Homestead mailing list

[WILLIAM <billymegab AT yahoo.com>]

Lynn
   
  It's always too much for one person.  I find I can either work in and 
around the garden or cook or do some housework or take the dog for a run or 
read the paper.  I can NEVER EVER do all of the above.  I'm happiest when I'm 
outside in the sun doing whatever needs doing in the garden, so it gets the 
most attention!   :>)
   
  That was true even when I didn't have a "real" job.  Now that I'm back to  
work it's even harder.

Lynn Wigglesworth <lynnw AT chilitech.net> wrote:
  From: "Gene GeRue" 
> Here in the boonies we often joked that we were twenty years behind
> California.

We are way behind, too. We can literally see trends coming many years
ahead of time....I read several years ago that white pumpkins for
Halloween were all the rage in 'sophisticated' places, so I'm growing some
white pumpkins (Lumina and the little Baby Boo) this year. Tioga County
may not be ready, yet. There are lots of trends (like baby
vegetables...bigger is still better here) that either haven't gotten here,
or skipped over us.

I find the marketing to be the most tedious part of farming. I have to be
the press liasion, ad writer, financial backer, public greeter, educator,
trend researcher, produce hauler, sign painter, and a million other things
for my farm and the farmers' market besides being a farmer. Gene, it's
like you having to write your books, print them yourself at home, then
stand on street corners selling them. There are days I barely see the
garden because I'm on the phone to cutomers, haulers, butchers, farmers'
market vendors, or sitting at market, etc. I'm coming to the conclusion
that farming, at least the way I'm doing it, isn't a one person job.

Lynn Wigglesworth
Cowbridge Farm


_______________________________________________
Homestead list and subscription:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
Change your homestead list member options:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/billymegab%40yahoo.com
View the archives at:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead




                        
---------------------------------
Sneak preview the  all-new Yahoo.com. It's not radically different. Just 
radically better. 
>From oldchuck AT woodchuckworks.net  Wed Jun 28 12:39:28 2006
Return-Path: <oldchuck AT woodchuckworks.net>
X-Original-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Delivered-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Received: from smtp109.plus.mail.re2.yahoo.com
        (smtp109.plus.mail.re2.yahoo.com [206.190.53.34])
        by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 306794C00B
        for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Wed, 28 Jun 2006 12:39:28 -0400 
(EDT)
Received: (qmail 68033 invoked from network); 28 Jun 2006 16:39:28 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.0.3?) (michaelbadamo AT 64.223.111.114 with
        plain)
        by smtp109.plus.mail.re2.yahoo.com with SMTP; 28 Jun 2006 16:39:27 
-0000
In-Reply-To: <008c01c69ac2$d7d792c0$6f00a8c0@lynnspc>
References: 
<7.0.1.0.2.20060628065536.00e40740 AT ruralize.com><20060628131922.67234.qmail AT web52606.mail.yahoo.com>
        <7.0.1.0.2.20060628082719.04d78ac0 AT ruralize.com>
        <008c01c69ac2$d7d792c0$6f00a8c0@lynnspc>
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v750)
X-Priority: 3
Message-Id: <E11A7D1E-54E0-48DC-819B-A5992D3AC878 AT woodchuckworks.net>
From: Michael Badamo <oldchuck AT woodchuckworks.net>
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 12:39:25 -0400
To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.750)
Content-Type: text/plain;
        charset=US-ASCII;
        delsp=yes;
        format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.8
Subject: Re: [Homestead] marketing
X-BeenThere: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8
Precedence: list
Reply-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
List-Id: <homestead.lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead>
List-Post: <mailto:homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Help: <mailto:sympa AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=HELP>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 16:39:28 -0000

Hello everyone,

I've been lurking on this list for a while now without much desire to  
say anything because I don't farm nor live in the country at the  
moment. However I do know a bit about farmers' markets, at least  
around here. Unfortunately, I don't have any advice for you. Just  
thought I would describe a bit about how things work in here.

I live in central Vermont in a county with a population of perhaps  
40,000; two small cities, one of which is Montpelier where I live,  
the state capital, population about 8,000 (the smallest in the  
country). Washington Country has at least four farmers' markets that  
I know of. Two are pretty substantial. Capital City Market (where I  
am a vendor) is probably the best with forty or fifty vendors a week.  
It has been going for twenty five years or so and has become an  
essential element in the community, a weekly social event as well as  
shopping. Maybe a third or forty percent of the vendors are local  
growers; produce, plants, flowers, meat, bee products, you name it.  
We also have a substantial number of prepared food vendors (people  
love to stroll around munching on stuff), and craftspeople of which I  
am one. I make wooden kitchen utensils, spoons, bowls, cutting  
boards, etc. The farmers, of course, are the backbone of the market.  
Prices are pretty high but people, even low income people, are  
willing to pay them because the quality is obviously better and a  
pervasive social value has developed that says buying local is better.

Nobody is getting rich of course. As you all probably know it is hard  
work for poor money but we do it because that is how we want to live  
our lives. (Some supplemental income helps too) This state of affairs  
didn't happen overnight because a few dedicated people worked hard to  
promote it. Cultural attitudes have been developing for a generation  
or more. That's how enduring institutions happen.

We are not unique here in central Vermont. There must be thirty or  
forty markets in all parts of the state. But then this is Vermont,  
like no other place I know of, except perhaps certain communities in  
Oregon.

regards,

Michael Badamo
Montpelier, Vermont
>From erthnsky AT bellsouth.net  Wed Jun 28 13:39:36 2006
Return-Path: <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
X-Original-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Delivered-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Received: from imf20aec.mail.bellsouth.net (imf20aec.mail.bellsouth.net
        [205.152.59.68])
        by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9A2814C00B
        for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Wed, 28 Jun 2006 13:39:36 -0400 
(EDT)
Received: from ibm64aec.bellsouth.net ([216.78.44.13])
        by imf20aec.mail.bellsouth.net with ESMTP id
        
<20060628173936.BFLI29288.imf20aec.mail.bellsouth.net AT ibm64aec.bellsouth.net>
        for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Wed, 28 Jun 2006 13:39:36 -0400
Received: from bellsouth.net ([216.78.44.13]) by ibm64aec.bellsouth.net
        with ESMTP
        id <20060628173935.KCLL18052.ibm64aec.bellsouth.net AT bellsouth.net>
        for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Wed, 28 Jun 2006 13:39:35 -0400
Message-ID: <44A2BF40.5000306 AT bellsouth.net>
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 13:41:20 -0400
From: Bevanron <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
Organization: EarthNSky Farm
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US;
        rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax; CDonDemand-Dom)
X-Accept-Language: en-us, en
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Homestead List <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Subject: [Homestead] Speaking of licenses..
X-BeenThere: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8
Precedence: list
Reply-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
List-Id: <homestead.lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead>
List-Post: <mailto:homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Help: <mailto:sympa AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=HELP>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 17:39:36 -0000

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/06/28/amish.rawmilk.ap/index.html


-- 
erthnsky AT bellsouth.net  BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm      NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W