OVFM Sellers' Blog

Getting Ready the 2011 Season

2011-03-07T09:26:00.000-08:00

We're meeting to start getting things organized for 2011. We hope to see you the market.

2010-07-07T06:07:00.000-07:00

Confections by Connie...
17 pounds of vegetables cleaned & scrubbed. 4 1/2 hours of grinding. 2 hours of cooking & i have a new product! dill relish. come sample it & tell me if you like it.

What's happening at:

2010-06-24T05:22:00.000-07:00

Lone Oak Farms...
Up today at 5am. Ran the wild black raspberries that Tyler and I picked on Tuesday through the Squeezo this morning. The juice is in the freezer for making jam at a later time. We managed enough in two picking for two batches. Yum! It's our favorite. Spent an hour catching up on some farmers' market loose ends and will head out to feed and water the chickens and open the coops. Yesterday's heavy rain and the threat of storms again today will probably keep me out of the gardens. I plan to start some lettuce, basils, and curcurbits in flats and put them in the greenhouse. The rain washed off the organic spray I used yesterday to try to fight off the tomato blight which is already showing its ugly head. As soon as the threat of rain is over, I'll be spraying again. Also have to run to Wheeling to deliver my eggs to the market then head to Jacobsburg to pick up our weekly share of raw milk. If it's not too wet, we hope to mow a few rows in the blueberry patch and hope we find some berries the birds missed so we can freeze a few and take some to market.

Confections by Connie...
Having trouble with crows going in the hen house and stealing our eggs! Any suggestions?

What's happening on Blue Ridge.

2010-06-17T19:41:00.000-07:00

The first set of shiitake logs are pinning and should have some for the Saturday market. Pulled another set out that we were soaking. We'll see where it goes from there.

What's going on with:

2010-06-14T04:18:00.000-07:00

Pam - Fine as Frog's Hair
Sunday, June 13, 2010
It was one of those days......10 hours at the animal ER then home to replant several dozen dahlia tubers that were dug out of the ground by raccoons (they were after the bone meal that I put in the holes with the tubers) I replanted and poured cayenne pepper on top.....let 'em get a nose full of that!!!

Joey and Cindy -Sat and Sun. Soaked mushroom logs. Still picking cherries and berries.

Pam from "Fine as Frog's Hair"

2010-06-12T03:51:00.000-07:00

Finally! Good weather to plant! I've dug 60 holes for dahlia tubers and when I got out my stored tubers I have more than that. Ok - must find more space to plant them!I've weed eated the banks, mowed the yard so I could have grass for mulch, transplanted butterfly bushes and lavender, planted new butterfly, hydrandea and nine bark bushes, seeded 3 rows of cosmos, 6 rows of snapdragons, and am still waiting for tilling to be done so I can seed my sunflowers and zinnias, (darn I wish I was strong enough to handle the tiller) this weather has put us way behind schedule. I'll have enough flowers for a few bouquets for this week at the market.The potatoes look great, the beans are up and there are 60 tomato plants in the ground. I put in a row of sweet potatoes that I started from potatoes that I saved from the Farmer's Market last season (thanks Susan and Connie!)Oh, yeh, soap. I have soap for the market tomorrow. And more soap that will be ready in a few weeks. And more soap to make. I have Lavender, Euphoria, Oakmoss, Lemon/Calendula, Sweet Earth, Peppermint/Coco, Olive Oil, and Lilac. See everyone at the Market!!!

2010-06-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

Susan's plan for the day... At Lone Oak Farms, I'll be headed outside to tend to the chickens. Coops need opened to allow chickens access to outdoors. They'll be waiting at the door to come running outside! Feed and water at three buildings...older Buckeye hens, Golden Comet hens and the replacement chicks that are now about 2 months old. Buying Buckeye hens (at least from that hatchery) turned out to be a very bad decision. Lucky to get 10 eggs a day from 34 hens. As a comparison, my Comets are giving me 19/20. Need to get tomato plants in the ground and hopefully, transplant the cucs and zucchini that are outgrowing their pots! We'll see how it goes.

Hi

2010-06-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

Hello out there!
I've never posted to a blog before so please excuse any mistakes I make. This is actually scary - putting your words out there in cyberspace. In the days that follow, I am going to attempt to let you know what's going on with some of the vendors of the Ohio Valley Farmers Market and also what's happening in my corner of the earth. If anyone reads this, please let me know. (My hands are actually sweating. Does this make me nervous or what?) Cindy

Agave Nectar Jam from JAMM 'n Hills Farm

2009-04-21T06:37:00.001-07:00

Greeting from JAMM N HILLS FARM. My name is Jennifer Hezoucky and this will be our fourth year selling at the Ohio Valley Farmer's Market. I am very excited to share with all of you that I will be providing a wonderful new way to enjoy my homemade jams and fruit pies. This past winter I have been experimenting with a natural sweetener called Agave Nectar which has a low glycemic level and would be safer and healthier to eat than regular table sugar.

Last year I had several people ask if any of my jams or pies were sugar free and at the time I did not offer much for those who were diabetic. I now will be selling most of my jams and fruit pies using the agave nectar which is actually a healthier alternative to table sugar and everyone including people who need to watch their sugar can enjoy. There is no after taste with Agave Nectar and it is very sweet! I am looking forward to a great season at the market. See you all then!

