Hello from Pitchfork & Crow ~

We’re ready for the Salem Saturday Market tomorrow!  Here’s a selection of what we’ll be bringing to market:

• Arugula
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
  
• Chard
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Cooking Greens
• Green Beans
• Kale
• Peppers
• Popcorn
• Potatoes
• Pumpkins
• Rutabagas
• Salad Mix
• Thai Basil
• Tomatillos
• Winter Squash

After a successful trip to the public library, we’re currently reading a couple of books about, what else, farming.  Jeff is reading a narrative about a family farming at the turn of the last century and I’m reading a non-fiction account of a couple who started a farm in the early 2000s and continues to successfully farm today.  Both books remind us of an ideal we started out with at the beginning of our farming venture a few years ago.  The people in these books do not avoid hard work and they embrace the lifestyle that farming offers.  Whether it’s the detailing of the food storage areas and their contents in 1800s’ farmhouses, the cupboards and cellars and closets filled with preserved food and root vegetables, or the descriptions of meals cooked with food grown outside the front door including the earliest of the spring greens or the freshest milk and meat you can imagine, I’ve been struck by the fact that these people, these farmers, all knew how to eat and they shared that food with their neighbors.  These stories give us reassurance that we are not the first to go down this path as farmers, and they help us to re-evaluate how we do things on the farm, and make us think about the end goals we have.  Above all, they remind us that ultimately we got into farming for the food and for community.

We hope to see you Saturday sometime between 9am and 3pm.  You can find us at the Salem Saturday Market near the intersection of Winter and Union streets in downtown Salem.

Thanks!
Carri Heisler and Jeff Bramlett