Still not back in the swing of things online, but did help at a farmer's market last weekend for Dragonfly Farm which is a mom and pop farm in the Kansas City Metro area specializing in gourmet mushrooms and local natural and sustainable produce. Here are a handful of pictures and a bit about the experience. Regrettably, I wasn't able to get any pictures until the last half hour of the market.
I've helped with other farmer's markets in the past when I visited a friend in the outskirts of San Francisco. They have a huge almond and apricot farm on approximately 300 acres. They did a huge amount of volume through the farmer's markets. Out of the 7 day week, they were going to markets 6 out of those days, a few days a week at two different markets.
It was an arduous job packing up, driving to, setting up, selling, tearing down, packing up, driving home, unloading. Those were often 16 hour days for 6 months out of the year. That wasn't even counting the months of the growing season. What I learned then was that farmer's markets are not for me on a regular basis. But, when you are a farmer who sells at markets for a living, it's a big commitment. Helping out one day was enough to give perspective to just how difficult farming is on a local level. Everyone should help someone one time, just so they understand what goes into it.
That experience was almost a decade ago. I had an opportunity for a spot at a local farmer's market this year but passed on it because a) we don't have a farm where we have a successful amount of produce b) the time and effort is not something I'm capable of right now. That being said, it can be a really rewarding experience to be within in the booth selling to eager, interested, and enthusiastic customers who care about where their food comes from and are there for the overall experience of buying fresh produce directly from the farmers on a weekly basis.
I was asked to fill last Saturday for Dragonfly Farms at one of the busiest markets in the suburbs of Kansas City, the Overland Park market. The day started off before dawn. I had to be at the farm by 5am. Lucky for me I didn't have to do any of the loading. Let me just say, I only had about 2.5 hours of sleep. That whole insomnia thing...I ended up being about 20 minutes late, as usual. I dunno. I have an on time problem. Always have. It didn't end up affecting the setting up of the booth any as the person I was carpooling with has a tendency to be early, and knows me well enough to know I have that late problem. Not that that's any excuse. Just being honest. If you want me somewhere on time, tell me it's earlier than it is. Yep, one of those people. I don't like it and I've tried my whole life to be different.
Anyhow, the market was about an hr commute. Part of the reason for being early was to beat the market rush of all the vendors driving in and unloading. I'm not sure why 3 hours were planned to be needed for unloading and setting up, but better to be ready than lagging behind once the crowds started being let in at 9am. I guess some of that time was to account for the chit chatting with the other farmers. There is no shortage of gossip.
Once we got there it went pretty smooth and efficient setting up. There was a familiar orderly process that for the last few years has become routine. Tables unloaded and set up in a particular order. Items strategically located and put on display. On the tables this week were spring onions, zucchini, small red radishes, purple green beans, Italian roma flat beans, new mexico chilis, cherry tomatoes, eggs (although not many as the girls have slowed down their laying) and of course the stars of this booth, the mushrooms, which took up over half the table. The mushrooms for sale were lion's mane, shitake, king oysters, pearl oysters, yellow oysters, blue oysters, and pink oysters.
Well, like I said, I didn't get any pictures before the market opened when everything was set up in all of its glory. Therefore, I don't have pictures of all of the mushrooms. My pictures start at 30 minutes to close as that's when it started slowing down enough for me to walk around. I might add that the "honey lady" to the left of us walked around and bought about 5 people, including myself, fresh homemade icecream sandwiches from the "healthy dessert guy". I got the snickerdoodle with vanilla bean ice cream. The snickerdoodle was salty which was a really nice compliment to the sweet ice cream. It was a big YUM.
The first thing to fly off the shelf was the spring onions. They were so large and so fresh that people could just smell them walking by. There ware also 3 sets of red spring onions that apparently created a bit of conflict because one lady bought one then left to bring her friend over to by another. You snooze you loose because a different lady bought the last two while the first lady had gone to grab her friend. Of course there were the regular folks who come every week for their favorite mushrooms or eggs. This week was really slow on eggs because they aren't getting as many.
