Today was the perfect day to get out and visit a few greenhouses .After this terrible long winter it was nice to drive out in the country and see all the trees starting to bud out. The grass along the highway has started turning green and there were cute baby cows frolicking in the fields. Spring is a wonderful time of the year.

Today I visited two of our vendors who live in Versailles, MO. Versailles is located south of 50 highway and east of Sedalia. When I started at the Market in 2003 I had many more vendors to visit in this area. Since that time many of them have retired, sold their businesses or opted to sell their produce at the auction house in Fortuna.

My first stop was at The Busy Bee located off highway 52. Darrel and his wife Diane have been bringing bedding plants to the City Market since 2004. Diane told me she was selling at the Market with her family when she was 18. I am always amazed by the number of people I meet who have a story about the City Market. This is one of the things that makes the City Market so special. The Unruh’s have two greenhouses which they heat with propane and wood. During the extreme cold spells Darrel had to get up during the night to stoke the fire so the plants would not freeze. I don’t think people always appreciate what it takes to get healthy plants ready to bring to the Market by April. As always their greenhouses are immaculate which insures healthy plants free of disease. They have started bringing the plants out of the warmth of the greenhouses to get them ready to plant. This is very important so as not to shock the plants. They had a wonderful selection of annuals and tomato plants. I especially liked a new plant Diane put in hanging baskets this year. They should bloom all summer and have already started to trail out of the baskets. They also had King Tut, which is a grass that looks great when planted in a large pot surrounded by colorful annuals. Darrel said it also does well in a pond, they placed one in water and it did well all winter. Darrel and Diane do not sell plants directly to customers from their home but they do have a roadside stand which is located on highway 52 a few miles from their home. The roadside stand will open tomorrow, it should do well since it is located near a very busy intersection. You will find the Unruh’s at the market every Saturday through June in the middle farmers shed in stalls 60-63.

 My next stop is only about ten minutes down the road and is also located on 52 highway. Chris Pifer started selling at the Sunday farmers market last year. Chris starts his tomato plants very early in the winter so is the first vendor to have vine ripened tomatoes at the Market. He is able to do this since he heats his greenhouses by burning sawdust instead of using propane. Chris took me on a tour of his tomato house, wow was it impressive. He planted 544 plants and hopes to get 25# to 30# of tomatoes from each plant. He should get 1 ½# to 2# of tomatoes per plant per week, that’s a lot of tomatoes! When I entered one of his 5 greenhouses the smell of the petunias was unbelievable. The Pifer’s specialize in extra-large hanging baskets which they start a little earlier than most of the vendors, they are beautiful. In a few weeks he will also be bringing some potted pepper plants, succulent planters and knock out roses. The Pifers sell at the Columbia Farmers Market, City Market and the Merriam Market on Saturdays.

I had the scariest thing happen to me on the drive back from Versailles. A wild turkey came flying out of the tall grass along the road on highway 50. All of a sudden it was in front of my windshield at the nose of the truck, I am sure I screamed. I don’t know how it did not crash into my windshield. I had to pull over for a minute. Wild turkeys are much bigger than you think!

Next week I will be heading to Emporia, Kansas to visit a new vendor for the Sunday farmers market.