I'm still here!

It's been a month already!? Oops! 

Well basically life has been quite busy in more ways than one. Although there has been a lot of rain with humid days in between, business is still happening. 

The boys are off on vacation this weekend so for market Matt came along to assist. If anyone was around Western MA yesterday, then you know that the skies opened up and it poured in the early afternoon.... market time. After setting up the tent and produce we hid in the back of the truck to stay dry and wait for a random passerby to become a customer. 

Meanwhile the market manager, Belle Rita, had made a DELICIOUS squash and curry soup. (The recipe of which I have somewhere.) Matt and I drank soup and waited for the rain to let up. And it did finally. For a couple hours we had a slow-steady stream of customers and sold mostly tomatoes. 

We were beginning to back up when the weather stilled and the sky got quite dark for 2:30pm. Obviously a serious downpour was imminent and boy did we hustle to get out in time. Though we moved fast we still got caught and got drenched. It was hilarious nonetheless. 

Today's Weather: Clear skies. Perfect icecream day! 

Favorite Farm Photo... Ever!

Tower Square Market 6/12 and 6/19

I know, I know

After hearing that people have begun to check my blog for updates (Pat), I'm back with another entry about my mornings, afternoons, evenings, and nights spent at the Farm. They say I should just move in upstairs. I'm not so sure they're joking...

So if you live in the area... or in New England... you must have noticed that we're getting all rain for the whole summer in this week. Shipment 1/16, hold upright. Plenty of rain makes me happy because I love cloudy weather, raindrops, storms, and the like. However, it makes business QUITE slow. The good that comes from little to no customers is plenty of time to make sure that everything... every possible thing is done. Like cleaning the hangers. And the annuals. And straightening and watering the greenhouses. And throwing out dead things. And cleaning the inside. And organizing each pen and piece of paper. You get the idea.

Since all these things got done yesterday, today was a "look like you're doing something" day. Translated it means "Chelsea gets to read her new book in between the sporadic spurts of customers." I got about 120 pages in 1984 by George Orwell. I can't believe I've never read it before - it has the power to change lives and I'm sure that it has. But I digress.

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Friday markets have been a little slow the last two weeks. Whyfore, you ask? The weather. Office workers are afraid to come out in a potential sprinkle, rain, torrential downpour. I can't imagine why. /sarcasm
If it weren't for the success of our first week, I think that my bosses would be reconsidering their decision to actually participate in this market.

Somewhere I have a list of things to bring for this week. All I can remember is to bring herb pots and table cloths. I don't think we really need them (table cloths) but everybody else has them and I know we don't want to be left out.

Saturday market is winding down. This week will be the last weekend of the season that we'll show up. So if you're itching to visit us bright and early, then get your butt down to Avocado Street on Saturday.

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Because I still lack formatting skills, I shall follow this update with one solely of pictures. Love it?

Tomorrow's Weather: Cloudy and Rainy. High 69* Low 61* (My kind of day.)

Until Next Time,
Chelsea

P.S.: Happy Father's Day!

Teaser

One of my bosses. Hard at work at Springfield's Tower Square Market. Eventually I'll post more pictures of our first market there.

So sorry it's been so long!

Somewhere Beyond the Sea...

Today we started at Springfield's Tower Square Market. Apparently the boys have been wanting to do this market for a while and a spot finally opened up. This was our first day and not knowing what to expect, we brought produce, hangers, 4 1/2" geraniums, larger geraniums, etc. Um... we rocked.

It's only a three hour market, nonetheless we were happy with the turnout. Sold out of strawberries very quickly and went through a few boxes of hot house tomatoes. Both bosses and I worked our little area and chit-chatted with a variety of people. It was fun to hang out with them on what they felt qualified as a "day off."

Not to worry, I've got pictures that I plan to upload this weekend. My favorite is of one of my bosses sitting under a tree like a little kid (with his trademark Dunkin Donuts coffee).

My feelings today - glee, happiness, appreciation, and general gratitude. I was smiling the whole time. Between noon and 1:30pm there is music. Hopefully it will be the same guy each week (June-Sept). Today he sang some Elvis, Neil Diamond, and Bobby Darin. EVERYONE was singing under their breath and all I wanted to do was just dance around. I couldn't stop grinning. Oh! And, seeing as I was wearing our business shirt and my bosses are camera shy, I had my picture taken for the market's website. When I find it, I'll post a link.

