The farmer's market season is winding down. Actually, next Monday is our last day in Austin! I can't believe how quickly this season has gone by!
I'm working on a few projects right now. 1) Deciding on my Christmas Cookies menu and creating order forms for preordering 2) Setting up an email listing so I can send out emails to keep customers up to date on what's going on (especially after the Facebook issues last week!!) 3) Setting up a method for ordering for the off season. I will be doing weekly baking and offering delivery to Kiester, Bricelyn, and possibly Wells with enough interest. Or pickup at the farm is always an option. 4) Working on adding a few more events to my calendar to finish out the year. What am I going to do with myself all winter? Well, hopefully this winter won't be spent making facemasks, so I'll be able to work on other projects. I have some fun ones in mind!! I also plan on doing some more experimental baking to add to my bread lines. Definitely let me know if there's anything you'd like me to add to the menu!!
0 Comments
August 1, 2021, brought about some changes to the world of Cottage Foods Producers. There are already rules and regulations required by law to sell foods from home or at farmer's markets or any other venues. (Some people may not like it, but the rules and laws are in place so the foods are prepared PROPERLY and SAFELY!) It doesn't take long to do the online training, and for Tier I training (which most casual producers are) it doesn't cost anything. There really isn't any excuse NOT to do it if you're selling food, except laziness. CFP training outlines what can and cannot safely be produced and sold from home. This includes any foods that need to be pressure canned to be safely stored (see the National Center for Home Food Preservation) or any foods that must be refrigerated to be safely stored (such as custards.) It also sets guidelines for water activity levels in baked goods and acidity levels in canned goods.
The new legislation has been a positive thing for us CFPs though!! It has raised the ceiling on income levels. It has also increased the number of items we can make. Pet treats have been off the table in the past. Now we can make them for cats and dogs!! They must be made with foods that are safe for people, and must meet the same safety standards as human foods, plus must meet standards of using ingredients that are also safe for the specific species intended for. I've dipped my hand into this arena. So far I've done a peanut butter-whole wheat-oatmeal dog biscuit and an oatmeal-applesauce pretzel. I found an icing recipe for the biscuit, the the uniced went over better. I have a recipe on the docket for a peanut butter pup-cake I can't wait to try!!! I may possibly look into having some recipes tested, depending on how long the testing is good for, so that I can use banana or pumpkin in them. We'll see how those go... Really? How is it the END of July? It seems like summer just started!! And this week is our county fair. It's only right that I'm busy.
Despite not living too far from here most of my life, this will be the first time attending this particular fair. I'm entering a few things too! I pulled a few projects, and will be baking a little bit to take tomorrow to enter. Keeping my fingers crossed it will go well!! My boys are entering 2 of our rabbits - one silver fox and one Rex - in the 4H rabbit show. My youngest is a Cloverbud, so he doesn't have to do much. My oldest son has to have an interview and explain how care for our rabbits. I'm spending most of the week restocking my inventory. I have some jams made already: tomato, banana, wrangler with serrano, wrangler with jalapeno. I picked up low sugar pectin today to make some certain recipes, but I have plenty of regular for my others. This week I'm still planning on corn cob jelly, salted cantaloupe jam, watermelon jam, pina colada jam, and pineapple orange banana jam. I'm still waiting on fresh veggies and fruits to make others. It's going to be a busy week!! Sometimes we need to ssslllloooowwww dddooooowwwwnnnnn and just take a moment to breathe.
Things can get overwhelming at times if we don't. We get so caught up with the hustle of the everyday that we forget to take care of ourselves and we run the danger of burnout. I'm taking a moment now. I realized I haven't updated in weeks!! So what's going on in Mama's Corner of the world?? We put some more meat in the freezer over the weekend. The garden is producing beautifully. My Roma tomato plants are huge!! Some of my peppers are quite large. The sweet corn is doing well, as are the squash. We waited on planting the pumpkins so they wouldn't ripen too early. I'm very excited about the garden because last year's garden was not very productive. I've already gotten more out of this one that all last year! I'm currently on my second round of tie dye shirts for this year. After my Morin Lake event I needed to restock. The Bricelyn 3rd of July event went really well with putting out our new shirts and the debut of my homemade cinnamon rolls. Just the smell made my mouth absolutely water!! This week and next week we will be doing a couple big events with the Flea Market at the Freeborn County Fairgrounds (this week) and Flea JUNKtion at the Faribault County Fairgrounds (next week). I will have some of my winter and Christmas items out, as well as a special selection of my favorite Christmas cookies for a special Christmas in July event. You won't believe these cookies!!!! ooohhh! I have a few projects I need to work on.... I'll be posting soon... with pictures! It's been crazy busy lately. Going going 5 days a week or more. Farmer's markets 3 days a week, events on weekends, vendor events and parades. Baking every day for the next day's events, or up early in the morning to make bread and pie cookies.
