Back at Hardeman's

September 29, 2008 - When I was 16 years old I got my first real job - at Hardeman Orchards. John Hardeman has an apple orchard and a little farm market where I first learned to be a cashier, stock vegetables, sort apples, cut and arrange flowers, and dig in the dirt. I spent several years on and off working at this place and becoming good friends with John and his family. You could say it was like a second home for me. Of course I moved on from Hardeman's and went off into the world to find myself. But interestingly, as I find myself back in Red Hook, I find myself back at Hardeman Orchards. John and I started talking in August and he told me that he needed somebody to manage his stand for the fall. Hmmmm.......

My plate certainly felt full at the time, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew it would be impossible for me to refuse. The stand needed some love after a couple seasons of neglect. It has immeasurable potential with it's location and it's beauty, and I couldn't resist the challenge. Plus Joe and I would be needing a market for our vegetables - and more than likely some land to grow our vegetables.

So the first weekend in September I started my second job. Every Saturday and Sunday (and sometimes Friday) you can now find me at the stand, selling apples, peaches, plums, peppers, tomatoes, mums, bread, donuts, jams, eggs, and whatever else we can get our hands on to sell.
You'll see Joe there quite a bit too - he's done a lot of clean up work and some painting, and he has quite an eye for the strategic placement of mums in order to encourage patronage at our stand. :)

So far it's been a lot of work, but incredibly satisfying. Every weekend the stand gets a little bit better and sales get a little bit higher. It's awesome to be interacting with people and getting a better sense of the market for local food in the area. It's also great to be able to put some of my food knowledge together with some of my business knowledge to try to create a successful business for a good friend.

Needless to say, this job together with my bookkeeping work ends up filling up my week, leaving me with little time for our garden. We didn't get around to planting many fall crops, but do still have the goal of planting garlic, spinach, and lots of greens to keep in cold frames over the winter. We'll do the best we can and what we don't do this year, we'll just put on the list for next year.

The summer garden is definitely starting to wind down. We still have tomatoes, but we've sort of abandoned the cherry tomatoes. Joe started letting the chickens into the tomato garden to let them eat all the rotten ones on the ground and start cleaning it up. They sure do a good job of it- I managed to get a bunch of sweet corn from the farm stand right at the end of the season. I took several dozen ears to put up for the winter -

I think I'm about out of vegetables to preserve - which is good, because I am also out of steam for the whole process. It's a lot of fun but it does tend to make you look at the garden as a chore rather than a blessing for a little while.

All in all, we're both just starting to get settled in for the winter. Joe's been spending a lot of time chopping wood to keep us warm. The days are getting shorter and we're spending more time at home in the evenings, reading and catching up on things that have been neglected for the busy summer. We'll start to make our winter travel plans as well as our plans to attend the winter organic gardening conference. I can honestly say that I have never in my life looked forward to winter as much as I am this year - it will definitely be a well earned rest. But don't exect the blog to end! I'm sure there will always be something to write about... it's the nature of our lives.