Sustainable Dining

Our markets are AWESOME!

Our customers ate the BEST!

Today we had the nicest celebration at the North Center Market for Mathew's birthday. My mother in law once said that she hadn't met anyone who didn't like Mathew and that certainly seems to be the case. I am pretty sure he is a favorite there.

I will need to post more pictures later (All the vendors made it so fun!) but for now just this...

The fabulous chef at Brown Trout brought out a special dessert and even a candle! This was while we were all packing up so all the vendors were able to gather around and sing Happy Birthday. It was so nice...and the cherries are even from our farm.

~Christina...who loves her amazing husband, the well loved birthday boy

We have a nice cooler. Well we do it is just a bit small for our current operation.

It is SO PACKED with fruit on Fridays so that we are ready to tackle our many Saturday markets.

As you can see there are several different containers that we use to pick, store and transport our fabulous produce.

~Christina...who didn't have internet at the farm last night in order to post

Preparing for the weekend

It pretty much goes like this:

If you live on the farm you roll out of bed early on Saturday morning, get dressed and head to the barn.

If you go to markets but are not part of the family so therefore you live off of the farm you wake up even earlier, get dressed and drive to the barn.

When we got married I was used to the whole driving method but my dear husband was used to waking at the last second and being right there.

I would rather sleep in my own bed.

He would rather sleep at the farm.

We compromised and sleep in his Grandparents' extra bedroom. Okay so I gave in...that's compromise right?

There are a lot of reasons why that is a very nice thought and I do get some type of sleep at least. And we have less chance of being late. And spending time with his Grandpa and Grandma is important. He feels at home there and definitely misses being on the farm with the rest of his family...(not that we are far away or anything, we are there almost everyday for something).

So every week I pack up and head to the farm on Friday. We meet there, Mat and I after work.

It is a good thing my Grandma got me suitcases for my birthday last year.

This is our Friday/Saturday suitcase in the beginning stages of being packed. Actually I do believe that packing allows me to be more organized.

Oh and just so you know...I love our bed! Isn't it beautiful.

~Christina...who almost forgot to take a picture today, can you tell?

The King Berry

So this is a picture of things to come! Red Blackberries means Black Blackberries very soon!!

The first berry to ripen is the biggest...the king berry from the king bloom...

~Christina

Perspective

Our tents don't seem this small in the country!

~Christina

Tent Wreck

Tents.

Tents are yet another necessary, love/hate, tool that is essential to our life as market farmers. I admit, we are hard on our tents but we also try to make them last. When they are ripped, stained and worn out they are not near as helpful as we desire.

Today Charles attacked the problem and robbed Peter to pay Paul. Hopefully we will come out ahead.

~Christina, who will hopefully have cleaner tents on Saturday!

Tire Pressure

So yeah that post about keeping the trucks up...this is why. I don't think this truck is going to pass the safety test this week. It blew out on the ride home Saturday but thankfully this truck has double tires on the back and the crew was able to make it home safe and sound.

~Christina, who is cheating because she actually took this picture on Saturday night!

Saturday's Picture - Rainy Market Days

I must say, I am not as die hard as most Midwestern farmers...although I probably will be someday.

I woke up at 3:30 on Saturday, looked out the window and asked Mathew why we couldn't just stay in bed. It was stormy out and the torrents of rain were not thrilling to me. But alas we got up and got going.

It was a rough ride in raining almost the whole way. Between the wet interstate, the extreme darkness, pouring rain, and spray from other vehicles I was tense, stressed, and we were running late. Mathew slept like a rock which just proved to make me sleepy.

Just as the rain let up a little outside of Gary, Indiana Mom called and said "DO NOT take 94 in! take Lake Shore Drive" I am so glad she caught me before I tried to travel my normal route to our market. It seems that the massive amounts of water had flooded the interstate causing major back ups and many many market trucks trying to get into the city were caught in a mess.

Once we got to our market it was raining so hard that I drove across the parking lot to purchase ponchos from CVS...naturally they only had one adult one left.

We then tried to set up our tents while it rained and lightning streaked through the sky...I felt pretty much brilliant at that moment.

At our market we actually repositioned the tents to provide cover between the truck and the tables...they were leaking of course. We may not have looked quite so perky but we were so grateful when the rain let up and the customers came out.

For the farmer it goes pretty much like this:

A market represents more than one weeks entire income, if it rains we get to literally watch a lot of that income go down the drain.

We really appreciate the wonderful, loyal customers who put on their boots open their umbrellas and come out anyway! I gotta say I am not sure I would!

~Christina, who loves her cherry rain boots but can only stand them for so long!!

Friday's Picture-Transportation

We put a lot of combined miles on our fleet of market trucks every week. Therefore maintenance is Very VERY Very important. Every week (preferably on Thursday) my brother checks the fluid and the air pressure in the tires on all the trucks. He does this on Thursday so that if he finds something out of line it can be fixed on Friday before the Saturday desertion of Michigan.

