Last week of the farmers markets

Wednesday night was our last night of the Maplewood Farmers Market. We sold out of parsnips in the first hour. An apprentice actually delivered some more about an hour before market was over, which was wonderful. I think we were the only grower at the market with parsnips, and other farmers would come over and say, “You can’t grow parsnips in Missouri..!” Well we did. Beginners luck, perhaps. & thanks to Brian’s, one of our apprentice’s, insistence. A tip we learned from his parsnip presentation, since they take so long to germinate, plant radishes between the parsnips, so that you’ll know where you planted the parsnips! The radishes will come and go before you will ever need the space in the ground for the parsnips to really bulk up. I can’t wait to taste one. I think I’ve eaten one before, but not 100%.
Oh, and back to the last day of market. Our local Slow Food chapter treated all of us farmers to beer and pizza afterwards - how nice! The market is located in the parking lot of an awesome local microbrewery in St. Louis - Schlafly, so we have ready access to both each week. But it’s always nice to have somebody else buy. And it was really fun to just hang out with all the farmers afterwards. It made me really happy to be in their company. Farmers are good people. Pretty fun too.