Market Farming

["Del Williams" <delannw AT dlogue.net>]

By the way, the nice thing about starting lettuce in flats is that I can plant a variety in the same flats and keep succession planting until it the temperatures get too high.  Then I start lettuces inside (where it is air conditioned) and have plants ready to go when the temperatures finally start getting more civil.

 

No thinning really and there is nothing like planting this stuff quickly.  I also plant one variety right next to the other.  Then I can go down and clean out a row and have all the varieties in that row.  Seems more efficient than having to move to a different area.  But I harvest lettuce in the morning before the market.  Right into coolers filled with ice water.  When I get to the market and have set up, I start bagging them up, drain some of the ice water and leave the lettuces in coolers.  The coolers are labeled so customers know what is in them.  They open them up and take out as many bags of lettuce as they want to buy.  This method keeps the lettuces fresh for the 5 hours at the market.  But, I never seem to be able to take enough to last through a whole market.  Same for chard.  It is always gone by 10AM.

 

Del Williams

Farmer in the Del

Clifton IL