Big Ten

So, I should have posted last week, at the start of what we are calling our "BIG TEN".  This is our 4th year as a Farmers Market vendors, and we realized we had never gone to market for more than 6 consecutive weekends, and never more than 2 weekends of double markets.  With our big push on flowers this year, we finally have enough product to support 2 markets consistently.  So, we ambitiously sets goal of doing double markets for 10 weekends in a row.  Our "BIG TEN"! 

This is the second week, and we are already makings changes to how we prepare for market.  With just 1 market, we can usually start lining things up on Thursday morning. With 2 markets, we need to start on Wednesday.  When those two markets come back-to-back, week after week, we have to start planning almost as soon as we get home from market on Saturday.  It's going to be tough, but we are confident that we will end, 8 weeks from now with a lean, efficient system. 

Hopefully, we will still find time to update the blog.  It should be interesting!

Tulip time!

This year our tulips were almost perfectly timed.  Last week, our red, pink, and apricot impressions started blooming Monday and were finished by Friday, just in time for Easter weekend! This is our first season growing impression tulips, and they have been a huge hit.  Long stems, great vase-life, and beautiful colors have made them a popular with both our market and florist customers.

Our banja luka tulips tried to spoil the party by blooming on Sunday and Monday, but a few hectic days of picking got them all harvested.  Finally, our single-late tulips started blooming mid-week, filling up our cooler for today's market.

We love raising tulips, they're the first flowers we being to market, and are always popular.  This time of year, we don't have anything else to harvest, so we have lots of energy for picking and packaging them.  If they came in September, at the end of our season, I'm not sure we would have the time and energy to keep up with them. But, in the spring, after a long winter, we always find the energy for our favorite bulbs