The Market is Finished

Today was the final day of our Great Pumpkin Sale. Yesterday, was the final day of the Farmer's market. Our first year is finished. Strange.... how when I was packing up the tables, canopy, baskets, buckets, signs, table cloths, and left over produce.... strange...odd... and amazing...were my thoughts. So glad to be done. I am tired and am looking forward to one day a week sleeping until 7:00. But I will miss my many new friends. Friends from the market. Vendors as well as customers.

There's Ray, next to me on my left. He sells hand made birdhouse, feeders, tables, and other wooden crafts. He told me he was 84. He is the nicest gentleman. Always encouraging. Always helpful. And always kind. He even brought me coffee!

Sara was on my right. She too is very nice. She sells beef, pork and lamb. She and her daughter would pull right up, put their table out, don some beautifully made aprons and enjoy the day. They would always man my table when I had to be away (you know, nature calls sometimes! Especially if you are drinking coffee).

I can't tell you enough about the people I met. There's Nancy, Ann, the tomato man, the lady whom I introduced to summer squash and garlic and who would come every week, the young lady with her beautiful daughter who would buy from me because I didn't spray artificial stuff on my vegetables. So many. Wonderful faces. Wonderful smiles. Wonderful people.

The pumpkin sale at the farm was a great success. Not just because we sold about 200 pumpkins. More importantly we met our neighbors. Sure, we know our immediate neighbors. But those down or up the road? No. We see them drive by. Now, when they drive by they smile and wave. I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting these folks. One couple in particular have touched my heart. Mark and Gina. They live down the road. They are special people with special hearts. Warm, open, loving. Neat people. I hope to get to know them more.

I am still thinking about the lessons I have learned this year. Perhaps I will share it. But mostly I am left with a gladness and thankfulness. It was a lot of work, a lot of joy, a lot of time. But it was good.

I still need to harvest the rest of the popcorn and sunflowers. Then it's time to clean the gardens, mow the weeds, and till the leaves in. I will plant 500 cloves of garlic and mulch them. So the work isn't over yet. But there is an end in sight.

Today's Journey Joy: Completion

The Great Pumpkin Sale

I am so thankful for computers and laser color printers. You see, my artistic ability is limited to stick figures and painting houses... whole houses, not pictures of them. I think the sign turned out pretty. I glued it on a 22 x 28 inch foam board and laminated it with clear contact paper to protect it from the elements. "Pumpkin Sale... Sundays 1 - 4". My resourceful husband got some 20 foot rebar and cut it into ten foot sections and bent it into a frame. He then drilled holes in the sign and attached it to the bar with zip ties. It worked well. Looks very professional!

The question was whether people would come to the sale or not. It's not like we did a ton of advertising. We put three signs up and placed the sale on the local free classifieds for our area.

The day turned out to be a lovely day. It was about 65 degrees with patchy clouds and a breeze. We had washed a trailer load of pumpkins and gourds the afternoon before the first sale. And we set up my Farmer's Market canopy and tables. To the pumpkin sale we added berries, squash, gourds and tomatoes and peppers. We also had a table of our Beacon Woods Honey (just harvested!).

We had many people stop. Most of them were neighbors that we hadn't met yet. That was special. Most of them said that they had seen us working all summer and were curious to see what was going on. And most of them purchased at least 2 pumpkins. One nice gentleman and and his beautiful wife also bought one of my biggest jars (1/2 gallon) of honey.

We spoke of our dreams of the farm, of planting the orchard in the spring, of picking blueberries in July and of maybe setting up a farm stand once a week next summer. Most of our new friends were very enthusiastic about the whole idea. "This will be so good for the neighborhood." was a comment often mentioned.

We have about 500 pumpkins left. Yikes! Good thing I'm still going to the Farmer's Market on Saturdays. Hopefully, over the next three weeks we can sell them. But I must admit I'm a little discouraged. We maybe had about 15 cars stop. I was hoping for more like 50 (you know me... always dreaming!). But next week might be better. We asked many of the nice folks who stopped to spread the word and they said they would. But I am also a little discouraged because the local Walmart and local food stores are selling pumpkins either at the same price or slightly cheaper. Do we reduce our price? I believe it is a fair one. It is awful hard to compete with those megastores. But we have more variety... and are certainly more friendly! ☺ And are chemical free.

Seas of orange with brown leaves rustling. Windy breezes with gusts of chill. Canadian honkers soaring in V - shapes. Daylight shortening. Flowers fading. And pumpkins harvested. All sure signs that autumn is here with the rest and quiet of winter to quickly follow. I am thankful for the pumpkins and the signs of autumn. I am looking forward to resting.

Today's Journey Joy: pumpkins at the market