What a beautiful day to start checking the vendors farms and craft work shops. My first stop was in Garnett, Kansas to visit Mary Bauman. Mary and her family have been vendors at the City Market for many years and attend the market every Saturday mid March through the end of November. You will find the Baumans in pavilion 1 stalls 3 & 4. When I arrived at Bauman Farms Mary was busy preparing crust for pies and getting cookie dough panned up for baking. For those of you who love gooseberry pie you will want to make sure and stop by Mary's stall.
My second stop was in Westphalia, Kansas and the farm of Duane Heck. Normally I would not visit Duane this early in the season since he mainly grows corn but I heard he was trying something new this year and wanted to check it out. Duane started corn in his greenhouse and last week transplanted it in his fields, this is very labor intensive but might be worth it if he is able to bring corn to the market early this season. After the corn was transplanted it was covered in plastic to protect it from frost and cold night temperatures. I will keep you updated on how this all worked out. Heck Farms Family Produce is located in all three pavilions in stalls A - 52 and 143 as soon as the corn is ready.
I then headed back up I-35 to Edgerton, Kansas and Enright Gardens. Steve, Sue and Bo have been vendors at the market for the past 45 years providing customers with beautiful bedding and vegetable plants. I was very lucky to catch everyone busy at work and was able to take a tour of their greenhouses. It was great to see how the seeds are started and transplanted to get them ready to bring to the market. I never realised how hard everyone works till I started visiting the vendors farms.To extend their market season Sue and Bo are expanding into growing green house tomatoes this season. The Enrights should be returning to the market as soon as the early morning temperatures rise above 45 to 50 degrees. If plants are taken out of the warm greenhouses and stuck out in the cold it will damage their leaves and make them curl up. You will find the Enrights in Pavilion 2 stalls 48-51 every Saturday April through June.
A few minutes later I arrived at The Flower Farm located in Gardner, Kansas. The Flower Farm is owned and operated by Keith Johnson and his family. I could only visit for a short time since it is Easter weekend and a very busy time at The Flower Farm, they raise Easter Lilies. Keith was busy sterilizing his potting soil to make sure his potted plants do not contain any fungus, weeds or bugs. I was on my own to walk through Keith's many greenhouses, my favorite being the one that contains the tropical plants. The Flower Farm is located in pavilion 2 stalls 84-86 April through July.
My final stop before heading back to the market was Kansas City, Kansas and the work shop of Melisa and Christopher Cavallari. After a quick tour of their workshop Melisa got busy demonstrating how she makes macrame/beaded bracelets and assorted earrings. Melisa buys all of her supplies in bulk and has it labeled and organized in plastic bins through out her work area. After demonstrating how she cuts glass and lays out her design for glass pendents she placed it in the kiln and moved onto another project. She is very good at multitasking. The next project was to assemble pendents that resembled something you would find in a scrap book. After many steps including soldering, the pendent was completed. Although Melisa demonstrated the making of one item at a time she normally makes all her items like they would be assembled in an assembly line. For example cutting glass for twenty pendents then moving on to the next step. Melisa and Christopher work full time creating their unique jewelery items ,which is why they are able to offer such a wide variety of items at the market. Melissa also makes skirts and shopping bags which she was busy working on while at the market last weekend. Suryashakti is at the market most Saturdays and Sundays all year weather permitting in stall B on Saturday and 84 on Sunday.
Next week I will be heading out to check a few more greenhouses and a couple bakeries.
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