6/6 market hours: 8am – noon

Logan’s got it all under control.

Slight change in plans for tomorrow’s Manassas farmer’s market. Hours will be from 8am to noon (as opposed to 1pm), due to a planned protest at the Manassas Museum at 1pm.

Current inventory status: We just sold out of chicken eggs, but still have a couple dozen duck eggs available. We’ll be bringing a decent lineup of microgreens and bagged salad greens tomorrow. Feel free to contact us if you’d like to reserve anything for pickup, but you’re also welcome to just show up and see what we have. Hope to see you tomorrow!

market restrictions easing 5/30!

Quick update: Just got word that the market will be returning to semi-normal on May 30. Market hours on 5/30 will be from 8am – 1pm. Vendors will have their tents and pre-orders are encouraged but not required. Everyone (customers, vendors) will be required to wear a mask.

We had heard last week that this easing of market restrictions would be first happening on June 6, but then, for reasons unknown, the market managers just sent out notices maybe an hour ago that this change will now happen on May 30.

Anyway, so we’ll be at the market on 5/30 ready for business at 8am! We don’t yet know where in the parking lot they’ll assign us. We will likely have plenty of bagged salad mix and microgreens (at least at market open). We actually still have a small amount of chicken eggs and duck eggs available as I write this. Feel free to pre-order whatever you’d like and we can reserve your items for you to pickup. Regardless, hope to see you Saturday!

market restrictions easing June 6

Tomatoes covered by a Tractor Supply “garage in a box”.

Hot off the presses, we just got word that the Manassas farmer’s market will be “opening” the first week of June. For the Saturday market, this means June 6 (Thursday market would be June 4). The timeframe for the Saturday market will be 8am – 1pm (not sure about Thursday timeframe). Between now and then, the May 23 and 30 markets will continue as “drive-by” style, officially pre-order-only, and run from 10am – 1pm.

So what will the market look like on June 6? We’re told vendors can have their tents and tables setup like a normal farmer’s market. However, per Manassas City rules, everyone at the market (vendors, customers, etc) will be required to wear a mask, and vendors will also be required to wear gloves and be diligent with disinfecting commonly-touched areas. Apparently the vendors will be spaced out to provide for social distancing, and no more than 10 people will be permitted in a given tent area at a time. Pre-orders will still be encouraged, though not specifically required.

Anyway, so a step toward normalcy in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, as I write this we still have product to sell, so please contact us if you haven’t already and let us know what you’d like for pickup tomorrow or next week. We’re currently sitting on a good batch of harvested salad mix, and I had originally thought to limit to 2 bags max per order, but we might entertain no limit with that. We have a good amount there. Eggs for tomorrow are all sold out, but taking orders for next week. Still have a good variety of microgreens for tomorrow. We’ll be bringing any unsold items to the market, as well. Hope to hear from you / see you, and have a great Memorial Day weekend!

purchase limit updates

Elissa planting various indeterminate cherry tomatoes in the garden on May 18.

Just wanted to provide an update on our purchase limit situation:

chicken eggs:1 dozen max
duck eggs:1 dozen max
6oz bag salad mix: 2 bags max
microgreens:no limit

Chicken eggs have been consistently selling out about a week in advance. For example, we sold out of chicken eggs for May 23 back on May 16. (We are currently taking orders for May 30.) We typically sell out of duck eggs a day or two before the market. For the bagged salad mix, we’ve been steadily increasing our supply from the garden, so we think we can handle some additional orders there. And for microgreens, feel free to order however much you want. If demand for microgreens really shoots up, we can react to that and have more ready for sale in another week or two.

Still no official news (at least that we’ve heard) on whether / when the market will be shifting from the current pre-order-only scheme. That said, vendors (ourselves included) may have “extra” unsold product on hand at the market for any last-minute order add-ons, etc. We certainly appreciate all of the support during this period, but are also looking forward to resuming the normal market (however that might look) as soon as it would be safe to do so.

staying busy with spring plantings

200 cells of salad greens, ready for the garden

The Manassas farmer’s market is still in pre-order-only mode and we continue to go every week. Many thanks to all of the people who have ordered through us. A lot of repeat customers, as well, which is great. Meanwhile, we have a lot going on in the garden these days…

We’re holding steady, if not slightly increasing, the amount of salad mix that we have available each week. We’ve altered our harvesting strategy in an effort to try to get more product. Initially, our approach was to just harvest each plant whole, leaving nothing behind to regrow, and then plant a new batch of transplants in that same spot shortly thereafter. That approach maximized what we could get from that bed on the given week, but then it’d be another 3-5 weeks before we’d be able to get another harvest from the bed.

Our new approach is to harvest Dowding style, taking only the more mature outer leaves of each plant, leaving the inner actively-growing leaves undisturbed. We’re hoping this means that we could return to that bed a week or two later to get more product. So far, we think this is proving to be the case, but it’s still a bit early to know for sure. This method is a bit more labor intensive in terms of harvesting time (albeit lower planting frequency so maybe it’s a wash?), but hopefully means we can get more product to the market faster.