And that's all.

Tomorrow's Weather: High of 78*, partly cloudy. Low of 47*. If you plan to come to Avocado St Farmer's Market, wear sunscreen! If you're fair skinned, like me, you will surely get burned as I did last week. Um... ouch! Please find me and say 'hello.'

Love and be loved, Readers.

-Chelsea

Saturday Market

Beautification

Okay, so I know I still need to work on the format... one thing at a time!

On this particular day I was cleaning petunia hangers. Not a terribly exciting task.. in fact it is often sticky. Literally. Have you ever plucked a petunia? I suggest that you do so in order to gain a tactile appreciation of this blog entry.

The first picture shows the plant as a whole. Pretty nice looking except for those dead flowers. The second picture shows what a dead-head looks like on a petunia: kinda droopy and expired-like. Once plucked from the stem (you can just remove the flower itself but then the plant is going to still take time to kill the part of the stem when it really wants to be growing another flower) I toss all of them, in addition to any dried out stems, or yellow leaves in to the bucket (see picture 3). And when I have gone through the entire plant it turns out looking good as new. Voila! Picture 4, a cleaned petunia hanger.

A helpful hint if you must also clean your petunia hanging basket - shake it! I twirl the basket around a few times and shake off any of the dead heads that the plant has already removed for me. That way I am able to concentrate on taking off the heads that are still connected. Easy peasy!

Speaking of peas... the other night we had a chance of frost (I know, right!? What on Earth? But that is New England for you.). My boss decided to take a risk and not cover up the plants that would be susceptible to death if exposed to frost. Perennials are usually fine but veggie plants, double impatiens, etc are not so hardy. At home I decided not to risk it all the way. I covered my brother's pumpkin plants with pillow cases and my dad's peas with newspaper. Pea plants are hard to come by so my father started them from seed and I knew he'd be upset were they all to die.
Luckily, the frost passed us. Phew!

Seeing as 1) I am behind on posts and 2) not yet able to format my pictures properly, I will be adding another post right after this one! How exciting! Even more so, it will be all pictures so just put your brain on hold and look at some more pictures!

Today's weather: high of 72* and rainy - low of 48*. Tomorrow's forecast will be a cool high of 62* with some clouds and a low of 48*.

Have a great day!
-Chelsea

Watery Evening

What happens when the water shuts off for an unknown reason right before closing? Well, you can't mop or wash the scoops. Who do you call when all the bosses are at a get together? Me of course!

I didn't work today, couldn't in fact, but I always make sure to tell the girls I work with to "call me if you need me!" And, though I wasn't working, I did manage to stop down at the farm to taste-test the new Low Fat ice-cream sandwiches we got in (130 calories, 2gr of fat) and I will tell you that they are delicious. I expect them to sell well. Where was I... oh yes... so when the water went off after the girls got 2 teams and their families I received a phone call (right when I was about to update this, I might add). Since it was nearly 9pm I decided to take Lucy, my dog, for a ride to the farm stand and see if we couldn't fix the issue.

Well, I couldn't fix it. Rather than call the boys and tear them away from their first party of the whole season I found a way to work around the problem. Greenhouses have hoses. Those hoses worked just fine! The mop bucket problem was solved and the scoops were treated to a lovely bath in Dasani bottled water. Good use of a dollar.

There was a water main break in town earlier today and since my home's water pressure was affected earlier in the day I figured that perhaps the farm's was too. (I live nearby the farm so it's not entirely improbable.)

And there you have it!
I did take a couple pictures of one of my activites the other day. To be impressive I'll call it a beautification project that I worked on for two days. Once I find my uploady cord I put those pics on the interblog and share them with you.

So you know, tomorrow's weather ought to be a high of 77*, low of 51* with a 30% chance of rain. Otherwise it'll be partly cloudy. I thought May was for flowers and April was for the showers!?

-Chelsea

Random Pictures

This is me about two years ago at the farm stand. As you can see, the soda I was drinking exploded on me but I'm okay with it! More importantly, look behind me! Look how gorgeous everything looks! The first picture (just you wait until I learn the formatting!) is of "The Middle Greenhouse", which is basically our main greenhouse. When the first and third houses run low or out of plants, everything gets consolidated to the center house. The front of the first (what I call the first any how) greenhouse, aka the Water Pond house, is usually looking fantastic. This year Matt and Mark fixed the pond so that it will retain the water that we put into it. Finally! Once upon a time we had large goldfish in the pond.