This particular truck is mom's market truck...meaning it is probably the nicest. It also makes three trips a week to the big city vs. the one trip most of us make. It has had some issues as of late so in this Friday night shot Dad, Mom and one of the store's mechanics are looking things over and making plans to fix it today (Sunday). Hopefully they get everything buttoned up so that the Tuesday crew can have a safe trip.

~Christina, who never knew the air pressure in the trucks should be checked before every trip!

Blueberries

Fuses

When you all of the sudden have no dash lights, you know those fabulous back lights that allow you to track your speed in the dark, and your tail lights are evidently out making it necessary to drive home with flashers on, oh and when you leave your keys in the ignition because the hand dandy dinging feature is not working you have a problem.

But not so big of a problem if you are married to an incredible, smart, mechanically minded farmer who just happens to know that it is likely a blown fuse. I was in good shape.

Unfortunately the fuse was not an easy find, cue the fancy fuse tester that I would have probably baulked at buying. Mathew was able to fix our truck and I was one the road home with 15 minutes to spare before his shift started this morning.

Oh and the fender problem? That was when his lovely wife met a guard rail this winter on a very icy evening. He was amazingly comforting that night but we haven't exactly had the resources (you know time, money, cheap parts) to fix it just yet. One step at a time.

Caption: Totally handsome man fixing his wife's ride, priceless.

~the obnoxious farm newlywed ;)

Fair Times

Last night after work Mathew had to go to the LaPorte County Fair in Indiana. So I tagged along. This is where getting married can expand your horizons and make you go places you otherwise would stay away from.

I do not like fairs. Not really. It is a personal thing and growing up we stopped going to fairs all together when my 16 year old "baby" brother was 4 years old. What can I say? We had a bad experience. Which could explain why I clung to Mathew's arm last night as we walked through the crowd towards our truck.

My farm family however LOVES! the fair. They think it is like the best part of the summer and therefore are insistent that I will one day enjoy them. I am doubtful but I do like spending time with my husband so I go.

The LaPorte Fair is the first of three county fairs that "the store" has booths set up at every season. They take a bunch of tractors and lawn equipment to each event and a salesman stays at the booth and hands out literature and talks to the wonderful folks checking it all out.

In the evenings the rest of the employees/family head out after work and give the dedicated salesman a break. This is all very new to me...can you tell?

Anyway, Mathew was scheduled for last night and tonight so I am busy being nervous, bored, and intrigued all at the very same time.

Mathew's favorite thing is surprisingly not the food (he was very strong and continued to remind me that we do not have money budgeted for fair food) but all of the old tractors. We walked through them and Mathew dreamed of restoring his own machines while I took a few pictures. This is the front of an old Oliver tractor. The farm does not currently have one but I know that at one point they did. Normally we do not take pictures of anything with green and yellow paint!

~Christina (who is sorry this picture is a day late but it was a late night)

Lugs

I have a love/hate relationship with lugs.

They are rather necessary on a fruit farm but they get so dirty and mismatched. Not to mention the fact that they make me feel utterly stupid when I can't stack them without spinning them around constantly.

Well the bright spot in this scenario is that mom and dad found an automatic dishwasher (a commercial one) to clean them!! No more cherry tanks full of bleach and water!

Today Suzanne and Charles cleaned the lugs. Yay! No more sticky dirty lugs to attract fruit flys.

This is Charles with music in one ear standing in front of dozens of handy dandy lugs.

~Christina

Worn out

On Friday I was chatting with another farmer and I asked how his wife was. His response could easily encompass all of us who travel into Chicago to sell fruit: Tired.

Yes, Tired. That one word is very accurate in describing the state of all of us this time of year. It is hot out, we are busy and it feels like the marathon of work will never end.

Where I come from though we rest on Sundays. Almost always growing up my family napped and took it easy on Sunday. We needed it. Mathew's family is not so much that way but we as a couple desperately need the time together and the sleep.

Looking ahead we have a busy calendar this week, there is something scheduled every night after work. I am glad we caught up on our rest. It was wonderful.

~a rested Christina

Day 15 - Saturday

Upon returning from market on Saturday I realized I had not yet taken any pictures. This realization came, of course, after all them market happenings had ended and I was in the truck waiting to go home.

So I got out and half heartedly snapped some pictures of the chickens that were flocking to my feet. It was not out affection that they were gathering about but out of hope that I would be the one to feed them that evening. So here you have it...hungry chickens.

~Christina

Egg Sorting

This is something that has to be done every Friday to make sure that we all have enough eggs to sell at market on Saturday.

~egg sorter

In case I don't get back....

I case I don't get back on the internet today (we are spending the night on the farm and the internet connection is less stable) I am leaving you with a plum picture from the other day and a link to a whole album of images from the last week!

Life is Just Peachy

~hope you are enjoying life

overcast with a chance of peaches

Rainy morning. Almost ripe peaches. Farm photojournalist.

