Yesterday I had two new vendors I needed to visit since both are ready to start selling at the Sunday and Wednesday farmers market. I visit all new vendors before they are allowed to rent space at the City Market to ensure that they are actually growing their own produce and not just buying and reselling it.

I received a new application from Errie Raasch back in March but had to wait to visit his farm when he was getting ready to harvest the vegetables; that time has come. Raasch Farm is located in Liberty, MO and is located on a hill that overlooks rolling farm land, what a beautiful view! The large garden is surrounded by acres of sweet corn and field corn and in spite of needing a little rain everything looks great.  Their tomatoes will not be ready for awhile but they are picking lettuce, carrots, beets, broccoli, onions and arugula. I expect that Errie will be setting up at the Sunday market this week since everything is coming on all at once; I love this time of year.

We also received another new application in mid March from Joel Dierking whose farm is located in Blackburn, MO which is near Waverly. Joel’s main crop is sweet corn and green beans but they also have a small garden next to their house for their own use. If they end up with more than they can eat or can they might bring a few other items to the market. The sweet corn has tasseled but the ears are not quite ready to pick yet. But the green beans, although in need of some rain and fairly short, have already started producing beans ready to pick. The Dierking’s are lucky to have a devise made for picking green beans in which you set near the ground and the tractor pulls you along the row, this really saves your back. Joel has staggered his plantings of six varieties of sweet corn so if all goes well will have corn throughout the summer. We might see Dierking Produce at the Market on Sunday with green beans if they are able to pick enough to justify a trip to Kansas City.

Just a reminder the Wednesday farmers market runs June through August from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. This is a great time to stock up on your produce, have a dinner out and listen to some wonderful music.