Life on Lone Oak Farms

2009-03-26T18:50:00.001-07:00

Getting to KNOW YOUR FARMER…

Today it rained. So in my luxury of choosing when to go into work at my part-time job, I worked. When I heard one person comment to another "Did you order this rain?" I didn't miss a beat in proclaiming "I did! We need it!" It is frustrating as a person who farms to hear people complain about a rainy day when it has been bone dry and it is only March. I feel as if people are so far removed from knowing where there food comes from-or even more importantly, what it takes to produce it-that they don't know when we NEED rain.

The rain limited what I was able to do on the farm today, but I am not complaining. I have had to restrict my hen's opportunity to free range after losing two hens on Tuesday evening to what we believe were coyotes. I checked to see what time sunset was and let them out of their runs about 30 minutes before sunset. I sat on a bucket in the field to prevent the hens from reaching the wood line where the coyotes might be waiting. Darn! Those hens just love going into the woods and scratching through the decaying leaves to find insects. I felt badly denying them that pleasure. Fortunately, the recent rain has signaled the grass to start producing food so there was plenty of green to satisfy their pallets. While I sat there, I read a great article in the newest copy of Mother Earth News. By the way, it is by far the best magazine I receive. You should go to their website and read the article about the benefits of grass-fed beef. The article goes beyond the nutritional benefits and talks about how grazing would be so much better for the environment. Very interesting!

I had turned our Jersey cow, Jenny, out around 6:00 so after making sure the hens were returning to the coop, I went inside to get the milking pail. We still have Jenny's calf on her so if we want any milk, we need to separate them for awhile. Unfortunately, 2 hours proved not long enough and Jenny wasn't willing to let down her milk so this evenings efforts were fruitless-or should I say "milkless." We haven't sold the calf yet because my husband and I are planning a short trip and we didn't want to have to find someone to milk while we were gone. Dairy farmers have to be one of the most dedicated group of people I know. It is a shame that the price of milk has dropped so much recently. Agriculture is one business where you don't sell your product based on your costs. Someone else sets the price and then the government pays you to keep you in business. Makes no sense to me.

Before I left for work this morning, I did some preparation for a gardening program I am presenting at the Vineyard Church in Wheeling on Saturday. I guess more and more people are looking to grow some of their own food. Good will come from this economic crisis. I received another plant order today and spent some time doing work for the market. Then there are still the same responsibilities that everyone else has…making sure homework is done, fix dinner, fold some laundry, clean up the kitchen and of course, sneak in a little time with the granddaughters. Life is good.

Susan West
Lone Oak Farms

Why Build This Site?

2009-02-13T09:07:00.000-08:00

As the webmaster of ovfarmersmarket.org, I thought that it would be fitting for me to write our first blog. I am not really a "web master;" I used a website building for dummies program to put together the site, but it serves it's purpose. What I do normally is stay-at-home with my three daughters, ages three in under, work part-time as a youth director and part-time as a math instructor. I also manage my home - that's full-time! So why would take time out of my busy life to build a website for a little (but mighty) farmers' market who can't afford to pay me very well?

Well, that has more to do with who I am. I am not a liberal; I am not a conservative. I am a mathematician. My world revolves around analyzing things. Why does it work? Why doesn't it work? Why? Who? What? When? Where? And why again?

I am not an economist. So in my under-educated, simplistic, yet analytical way of understanding what is going on in our country right now, I start with what I know.

I know how to play Monopoly. But when I step back and analyze the game, this is the basic concept of it: the bank puts money into play; the players buy, sell, and trade things, all while the bank is putting more money into play; the more that is play the more things cost and more the players spend; eventually, though, one person loses all their money; all the remaining players add up their money and whoever has the most wins. But what does the person win? The game is over.

To get a little more sophisticated, I envision the economy as a flow-chart. A harmonous, flowing, transitioning of currency (appropriate name, huh?) from the hands of one person to another. So where is the kink? What makes it go wrong? (Again, this stems from the mind of an analytical, not educated, person). But, I can see at least two things that can go wrong. The first being that one or more persons takes money and doesn't recirculate it. The second being that there is a hole in the flow. In other words, envision something spinning, all is good as long as it stays in it's orbit, but what happens when the thing breaks from the orbit?

I then think about a store like Walmart. It's mind-boggling to try to grasp how such a huge corporation works when you're trying to understand the concept of flowing money, so again, I simplify. What if for every one dollar that a store like Walmart makes one penny goes to the country that produced the product? That doesn't sound like a big deal, but what if Walmart sells $1,000,000 worth of products in one day? That's $10,000 that goes to another country. $3.65 million in one year. Multiply that by a lot because Walmart does a lot more than $1 million in sales each day, then factor in all the other stores out there. In other words, millions upon billions of dollars are flowing out of our orbit every year into the orbits of other countries.

A lot of people think a global economy will work. In a perfect world, it might. But think about this. Envision that for every one of you there are three Chinese people. Do you think those three Chinese people buy as many things that say "MADE in USA" as you do "MADE in CHINA?" If you think no . . . then you must embrace the idea that money is flowing out of our orbit into their orbit and not coming back.

I think a lot of times in the current economic crisis, we can start to feel overwhelmed. Like we can't control any of it anyway, right? Sure, the banks are kinking our flow by hoarding money. Sure, the government is interfering with our flow by pumping in more money (which in turn causes inflation). But WHAT IF WE STOPPED kinking our flow by keeping our money in play?

Ask yourself: Am I in this game to win? Or am I in this game to play?

So back to my first question: Why build this site? I built this site because I want to help the market. I want to help the market because they are a group of people trying to make a living in our country, in our states, in our communities, and in our neighborhoods. I built this site because I like to play the game.

Kendra Kendle, OVFM Webmaster, Bellaire, OH