The morning is cold and crisp, like an apple picked in a cool, fall orchard and eaten straight away.\u00a0 The bite, the shiver, are sweet and delicious this morning.\u00a0 I’d like to see a little more sun and blue sky for the gardening I want to do later but on the other hand, the morning is cozy and good; a pleasure to be out in.\u00a0 Oh my, here are some raindrops falling, not a storm but enough to wet the place.\u00a0 I shouldn’t complain, but you just can’t plant much in wet soil.<\/p>\n
There’s the market up ahead, waiting in the town square for me like an old friend.\u00a0 I’ve been making this trek almost every Saturday since we’ve lived here, nearly three and a half years now.\u00a0 I cross King Street to the square and pass by the refurbishers of old trunks, sellers of pieces of history I’d like to buy.\u00a0 Almost did, a couple years ago, as a hope chest for our daughter, but somehow when the time came we found other uses for those 250 dollars a trunk would have set us back.<\/p>\n
There’s Calvin at his stand, same place he’s been ever since I’ve been coming ’round.\u00a0 He’s a big, cheerful guy from West Virginia, always a smile, always a friendly word for everyone who drops by.\u00a0 In fall, I buy most of my apples from him.\u00a0 He’s also one of the few people who, in spring, sell ramps, an exotic wild garlicky leak you’ve gotta forage for in the woods of Appalachia or buy from someone else who did.\u00a0 None yet this week, but I bet next week he’ll have some.\u00a0 He’s dragging out a wall-less tent, a canvas roof on four aluminum legs, unfolding and setting it up, good naturedly grousing that he’s only deploying it to make the rain stop.\u00a0 The land Calvin lives and farms on has been in his family for eight generations.\u00a0 It was first laid out by a young surveyor named George Washington.<\/p>\n
I continue to stroll around the fountain where sellers have set up their stalls and I see Jim at his stand, selling his organic beef and pork and free-range eggs.\u00a0 He’s also selling some small, cute heads of cabbage that overwintered in his fields.\u00a0 His teenage daughter, helping at the stand, tells me they’re sweeter that way.\u00a0 At a dollar each, how could I go wrong?\u00a0 Last year, he invited all his customers to an afternoon at the farm.\u00a0 He manages a CSA which stands for community supported agriculture.\u00a0 That’s a set-up where people pay a lump sum to buy weekly shares of his crop.\u00a0 Enough people participating in a CSA can support a local farmer, plus folks can enjoy good, fresh, locally-grown, affordable organic vegetables.\u00a0 He says hi to me by name and we chat a bit about growing things.\u00a0 He’s planted a lot of seeds, but the unseasonably cool weather we’ve been having these past two weeks, he tells me, has kept them from sprouting much yet.\u00a0 He mentioned planting potatoes this past week using a machine designed to quickly plant large numbers of transplants.\u00a0 Apparently the planter rides this contraption that first digs a hole into which the farmer drops the plant (or seed potato piece), then is followed by a scraper that covers the planting.\u00a0 It makes it easy to pop the pieces of potato into the ground, but he needs to drive over the rows with his tractor to tamp down the surface, a necessary part of planting potatoes.\u00a0 He’s going to invite folks to the farm again in May.\u00a0 I tell him I hope to be there, but my grandson is due to be born about then.\u00a0 We’ll see.<\/p>\n
Next stop on the Saturday circuit of the market is the herb stand.\u00a0 I’ve purchased all my herb plants over the last three years from these fine folks.\u00a0 Bought a dried bouquet<\/a> from ’em last December.\u00a0 I love this place.\u00a0 It smells nice with three or four tables full of herbs: oregano, thyme, mint, chives, basil in season, and more.\u00a0 It looks nice too, bright green, stocky, well-grown transplants.\u00a0 I especially buy things here that I wouldn’t buy a whole packet of seeds for like sage or oregano or the lemon balm that last year pretty near took over a big section of the bed and looked like it was thinking about taking over the living room, too.\u00a0 The folks who run this stand are nice, good people, the kind I say, I’d like to invite over for supper.\u00a0 We discuss vining, flowering plants.\u00a0 I tried to grow sweet peas on trellises last year but they didn’t amount to much.\u00a0 I’m looking for a vine, I say, that is pretty and easy.\u00a0 Do you have anything?\u00a0 She suggested a passion vine, but at $10 per plant for a perennial I would only be enjoying for another year or so, it didn’t seem like a good idea.\u00a0 She mentioned scarlet runner beans, both beautiful and edible, an idea I liked.\u00a0 I may buy some seed myself and see what happens.<\/p>\n I’m not looking forward to moving next year.\u00a0 I’m comfortable here in this community, know my way around, including through this market full of sellers, local farmers, now friends I chat with on Saturdays.\u00a0 I crave and love this sense of belonging, of familiarity, of easy conversation and sweet humanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The morning is cold and crisp, like an apple picked in a cool, fall orchard and eaten straight away.\u00a0 The bite, the shiver, are sweet and delicious this morning.\u00a0 I’d like to see a little more sun and blue sky … Continue reading