This is Sal, the owner of Dragonfly farms. He is a great salesman. You can't see any of the pink oysters left because that went flying off the shelf. His pitch was that they taste like bacon. If you crisp them up in butter, with a little salt and pepper, supposedly your brain tells you it tastes just like bacon. Well, because I'm special, when we got back to the farm to unload I was treated with a fresh off the grow medium pink oyster to try. I will just say this about that. It DOES taste like bacon. It absolutely does. It would be hard to tell a difference if you cook it the right way. No wonder their mushrooms go flying off the shelves. The other mushrooms are delicious too but everyone loves bacon, even most converted vegetarians that I've met.
I think this one is a blue oyster. These usually have a tinge of blue of varying degrees depending on the moisture and temperature during the growing phase. But, that's where Sal comes in. Any questions someone has about the mushrooms Sal is there to answer, adding in plenty of cooking tips and education. That's the key to specialty products like these gourmet mushrooms people might have never heard of before. Education. Sometimes people don't know they want something until you tell them they want it. The rewarding part of all of this is all of the people who come back week after week because they are so impressed and hooked after trying them. There is one lady who comes every week for the easter egger eggs.
The customers will huddle around as Sal gives all of the tid bits. The best part of watching this was seeing the customers selling other customers on the mushrooms. You know, half of those pink oysters that were sold was because one person told the next person they tasted like bacon, before even tasting that they do, in fact, taste like bacon. But, Sal has earned the reputation as being "the mushroom guy" because not only do they grow the best mushrooms, what they sell about their mushrooms is what people experience when eating them. They are gourmet mushrooms through and through. The hardest part is being sold out of things or having a really slow traffic day.
I believe this is a pearl oyster. I don't know all of the different oysters apart so it might also be a blue oyster. I know they all taste different but it's hard for me to identify a couple of them by looking at them. There were many times I had to defer to Sal because I just don't know much about the mushrooms.
Market closed at 1 pm. I started walking around about 12:30pm. As you can see it's still quite busy. I have to say, other than the Portland Oregon farmer's market, which also has a large presence of craft and art booths, this was the largest market I have memory of going to. I was very impressed with the size of it. This picture really only shows about a third of it. There must have been at least 30 to 40 booths. All were produce of some sort. Some sold other things like lotions or soaps or flower arrangements, but only if they were also selling produce. Like "the honey lady". She sold heavenly scented bar soaps and bar lotions along side the canned quarts of freshly collected honey.
It was a well laid out market. The best thing about it's location, other than being smack dab in one of the best parts of town, was being underneath this great pavilion. Made the environment so much more pleasant from the heat. Many booths didn't even have to use pop up canopy's as they were under this pavilion. This is where some of that drama I was talking about early came in to play. This is a busy market so people want the best spots. I heard one vendor complaining they had 5 less inches overall in their booth than another. LOL I mean, I understand because paying for these spots isn't cheap and this market is very hard to get into as a vendor, but it was also a bit much.
A for Amish. I forget this booth's farm or this man's name, but they were one of the local amish farms I believe. He is very much a business savvy sales man. I wish I had brought money with me so I could have scooped some of these deals. The amish booth had the best looking tomatoes, by far.
Lots and lots of vendors. I didn't even make it around to all of them. There was a food truck selling locally produced goat and cow cheese sandwhichs. Another booth selling fresh kombucha. Another selling fruit sticks. large pots of mums starting to bloom. Herb starts. Locally raised buffalo and rabbit meat. Fresh baked breads and deserts. Homemade jams. All kinds of things.
And finally another view from just outside the entrance.
All and all it was a very busy day. It started at 4:30 when I had to get ready to go. It ended at 4:30p when I finally got home. It was exhausting. I spent the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday recovering. I still have that allergycoldfluy thing going on so that didn't help much. But, I was happy to help and glad for the experience. I already know I can't do this on a regular basis, though. I have much respect for people who make this lifestyle their bread and butter.
It's a lot of work. But, if you ask, I believe you will find that people really believe in their hearts that this is the lifestyle for them. They would take working as a farmer going to farmer's markets over a 9-5 desk job. And to them I'm thankful. It's not an easy lifestyle or job. But it's an important one with just as much reward as it is challenging. Or so it seems to me. That being said, not everyone is cut out for it. It was a great experience. Hopefully next time I'll get to be the customer meandering about to every booth. I confess I don't make it to these markets hardly ever. I really should though.
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