First market was a success!

Here’s a whirlwind day: start harvesting at 7:30 am, finish by 10:30, wash the vegetables by 11:00, go home and change by 11:15, set up booth at market by 1:30, work market from 1:30 to 6:30, clean up by 7:30, take everything back to the farm by 8:00, come home by 8:30, shower, eat, sleep.

That was our yesterday, and will be our regular Thursday routine until the end of market (with an earlier start as we have more to harvest). But, we loved it. Casey and I definitely thrive on the fast adrenaline rush of a packed schedule. It forces us to work efficiently and it feels incredibly productive.

Plus, market was so wonderful yesterday. Yes, it did rain—at times buckets and buckets. But our canopy is strong, and the vegetable hungry Mac residents still came out to shop. We were consistently busy most of the market and almost sold out. We were left with just enough product for some good trading and vegetables for our own dinners this weekend. Perfect.

We were really impressed with everything about the McMinnville Farmers’ Market too. Everyone who came by was incredibly nice, including all the CSA members who dropped by and introduced themselves—we love our new community! The market itself was very professional, and we adore the location right downtown. It feels so lively and energetic, even on a dismal gray day. We are so grateful to be starting here—I think it will be a good home base market to rely upon even as we expand in future seasons. Here’s a picture of our happy damp little booth:

We made some great connections with local restaurants while at market too. We talked with folks from La Rambla and the soon-to-reopen Trask Brewery & Public House about future relationships. This morning we followed up with the Trask and formed a plan with John that we’re very excited about: we’re going to do a slightly alternative CSA-restaurant model, where we bring by a box of seasonal produce every week like the CSA, but it will be larger quantities of fewer things. We love that he’s going to form menu items around seasonal items (rather than asking us to try to provide a consistent two items all season). We can’t wait to see what kinds of dishes he comes up with!

The pre-market harvest (our first) was also fun. It’s something we’re very familiar with, and working in the fields felt like coming home, even with all the mud and rain (or maybe because of all the mud and rain). While we worked, we couldn’t help talking about Cedarville Farm, the farm we trained at in Bellingham. I suppose memories were being stimulated by the familiar work. We were also surprised by how much food we have in the fields right now. We harvested a lot of food in a very short amount of time, and it all looked more beautiful than we could have ever expected. There were moments during our harvest where we both almost cried at how wonderful the vegetables looked. The harvest was the culmination of so much hard work, and seeing it truly come together was very moving, to say the least.

What can I say? Today Casey and I just feel great: more confident and pleased with where things are headed for Oakhill Organics. We didn’t make a million dollars yesterday, by any means. We’re never going to be rich doing this, but talking with everyone who came through market confirmed that we can grow good product and that there is definitely a strong demand in Mac for high quality, fresh, local organic vegetables. We love being able to fill that niche.

Now we just hope that we can find a permanent farm home in the area so that we can continue providing Mac with veggies well into the future (and grow our supply, since the demand seems to even be bigger than what we can do right now).