I can’t believe it is March 1^st already; the Market will be filling up fast if this warm weather keeps up. I now have a co-pilot with me on the days I am visiting farms and crafters workshops. Sarah Adams started working at the City Market in July of last year and is the Assistant Farmers Market Manager. It will be nice to have someone to visit with when I am on the road for eight hours.

This week we started the day by visiting the Central Missouri Produce Action in Fortuna, Missouri. Missouri has eight such produce auctions, that I know of spread around the state. Our goal is to visit each one this summer. The Central Missouri Produce Auction is a corporation owned by shareholders made up of mostly farmers. This week the items being auctioned off were mainly vegetable and bedding plants which are grown within a 100 mile radius of the auction. Each seller has a number which coincides with his products. When shopping at the City Market Farmers’ Market you will notice that each of our vendors have a large sign posted in their stall which tells the name of their farm/business, where there from and what category they are in. Many of the vendors who sell in the Farmer with Local Supplement category get their supplemented produce from these auctions. Farmers in this category must grow 50% of the produce they bring to the Market each day but can supplement no more than 50% of their products from an auction or a farm located within 500 miles of the City Market. Vendors in this category are required by the City Market to post the name of the farm and the town where the supplemented items have been harvested. We spent about 45 minutes sitting and listening to the auctioneer, it was very interesting to see.

Our main focus today was to visit at least three greenhouses which grow bedding plants, hanging baskets, vegetable plants and tomatoes. Just a short time after leaving the auction we arrived in Versailles where we have two vendors who sell at the Market. We stopped at Daryl Unruh’s farm first only to discover he had added another greenhouse, he now has three. Daryl and his family were busy planting the flower starts into pots and hanging baskets. They start these plants with seeds, plugs and un-rooted cuttings. In a few weeks there greenhouse will be filled to the brim with beautiful hanging baskets, container plantings, annuals, perennials and vegetable plants. The Unruh’s recently expanded their line of succulents which are very popular right now. The Busy Bee, which is the name of their business, has been in operation since 1997 with the help of his wife Diane and their four children. The Busy Bee will have one space at the market on the 4^th and if weather permits will expand to four Saturday stalls in the very near future located in pavilion two stalls 60-63.

Just a short jaunt through Versailles and we arrive at Highway 52 Greenhouse or the Green Thumb as it is sometimes known. Chris Pifer has taken on a huge endeavor this year and constructed a ¾ acre greenhouse filled with 6,000 tomato plants. I must say this is something to see and I was very impressed. It took Chris and one part time person 100 hours to fill all 6,000 bags of organic compose which he purchases from Blue Bird Organic Compose Company if Fulton, MO. All of his tomato plants are grown in these bags. The greenhouse environment is very controlled to maintain the right temperature and air flow to ensure the plants stay healthy. To ward off disease Chris let loose predator bugs to eat the bad insect and has boxes of bees placed around the greenhouse to pollinate all the plants. The pictures we took cannot even begin to show how impressive this it. Most of the tomatoes are a beefsteak variety but Chris also planted a couple rows of Heirloom tomatoes as an experiment, they are yielding way more tomatoes the Chris ever expected. I was already to purchase some tomatoes for a BLT but sadly they will not be ready for a couple more weeks. 

In addition to tomatoes, Chris’s mother Nancy has three greenhouses where she starts all of her hanging baskets and containers from cuttings in December which explains why the plants in their baskets are so huge. Nancy has a knack for combining a very unique mix of plants in her baskets; she told me she wakes up in the morning thinking about plants and how to combine them. Starting plants from cuttings take a great deal of time and patients but I think the results are well worth it. Highway 52 Greenhouse is located in the 3^rd farmer pavilion on Saturdays in stall 110 and in the 1^st pavilion on Sundays in stall 7-8.

Our last stop for the day is a little closer to home in Buckner, Missouri. Marlin and Mark Frye sell in the Farmer with Supplement Category and usually supplement tomatoes and peaches grown within the markets 500 mile radius. Today we are checking part of what they will be growing to bring to Market. We found Marlin in one of their two greenhouses where they have started transplanting vegetable and bedding plants grown from seeds and plugs. They had about 200 hanging baskets planted which should be ready to bring to the market in early May. We saw stack after stack of bagged potting soil and Marlin told us he was expecting a delivery of pots any day. Frye Farms is located in the third pavilion in stalls 129 and 130. Mark Frye, Marlins son, is located in pavilion one in stalls 27-29.

I will be taking a little time off next week before the Market gets too busy but Sarah and I will be heading out again on March 15^th and 16^th. Were planning to travel to Topeka, Lawrence, Edgerton and Gardner for now but I am sure we will add a few more locations before we take off.