For the past two weeks we’ve been taking our surplus produce to the Paducah Farmers Market. It’s been a fun experience. We love getting face to face with farm supporters and getting to talk to everyone. It seems everyone is either from nearby the farm and has moved to the city or they know someone that lives out near us. The sense of community and the hometown pride is refreshing for us city folks that have gone country.
One thing we’ve really noticed at market are all the nay-sayers… It seems there has been a problem in the past at the market with folks selling non-homegrown items. Some have walked right up, squeezed a tomato and told us “These aren’t homegrown!”.
It’s been a weird year weather wise and lots of stuff just isn’t doing that well as a result, this might be why folks think our tomatoes are too good to be true. We grow these tomatoes in high-tunnels. The beauty of high tunnel production is that growing conditions can be more closely monitored and controlled for optimal yields.
To me, only homegrown stuff belongs at the farmers market, it’s kind of the unspoken expectation right? Now, I understand how it might be financially lucrative for farmers to “flesh out” their market offerings by obtaining produce from elsewhere but doesn’t that stray from the concept of a “Farmer’s Market”?
Here at Tanglefoot Ranch we like the idea of just bringing our own produce to market. This is why we only have tomato, raspberries (and coming very soon SHRIMP!) at our tables. All three items are produced by the very hands you’ll see selling at market even the young ones!.
We hope you’ll come on out to the Paducah Farm Market this saturday to say hello and grab some of our abundant tomatoes and raspberries. We are working to get the approval to sell our prepackaged, frozen shrimp to folks at market. We know many of you have been anxiously awaiting this. We are wading through the red tape right now but are very close. If you can’t wait to get your hands on our shrimp come to the farm or send us a note and we’ll bring some to Paducah for you on market day.
You can stop by the farm anytime to grab some produce or shrimp. Just let us know when you are coming and we’ll fresh pick you exactly what you need!
Hope to see you soon!
-Talina