First batch of peanuts went from our grow rack to the garden on May 10, and we’ll be sowing a new batch in the grow room on the 15th. The plan is to do three batches in total so that we’ll ideally have peanuts available at the market from mid-August through mid-November.

Tomatoes were sown in the grow room on April 11 and will be going into the ground this coming weekend. We’re planning to put up a makeshift greenhouse to shelter these guys. Over a year ago, I bought a beat up, discounted “garage in a box” from Tractor Supply. It sat in storage for a long while, but we eventually dusted it off and built-out the frame. Our plan is to secure polyethylene plastic to it via wiggle wire and channel lock, and then plant the tomatoes underneath. We’ll see how that goes.

Still chugging away as usual with microgreens and eggs. Eggs continue to sell out every week (both duck and chicken, though chicken seems to be in higher demand). We’re grateful for all the community support in the face of current circumstances.

Salad mix available in limited quantities

Peanuts waking up!

So we debuted our salad mix last week and sold out in less than two days. It’s obviously nice for us that there seems to be demand for it, but we also don’t like turning folks away due to sell outs. It’s going to be a slow process, but we’re working on increasing our weekly salad mix output. Salad mix is something that we will ideally be able to do year-round, so we’re trying to play the long game here. Anyway, for those who bought salad mix last week, please let us know what you thought about it! Any feedback, good or bad, is welcome.

We WILL have salad mix for sale this week, but it will likely not be as much as we had last week. So, for that reason, we’re going to ask that any future salad mix orders be limited to one bag per order for the time being. Regarding our $5 for 1, $4 for 2+ pricing scheme where you mix and match with microgreens trays…. that will still be in effect. So a single bag of salad mix will be $5, but if you get a bag of salad mix and 1 or more microgreens trays, then the salad mix and microgreens will be $4 per item. Please let us know if you have any questions on that.

We’re sold out of chicken eggs for the May 2 market, but are taking advance orders for the May 9 market. We do have some duck eggs available for May 2, and plenty of microgreens.

Behind the scenes, we’re also investigating ways to better automate the order reservation process. It will almost certainly involve some sort of shopping cart scheme on our website, but a potential twist could be that you could either purchase your cart contents via PayPal / credit card (just like you would in any online store)… OR… you could “reserve” the contents of your order and pay later via Venmo or in-person at the market, etc. But, generally, having our products visible on our website with prices and availability for upcoming market dates… all of that, it seems, would make for a more streamlined, efficient experience for all involved. Anyway, these are all concepts / in the works at this point, but we’ll keep you posted with any news on that front.

Hang in there, everyone, and hope to see you Saturday!

Sold out of salad mix!

Sorry to anyone who may have been interested and not yet placed an order, but we are now sold out of the salad mix bags for this week. We do have more growing in the garden for next week. Meanwhile, for this week, we still have some duck eggs available as well as the following varieties of microgreens:

  • arugula
  • basic salad mix (not to be confused with the garden-harvested stuff)
  • basil
  • cilantro
  • kale
  • pea
  • radish
  • spicy salad mix

Thanks all!

We have salad mix for sale!

The lettuces…

We’re starting to get our first batches of salad greens from the garden! All 8 of the following greens will be combined into one big ol’ mix of veggie goodness:

  • 4 different lettuces:
    • green oak leaf
    • red oak leaf
    • red romaine
    • green Batavian
  • red Russian kale
  • mustard
  • rainbow Swiss Chard
  • arugula
A representative sample of what you’d get from our salad mix bag.

We’re going to offer this mix for sale at the Manassas Farmer’s Market in a 6 ounce bag. The market is still pre-order only, so please contact us if you’d like to arrange an order. Pricing will be similar to what we do for microgreens: $5 for a single bag or $4 per bag for two or more bags. And you can mix and match the salad mix bags with microgreens as desired (for example, a bag of salad mix and a 5×5 microgreens tray would cost $8 total). And, as always, we have plenty of microgreens this week, as well!

Meanwhile, we’re completely sold out of chicken eggs this week. There has been a massive increase in egg demand over the past month or so. We used to have a healthy reserve of eggs to rely on, but we’re at the point now where we’re essentially taking orders for eggs that haven’t even been laid yet! If you’d like chicken eggs, all we can really do at the moment is place an order for you for the following week (ie May 2 market). We do still have some duck eggs available this week.

We’ve sown batches of cherry tomatoes and peanuts inside and will be planting them out in the garden next month… hopefully some good stuff to come over the summer. Looking forward to eventually resuming the traditional farmer’s market setup with tents and sampling and lots of people browsing around… maybe in a month or two or three? We haven’t heard anything on that front, but we’ll let you know if we do. Stay healthy, everyone!