Meteorological Spring

As we greet yet another day of snow flurries and leaden skies, I join with the glib weatherpersons on television to welcome March 1 as the first day of spring - meteorological – or climatological – spring for the Northern Hemisphere.
I won't continue to grouse about the bleak winter weather because my antidote is planning for the coming growing season, tending the plants I have already started in the greenhouse and continuing to read seed catalogs, garden and farming blogs and the reference library we're building. I won't mention that Potter County is one of the cloudiest places on the planet because we just purchased supplies to supplement the grow light capacity in that aforementioned greenhouse. And, indeed we are warm and cozy inside our remodeled farm house!

We hosted a meeting of the Potter County Farmers' Market growers over the weekend and welcomed some new participants. It got me to thinking once again about what our customers are looking for when they make the time to come to the Farmer's Market each week. This is your turn to talk back to me. We can narrow the focus to the subject of lettuce this time.
Pictured above are some of the leaf lettuces I grew last summer. We enjoy a mixture of Black Seeded Simpson and a commercial mixes such as Burpee's Gourmet Blend and Spicy Mesclun Mix from Seeds of Change. We also grew leafy head lettuce (a dark green variety called Concept and a red variety) that folks seemed to enjoy.
We tried to price the lettuce at about the same price the supermarkets charge for their organic lettuce - keeping in mind that ours is fresher (picked within 24 hours of sale) and has a good shelf life if it's properly cared for.
So now I ask you to leave us your comments. Please note that comments are not published on the blog until they are reviewed so just let me know you don't want to publish your comment here. We are mostly just interested in hearing what you have to say as we continue planning for the summer.
As a group, we're also looking at web-based options to let folks know who is bringing what to the market each week and we hope to have a way for folks to "order" in advance once they know what's going to be there. More information is forthcoming so stay tuned!

Linking to a Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop here: http://www.thismindbeinyou.com/2013/03/farm-girl-blog-fest-22.html
Linking to Homestead Barn Hop here: http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2013/02/homestead-barn-hop-100.html