Summer Newsletter #13

Inventories are updated for both this week's home delivery and this week's market on Saturday. We're making the best pie crust of the summer and it's highlighted in Apple Handpies, Quiche, and Summer Tomato Galettes! Looks like we'll have at least two more weeks of the tomatoes; after that we'll move onto fall and winter squashes. We're also playing around with some overnight oat mixes that you can stock up in your pantry for healthy and easy breakfasts throughout the week. Stay tuned!

A few weeks ago I made the decision to go down to just one farmers market on Saturday mornings. Since 2017 I'd been managing two markets - Deerfield and Montgomery. Prior to that, I had been a vendor at Deerfield since 2015. For the past few years, making inventory for and staffing two booths on the same day came with challenges, but it never felt insurmountable. It meant that Thursdays and Fridays were LONG days, there was little sleep to be had on Friday nights, and every last inch of space was taken up with flour, butter, bread loaves, fruit sauces, cream cheese icing, and more.

This year, two markets felt insurmountable. The demand for local food increased exponentially back in April, and I have been trying to keep up as best as I could ever since. Mid-week home deliveries have been a great model for us. And I honestly had no idea what the Saturday morning market traffic would be like. It turns out that Deerfield market traffic has been REALLY busy this year. We were selling out before 10am some weeks. Meanwhile over at Montgomery, I was lucky to keep the booth stocked past 10:30am most of the time. Add to that the fact that the little sleep I used to get was almost nonexistent. AND there just wasn't any more space left around here for more loaves in production. I felt like each week, I was doing a so-so job of adequately stocking two markets. After some numbers crunching, I saw that if I went down to one market, I could keep up with inventory, add a couple hours of sleep back to my schedule, and not overwhelm my space constraints here. I decided to stick with the market that had more sales, and also the market where I had a longer history. It wasn't an easy decision, but after these first few weeks in the new mode, I know it was the right one.

If you are a Montgomery customer, please consider Wednesday Home Delivery as an option! You can still get your bread and pastry fix, and it's free with a $20 minimum purchase.

THANK YOU for your support! It means the world to me.