Tomorrow's Weather: High of 65*, Low 53* with (scattered?) Thunderstorms. Leave your metal umbrellas at home!

Until Next Time,
Chelsea

Chilly Weather

Back Again!

I got to work in a funky mood this afternoon due to stress and whatnot of life. After a while I decided to clean petunia hangers outside and listen to Mark and Tony chitchat. Oh my god did I laugh... well on the inside, I'm not a big laugher, but I was smiling for sure. There they were, just two middle-aged men goofing around and laughing at one another... nothing but contagious let me tell you. Soon enough my cranky mood was alleviated.

Tonight there is an expected frost - the last of the season we hope. Since it was a slow night, customer-wise, I got to help the boys (aka my bosses and other coworkers) cover all the plants outside: roses, perennials, herbs, etc. The greenhouses are also closed up. This kind of thing, protecting for an impending frost, annoys one of my bosses a great deal because of the monotonous bringing things in/out and the covering/uncovering. But the couple of the hours of aggravation saves us thousands in plants. We can't have our whole business freezing!

I had to keep the stand open until our normal hours "in case a team comes," for ice-cream that is. I had one little boy dressed in a baseball uniform run in for a Moosetracks cone and that was it. But he was so cute! I'm always impressed when little kids are so polite when ordering ice-cream or whatever and I try to remember to tell their parents so. I imagine that they feel a bit of pride when someone recognizes their hard work. 'Please' and 'thank you' go a llloooonnnggg way.

So many of our plants are looking fabulous now. We're getting our cemetery logs out tomorrow, just in time for Memorial Day. I know a lot of my customers have been asking about them. The log boxes are nice, especially when Mrs decorates them. Oh the compliments I get on how nice everything looks. I wish I could share the credit, but really everything happens across the street in the "Employees Only" greenhouses. You could say I'm more in the maintenance department of the decorated pots - just keeping them clean and watered and presentable.

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Once I get settled in to my home after graduation, I'll unpack my camera and try to get some pictures up on this blog so I can actually share my work with you all. The sunsets are so pretty and I can't wait to get some pictures here.

Tomorrow's weather has a High of 74 and a Nightly Low of 47.

Remember to cover your plants tonight!!

See you again,
Chelsea

Mother's Day and an Introduction

Today was my first day back at 'The Farm' since finishing school. Sure, I still have odds and ends to tie up before graduation but what really matters is that I got to run around outdoors all day!

As you know, this is Mother's Day weekend and as you may not know, it is one of our busiest weekends all year. Probably the second busiest. You could definitely tell that today was all about the mothers. There were husbands buying for wives and moms, kids asking what kind of flower they ought to get, and moms out spending some quality time alone preparing for the season. "All I want to do is get some planting done today" was basically what every lone woman was telling me. What joy they must have also playing in the dirt and instilling bursts of color and beauty throughout their spaces. It doesn't have to be Mother's Day for my customers to walk into one of the greenhouses and feel inspired. At least I hope they're feeling inspired. I know I do, even when I have to pick up the trash and weeds, (somebody has to keep it all clean!).

To honor our mom customers, the Farm was giving all mothers a free small ice-cream cone. There was plenty of gratitude from these moms who, on their "day off" (the mothers out there are thinking, "yeah, right"), brought their kids down for a cone and found out that they got one just for being themselves. I had very few refusals.

The people I work with and for are what truly make my job special. From the Big Bosses (Mr and Mrs), to the coworker who returns after a long winter, to the little kid learning currency patiently counting out quarters and nickels; and yes, even the adolescents who decide that this is the year to tackle the problem of authority, even if that authority is merely asking you what kind of ice-cream you want. I've grown up here, year after year finding pieces of myself in the people I meet, the skills I learn, and the problems I overcome. It's amazing that what was once a hope to work at the Farm became "Oh my God, I have a job there!" which then led me to the feeling of having a second home.


A scattered writing for my first entry but I hope you stick around.
Tomorrow's weather looks like partly cloudy with a high of 67. My kind of day! Unfortunately, I won't be at work again until the weekend so check back then for another update.

And of course, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms!!

Have a nice day!
-Chelsea