know if I could keep up with one now especially in this heat.

[Marilyn]

Gayle, that sounds great!!!! Sorry Gary had a problem with the tomatoes. I've gotten hives from eating too many cherry tomatoes, but that was many years ago. Wish we were closer so we could get some of those yummy tomatoes, too.

Don't know if I'll get Rex to help me put an a square foot garden or not. He's really busy keeping his grass green and lush in this drought. He seems to have beat the brown spot problem we had last summer and I'm not sure he will let me put a garden on his lawn.

I may just try the pot garden again, but I'll be changing out all the soil. 50/50 compost to potting soil was a huge mistake. The rosemary is the only thing that survived.

My fig tree is looking great. It's about 3 years old, and it's getting very full, and is loaded with figs. I think we are going to have to put a net over it though to keep the birds away. The one fig that got ripe already was thoroughly picked on by a bird. I'm really looking forward to putting up a few pints of fig preserves. They are our favorite!! Daughter, Karen, especially likes them.

[gja1000]

Marilyn, I'm sure you are right about the net over the figs. I had to put a net over my strawberries - THEN I had to fight the roly polies for them. I used diatamaceous earth to keep the RP's away and it works well.

I bought bird nets at the nursery. I think they were 12' by 12' maybe even 14'. They were very light weight. I'm sure they would work well over the figs.

Janet, I water and pick every morning between 6-7 when I get up to let the dogs out and feed them. I'm a morning person and so I love being outside at that time! It's not too bad. I do go out and check everything when I get home in the evening, but don't stay too long as it is HOT!

[Tiramisu]

Gayle, your garden sounds so fresh and yummy. We cut back and didn't put in enough cucumber and tomato plants this year and have run out already. We put in too many squash plants and have given lots away.

Texas ladies - any repellant for armadillos? The critters got most all of my daffodils and work every night in my rose garden. I don't want to put up fencing around that area, but might be forced to.