end-of-market-madness ….

Market Day is like the opening night of a well rehearsed play ~ roles have been given, everything has been planned and prepared….there is an energy in the air as you wait for the final set up…it’s magically personal in the beginning of the season but by the end it’s another kinda special… #farmingwitha2yearold

I don’t mean to pop the proverbial bubble but harvesting, cleaning, bagging, pricing, signing, and displaying veggies and other gastro delights are all tasks that are both fun and predictable madness all season long. Let me illustrate with an example from a couple of years ago…..

It’s 5 a.m. sunday morning and Farmer Luke and I get up EVER SO QUIETLY in fear of waking Ms. Rea, who at this time was approaching two…. the thought of having to add that level to our morning was shattering to contemplate... so… without a word we creep downstairs and out the door… Granola Girl attends to cleaning, packaging, pricing and signage for the veggies as Farmer Luke delivers it from the fields…. naught a word is spoken…. partly because we are focused on task... and partly because at that hour the moment is fragile with exhaustion and we are ever fearful that the quiet will be broken…. so we just work… OH and smack mosquito after mosquito as the humidity rises…. I’ll agree there is a sense of peace and beauty in this early morning silent dance and for a moment I get swept up into the meditation....ahhhh.... then…… huh?…...damn. I hear the little footsteps coming down the stairs…. it’s like you get sucked back into this other existence and instantly you SHIFT GEARS….screeeeeech as the wheels lock…..

And so the juggling begins ~ consider this Act 2 of this grand play. Remember Ms. Rea is our little farm girl who wants to help in any and every way possible… cute?…yes. charming?…sure. adorable?…absolutely! BUT it’s also untimely…. to say the least.

Farmer Luke and I flounder around taking turns entertaining her with small manageable tasks as we manoeuvre the minefield of potential power struggles and sudden tantrums…and for the most part we succeed without injury…soon that wonderful silent dance turns into a square dance as Mr. Finn joins the foray. Although forever talking to himself or anyone who will listen, Mr. Finn is easily entertained with a few pieces of lego or a good book ~ as long as you listen to his commentary…on and off…..as best you can…all morning long......sigh.

So needless to say the romanticism of having a family farm and all working cohesively together happily taking the bounty to market is somewhat of a fallacy…at this stage in our life… the reality is we are just trying not to be late ~ we aren’t thinking of much else…and after being up late the night before and getting up at dawn and not stopping in between and adding a layer of Ms. Rea and a layer of Mr. Finn, plus mosquitoes and humidity…well I challenge any semi-stable individual to attempt THAT every weekend ALL summer long and still see ANY SENSE OF ROMANCE of the farm or otherwise! .....OK maybe it’s not that bad…but I’m a special kind of me and I’m prone to moments… :)

….one of my more extreme end-of-market ‘moments’ and one I am reminded of every so often….involved……McDonalds. YES, I am well aware of the lack of nutritional components of McDonalds and don’t get me started on the use of toys to drag your children into their corporate clutches ~ hey...I’m Granola…I’m all ‘Supersize Me’ed up…I get the issues…trust me...I do. …Buuuuut I’m also a mom who juggles an enormous amount of voluntary pressure which results in situations that have me breaking down and living the reason fast-food exists…it’s true….not very often but it has been known to happen…and sometimes at the worst opportunity….let me explain...

…after a particularly ‘fun’ and ‘romantic’ late night early morning market day at the end of the season I was completely spent…in so many ways…remember I also work full-time and travel loads…ya…dude.... I. AM. NUTS. …k, flash back to this particular day.... somehow I made it to McDonalds….I don’t honestly know how… I’m sure survival had a part to do with it and I suspect the children GPS’d me there… it was late in the season and my defenses were down… apparently two boxed processed chicken meals with an age and gender appropriate toy were purchased and distributed… I remember arriving at the farmers market flustered, exhausted, anxious and LATE (I hate to be late…). I piled the children onto the stroller with their Rotten Ronnies… without thinking I turned the corner heading towards our beautiful market stand full of nutritious organic grass-fed incredible goodness… smiling happily to the Farmer and relieved I had finally made it…..um….WITH TWO CHILDREN EATING McDonalds IN PLAN VIEW…….WTF!! Honestly. sigh.

Yup. The worst...right?....nope…it gets worse… A friend of ours who is also a vendor was serving a very large group of market customers… he paused what he was doing and said at the top of his lungs…..”MCDONALDS? What are you doing feeding your children McDonalds? Do you KNOW what she does people? She owns an organic grass-fed farm!! Her husband is a farmer!”

….what? the what! ...blink…blink….. SERIOUSLY?... ummm….I felt smaller than a 1 inch nugget…

Gulp.

All eyes on me…

…do I take it away from them as I fumble to explain myself then head over to our stall?

I knew he was kidding in his own way….and I was able to laugh it off with an “I’M ONLY HUMAN and sometimes you have to do what you have to do”…but the disappointment was evident as I walked up to Farmer Luke and he was looking at me with half a smile and eyes saying, “you are such a goof ~ what were you thinking?! I’m never going to let you forget this one! hahahaha” ….that’s just it…..I WASN’T thinking…and he hasn’t stop reminding me…. 

...it has since been diagnosed as ‘end-of-market-madness’….and I'm working on it.

 

Granola Girl: if you need me I'll be in here for the rest of the season