Full Speed Ahead!

Well, our market (www.redwagonfarm.net) has been open a week now, and things are going well! Last year, we had road construction in front of the Market almost all seaons long. Top that with the chilly start of Spring and Summer (or is that a long delay in Winter weather??), and business was NOT good! However, God has been blessing our business with customers, and I am so thankful!

Our asparagus is so plentiful right now...and so fresh and tender! I have to yell at the kids almost every time we have it for supper (pretty much every night) to "Stop eating your asparagus and start eating the rest of your food!" Luke loves to bit off "Junior's" or "Archibald's" head as well as try to eat more than Daddy does (so he gets bigger and stronger than Daddy), while Susanna will clutch an asparagus in each hand and have them "dance" around on the table.

Tomorrow is the first of probably three of our "Sample our Stuff" days at the Market. I'm whipping up a huge spread of the items we sell so customers can try things and see what they like! It's been quite successful in the past, and everyone seems to enjoy it so much. It's funny -- so many people look at the samples and think I've gone to so much work, but most of what we sell is very easy to prepare -- just heat up or add water or something along those lines. Stop by tomorrow (if you're in the neighborhood -- otherwise, just drool thinking about it and wish you were here!) to sample:
Apple Cinnamon Pancakes
Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake
Blueberry cheeseball
Black Raspberry Cheesecake
Mandarin Orange fruit dip
Zesty Orange Corn Bread
Baked Potato Soup with Carter's fresh asparagus
Chunky Garden Tomato Sauce
Garlic Parsley Noodles
Blazin' Cajun dip
Tomato Basil dip

And believe it or not, pretty much all of that will be made tomorrow morning, in the hour before we open the market!

To top that off, I whipped up a batch of cinnamon rolls that I'm going to be selling, too. In fact, I have to go put some in the oven to sell this morning...then bake up some more to sell tomorrow morning. Yum!

Yesterday, the kids and I headed to another local grower to stock up on perenniels to sell at the Market. It was the first time Susanna went to a grower's with me....and I really wish I had a video camera with me as she went into the first greenhouse and saw rows and rows and rows of flowers! The girl was off, like a little bumble bee, darting between flowers, stopping to look at just about everything, trying to load up all the different plants onto our cart! We then took everything back to the Market, and a customer bought almost $100 worth of plants just as I was unloading them!

Another big job I did this week was get things planted around here. Tony probably thinks I'm nuts, but I planted a small garden here for the kids and I to dabble in. Many of the things I planted, we don't grow at the farm, too. At the start of May, I planted three mounds of red potatoes -- and there are sooooo many potato plants coming up already! I've got to find time to get more dirt on top of them! This week, we added three mounds of Yukon Golds, several rows of a Roma-like tomato, a few rows of sweet onions, two rows of snap peas, and lots and lots of flowers around the house! Oh, and I filled two big containers with herbs....and saw with delight that my mint and oregano are starting to come back nicely....along with huge clumps of chives (my kids love chives and pretty much smell like chives from sun up to sun down). I'm hoping to still get in some radishes, lettuce, and carrots...but I've got to find some large containers for those. See, we have this pesky, fat rabbit who likes to eat stuff (I believe I wrote about him last year, too) -- and I don't want him feasting on those greens! Tony's talking about getting his shot gun out....and I hope it isn't just talk!

We also had company down at the farm this week. Dad's sister Gloria and her husband Ken came and spent a couple days visiting. We had a family supper down at the farm Wednesday night, and I mentioned sending some cinnamon rolls down for breakfast the next morning. Tony forgot to take them...but Ken quickly drove down to pick 'em up! Sure hope they were worth the trouble ;).

For now, I gotta go. Cinnamon rolls into the oven. Me into the shower. Kids and me fed. Head into the market all day today then all day tomorrow...it's one of our busiest weekends of the year -- time when all the tourists start heading in to town....and based on traffic yesterday, it's gonna be a BUSY weekend! Campers, trucks with boats hitched, and more all over town. Ugh! But...they bring in money to us local businesses, so I can't complain! Plus, as "bad" as the traffic is here now, it's still better than a slow day/night in SoCal!

Look for pictures some time soon.....