This is what you get.

~Christina

Perfect Timing

This morning I decided that before doing anything else I would take pictures of the apricots. So I did and it was a good thing too because just as I was wrapping up my fruity shoot the help came to pick them. Being the opportunist that I am...okay not really...I stayed around and took some story telling images. So nice. More from this shoot will probably be posted on facebook...tomorrow...?....

~loving photojournalism

Yesterday's Last Minute Shot

I have a confession to make. Yesterday I forgot to take a picture...well almost. You see, I had thought about the task several times but did not jump on any opportunities and then before I knew it the sun had set. OH NO!

But Mathew and I were delivering a tractor and this farm meets 21st century plus a pretty sky and cool moon presented itself. Yay!

Sorry it is late.

~Christina

Gramps on the Road

Sometimes part of running a farming business means time on the road. Running here and there, picking up this dropping off that, going for supplies and parts (which is how my in laws met), etc.

I actually like to drive and am kind of glad when I get to hit the road for a few hours of the day all by myself. Today I took Grandpa Ellis to enjoy the ride with me and let me tell you the air was not working in the truck we were in making it a HOT ride.

I took this picture with my point and shoot while driving (is taking pictures while driving as bad as texting?) anyway I took it just for the memory. He didn't even know I got it...

~so grateful for my driver's license

Ice Cream!

Today we had a combined summer birthday party at my parents' house. It was awesome!

I love presents...I know that sounds shallow but it is true...and I got some great ones!

My brother and sister each got me a pint of Snookelfritz Ice Cream! They even managed to keep it frozen all the way back from the Green City Market yesterday. You may wonder what this has to do with farming but you see that label (beat up from its long trip home!) Nancy bought the rhubarb from us! She is one of my favorite Chicago Chefs! What could be more fun than ice cream?

~ice cream lover

One week into 365 Days of Farmlife

Today I let Mathew choose which picture made the blog. I didn't have too many because it is hard to focus on selling and get great images at the same time but it can be done. This was the first week of the season that we had peaches on our market. Whilst other fruit comes and goes those along with blueberries and raspberries will hopefully be a July and August staple at our booth.

~Christina...who itches just looking at peaches

Who know what it is?

Can I get a comment anyone?

~mystery photographer

Yesterday's Picture

We got home early this morning, therefore I did not upload the picture. But to make up for it I am posting two today!

This is a shot of a pile of ladders on the trailer, hooked up to a tractor and ready to head to the orchard.

~Christina

Fixing up a tractor

Mathew and I began working on one of his tractor projects today.

I got greasy but at least I like the smell of Fast Orange.

This is a picture of the tractor's "good" side. I will of course leave what the front looks like to your imaginations for now.

~tractor girl?

My favorite for the day

It occurs to me that with today's shot I risk loosing my entire readership.

You see, my life is really not all that fabulous and some days awe inspiring fruit/farm pictures are hard to come by. So I took a picture of what is important to me at this moment.

The window air conditioner.

Seriously.

It is hot today and when you live in an upstairs apartment the air conditioner is essential to life. My poor friend has had a rough time keeping up today and I while ago it started spitting water at me. I am not kidding...seems it had started raining outside...who knew.

Kind of wish I was at mom and dad's...they have central air...

~trying to stay calm, COOL, and collected

Christina

A surprise with pie!

It was kind of interesting...for my first birthday as part of the family many of my in laws forgot or pretended to forget my birthday. It was strange and I was feeling quite bad about it. They were just SO wrapped up in farm work!

But then tonight I had a surprise party(planned by my very sweet husband). I am not good at surprises but after a dear cousin finally straightened out some of my confusion I felt better and enjoyed the fun time with some of Mathew's extended family.

Mom made pie. The pictures tell all.

~a happy and sleepy Christina

Happy 4th of July

Fireworks (sorta) farm style...not much crowd out the backdoor.

~Christina...who kinda misses her small town fireworks

Happy Birthday to Me...and to all of you!

Today is my birthday.

I love my birthday...and I actually do rather enjoy working a market on my birthday which is what happened today.

This year I have decided to give myself a gift. That gift is a goal that all of you (?) will also be able to enjoy. The goal is to take and post a picture of farmlife everyday for a whole year. So the idea is that I am starting on my birthday and will then wrap it up on my next birthday.

This endeavor was inspired and encouraged by Kate Gross (more on all that later) when we were discussing the challenge of my working on the farm and remembering to take photos to document the work and the lifestyle.

I may not make it everyday. I may slip up and not remember my image. I may not have internet some days but I am still going to try. I think that as a person this will help me focus. As an artist it will increase my creativity and as a farmer's wife it will increase my knowledge!

I sincerely hope that many of our customers and friends will enjoy this journey with me and that you will comment!

Thanks.

Today's image:

My new friend Maddie who helped at our market today. She is displaying the effects of sorting black raspberries.

~Christina...who seriously needs to change her watermark...new year and new name