Who:               Your Local Area Farmer Neighbors

What:              Tuesday Growers Market

Where:             West End of the Co-op Parking Lot

When:              4:30 - 6:30 p.m. every Tuesday; May through October

 OK folks, we have two more months of the Tuesday Growers Market. If you are one of those people with a vibrant green thumb, or just a lot of luck this year, or a tree that’s dropping fruit on you, or vines still drooping with edibles… Or you’ve given away all the squashes you can and there’s still way more than you can deal with…

Yes, certainly, there are area food banks, and Backyard Harvest (bless their hearts, Yes!) But if you have just a smidge of energy left, don’t overlook being a walk-on at the Tuesday market. First let me answer the nagging question: Are you being selfish not to give all your extra bounty away (that is if the alternative is not to let it rot in place?)

Consider just this: There are a lot of people who don’t qualify as clients to the food bank or whatever, and theydon’t have too much backyard produce. Some of them might love to buy some of your surplus!

And if you worry about horning in on things with the season vendors, even selling some of the same items… Don’t. I guarantee they’ll appreciate the company. Remember “critical mass.” This is retail!

Let me tell you the story of Me and my Plums. It’ll illustrate how easy and fun it is to c’mon down and sell (get rid of!) some of that excess, if you’re lucky enough to have it.

Last year my seven Italian prune plum trees once again gave us way too much to deal with. I am not one to let things go to waste, so I always try my darnedest to use or give them away. I keep a list of friends who like to pick, but there weren’t enough of them coming by. I heard through the grapevine that Backyard Harvest had maxed out on plums too last fall.

So, before the very last day of the Tuesday market last October, I asked the manager if I could come down and try to unload a few. The answer was yes, so here’s what I did:

I loaded what I could of my plums, picked and in boxes, into my car. I also packed: a folding table, a table cloth, a chair (I do not want to stand for two hours thank you!) a stool (I don’t want to bend over any farther than necessary to restock thank you—plus it’s better to keep the produce off the ground) a basket for samples, some paper and plastic bags for customers (shoulda brought more) a Sharpie pen and a couple pieces of cardboard for signs, and a float (retail speak for cash to make change.) I also had a 10-pound postal scale and a colander for weighing out the plums. Oh, and my thermal cup, which I never go anywhere without. Remember it’s October… and the deli is right inside the Co-op!

First I paid Andrika the $5 fee to be a walk-on, and she assigned me a spot. Next I parked close by and unloaded my car (then moved it of course.) I set up my table, checking it from the “customer” side to make sure it looked OK. Then I went around to see who else was selling plums, and to find out what they were asking. The only vender with plums didn’t have that many left, and said they always sold out. I asked if they’d mind if I sold mine a little cheaper and they said, “No worries, go for it.”

So I made up a price per pound, with a big discount for five pounds and an even bigger one for 10 pounds. I made my free samples really obvious, and I put out some dried samples, too. Anyway, as I happily discovered, not everyone in the area is totally buried in Italian prune plums come fall. Some customers were delighted to see mine. Others had never tried them before, but I sampled them out freely and extolled their virtues (freezing, baking, drying, jamming…) and guess what! I sold out with almost an hour left of the market.

So I took 20 minutes to run home and get the final two boxes I should have brought along in the first place. I came back… and sold them all!

So, I’m here to tell you. It was really easy. It was fun. I made some spare change— not a great deal, but enough to make me look at those seven trees from a slightly less overwhelmed angle. The only thing I’d do differently this year is not wait until the very last week!

And the only thing I’d like to remind you of is to give the market manager a heads-up so he or she can expect you and confirm that there is room. They can also fill you in on the any protocols I’ve left out: Email: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

 Jeanne Leffingwell, a local artist and teacher, is a little dismayed that her plum trees had a bad spring and they appear to be giving her a year’s sabbatical. Oh well… an opportunity for someone else?