Vendor shares glimpse into process of bringing goods to farmer's market
8:35 a.m. Monday, July 21, 2008
They start selling early in the spring and continue through the fall, week after week, Saturday after Saturday. And as veteran vendors like Karen Pendleton know all too well, you have to get up pretty early in the morning to bring your wares to farmer's market.
"You'd be surprised how many people ask me what time I got up in the morning to put the bouquets together," Pendleton said. "Well, I got up at 5 o'clock in the morning to get to market, but all the bouquets are done the day before."
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The Pendletons, who sell a variety of produce and fresh cut flowers, employ 15 full and part-time worker in the summer to help them with sowing, weeding, cutting, flowers arranging, selling in the store, and other tasks required in running a small farm. On Fridays, everyone reports to work for what might be called "market pre-game."
"We do bouquets until 5 o'clock, and pretty much everyone goes home at 5. Our market's open 'til 6 so I'll run the market for the last hour of the day, and then I'll take about an hour going in the house and sit in the air conditioning and relax. And then about 7:30, I go out to the field and pick basil," she said.
Karen and her husband, John, work until midnight making signs, preparing a cash box and wrapping paper, and loading three vans for departure at 4:30 the next morning. It's a fine-tuned routine, honed over 28 years, and only one thing can ruin it.
"There's nothing worse than a rain on Saturday morning. I mean, we don't want it to rain on Saturday morning. It can rain anytime, even if we're in the drought, we don't want rain on Saturday morning because we have worked all week long, for Saturday's market," she said.
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