Yup, we said it, you might not quite recognize us today at market.
We think it's more than we've ever brought: literally a two page harvest list, including spinach.
But, there's something else. We built something.
It’s a secret among many farmers we know, that farmer’s markets may be the toughest thing we do. It’s not selling our produce, or growing it — but that’s tough as well — it’s getting it to market. For the past five years, we’ve always loaded up our truck, all the crates and bins and all the produce and hauled it the short two miles to 2nd and Bedford. We’ve had a great run, but for the past couple of years, especially during this heavy season when we have tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, melons coming, and the winter squash (yet to bring in), it’s at least two trips in our truck. Boxes or crates have been known to fly off our strapped load, and those of you who show up at 9am, ready for us, realize that we aren’t ready — more typically stranded in a sea of our own wax boxes, just trying to make sense of our very own farm mess in downtown Hamilton. And our canopy has never completely blown away, but we’ve replaced many, many parts on it over the years. And the bolts on those old plywood tables we’ve sheared off? I can’t remember how many we’ve replaced.
Well, today, that all changes. With the very first farm member deposits this winter, we purchased parts that we had welded up to the specifications of our double-sized market booth, with a little space to spare. And, finally, after many other building projects (a pump house and new well, a new domestic well pump, 2 intern cabins, and others), we couldn’t take the strain on our truck, bodies, and the simple stress of Saturday mornings not being ready on time. So, for the past twelve days, I’ve been busy cutting, grinding, buying bunks of reclaimed lumber, staining, painting, bolting, designing, and testing. Unlike the root washer we built, or even the grain bin, there aren’t plans or models for this sort of thing, and it’s something we’ve done from the ground up. We were worried about this big investment: those of you who have followed us for years know that we’ve had some big expensive building failures — that first big chicken barn was too big for that small 10 ton hay wagon. And that straw bale house? That had a very happy ending eventually, but it meant some cold winters in our barn. And now, even if it’s planting dates that we miss, another failed building project just wouldn’t seem right. So we’ve been thinking about this piece of farm infrustructure for years, and doing a lot of designing and planning.
This was a difficult build - the project needed to check many boxes. We needed to be able to load pallet bins for big harvests. We needed about double the shelving and display space. We need to do away with our aging canopy and bulky wooden crates. We needed more shade. For some things that get buried in our booth, especially herbs and meal packs, we needed ways to display them. And we needed to have fun. Market was simply becoming too much of a chore for us, and we needed a big change. The solution needed to fit our values, and not be just another box truck or standard trailer. Those Sprinter vans that our colleagues use are expensive and a standard trailer didn’t solve our time pressure with setting up.
So today is different. You really won’t believe what we’ve come up with. In addition to checking the boxes above, we’ll use it on the farm as well, starting next Tuesday with for farmer members and all of you as a pepper roasting station. All I can say is come out and see this thing. There’s still a few bungi cords where we’ll add some custom hardware, and likely the first set of carabiners you see suspending our produce will be replaced this coming week, but this thing is wild, and if it weren’t for your enthusiasm to come out to market and buy whatever we can bring, we wouldn’t have made this investment.
And, another word of gratitude. We simply couldn't have done this build without our entire crew doing plant care and harvesting. When I pulled Mary in for some difficult steps, and also our entire crew for other steps, it was great to be able to focus with confidence, rather than worry. And we did have at least one video consult from Mary's dad, Frank Bricker when we needed to fabricate custom hardware with just what we had in our shop. Thanks so much, Frank.
Some come out today, and celebrate with us. And, see this thing for yourself.