Today the craziest thing happened. I made 3 batches of bread. And sold out. In 3 minutes! THREE. MINUTES. That has NEVER happened to me before! But that's not the first weird thing lately. 2 weeks ago I sold out of HALF of my tie dyes IN ONE EVENT. I sold an expensive blanket that took a LONG TIME to make that's been in inventory for a couple of years. Last weekend I won a HUGE prize at a raffle. I almost NEVER buy raffle tickets. It's been a WEiRD month. The next 2 weeks are going to be super busy, and I'm going to be trying to restock what's been selling out. I don't know how I'm going to get that done, but I'm going to try!! At some point things MIGHT slow down... but I'm not going to hold my breath!! When the break in my events is scheduled to come, it will be chicken processing time, then it'll be flea market and fair time. Which means back to back to back days again. I better get back to my crocheting.... these shawls aren't going to finish themselves!! Most of us go through the dilemma on almost a daily basis, especially if we have kids, of the age old question: What's for dinner.
There's a meme I've seen several times saying "Who knew that the hardest part of being an adult is figuring out what to cook for dinner EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT for the rest of your life until you die." It's the truth, and it's painful at times. What can I make that will make everyone depending on me happy? Do I make the same thing I've made 364,895,974 times? Do I try to make something new? HAAALLPPP!!! It's much the same when baking for markets and other events. Believe it or not, tastes can vary from town to town drastically. Muffins may fly at a location, while shortbread dandelion cookies may be a favorite at another. Some areas enjoy traditional bread, some prefer new and exotic flavors. It can even change BY THE DAY. And once you think you have an area figured out.... everything changes. Honestly, there are some days that I think, I really don't know if it's worth the time, worth the effort to make these foods (whatever it is I decided for the day). Will anyone show up? Will anyone like it? Will anyone buy it? Will I have all this left over to take home again? I guess I just really struggle with not knowing.... Last Thursday was one of those days that I really dread. It was raining, thundering and storming all morning. Late afternoon, the weather somewhat broke, but the wind was still blowing. I had to make a judgement call on whether it was going to be worth going to market or not. Was the weather going to break, or would it start storming and raining again? It's not as easy as heading just up the road. It's an hour drive, besides everything else that is involved with market. I think I made the right call in the end. It was still pretty crappy here, and from what I hear people were pretty much hunkered down in Austin too. I spent some time working on some blankets in my WIPS tote that I've just honestly not had time to do lately. Between the animals and garden, I haven't had a ton of time for sewing or crocheting. It's extremely cathartic, especially on a rainy day. I can say, I don't especially enjoy weaving in ends, and that's why sometimes some projects take some time to finish! I'm really enjoying the scrapghans I've been doing lately. They don't involve much weaving since I can stitch the ends in as I go. I've finished two this week and started on a third, and it uses up yarn from other projects that I'm not sure what else I'm going to do with it. And they are turning out SO BEAUTIFULLY!! It's also been very busy here with the arrival of baby animals! My mama Bunny delivered a litter of 6 last week. We have some real CHUNK babies!!! Then between my 3 broody hens we have 11 baby chicks. Unfortunately we've lost a couple, but that's life, and that happens. We are expecting more baby chicks in the next couple days, as there are 28 eggs in the incubator. Which means we need to get the chicken pens ready to go!! But for now, I have eggs to get ready for market tomorrow, and I need to get my calendar updated. We'll see you all at Market! It's springtime again and Monday means the start of Farmer's Market again. The first market is always a little nerve-wracking. I keep my notebook handy and make a list of ALL THE THINGS that I inevitably forgot at home in my rush to pack up the truck and the boys. Do I have enough change? Are all the baked items labeled correctly? Did that box get put back in the truck? What do you mean we're out of tape??? This year again is seeing some changes at the Gift Corner. We moved a little over a year ago, changed some of the markets we serve, and have changed our offerings. It's great being out on 5 acres and going from a 20'x20' garden to a 70'x70' main garden, with separate gardens for squash, pumpkins, and wild flowers, as well as raised herb beds. The gardens are new, so they're taking a little more work. I'm looking forward to being able to offer more fresh produce!! I've decided to make some changes to my product inventory. Some things will be leaving, and a few new things will be arriving. My baked offerings will be changing a bit with most of the focus on bread, and a new product you'll see us with at market is farm fresh rainbow eggs! We have a few little things left to put in the garden this weekend, and some displays to get ready still, thanks to my amazing hubby! The boys and I look forward to see you all at Market on Monday!! |
I'm Mindy (Mama)I'm a SAHM/WAHM. When I'm not crafting or homeschooling, I might be gardening, canning, or one of a million other projects. I love life on my little farm with my chickens, rabbits, and little man. It's never boring around here! Archives
October 2021
Categories |