Not end of the world planning, though being able to grow our own mushrooms, lavender and elderberries might come in handy. No, we are prepping for our first 2019 sales event. June 15 is the Cornell Cooperative Extension Herb & Flower Fest. And we have a lot of work to get done.

It was just two weeks ago when Ron, Jo and I finished the last of our logs for 2019. We went home, drew a breath and jumped right into planning for the CCE. We have all the equipment we need, thank goodness. We just have to buy the a few supplies. But we still have to replace our business cards and signage. Now that we will be selling the microgreens we will need to include them on cards and signage. I am sure you all know what that means. More costs and more work.

Ron created a new area for the process of soaking and dusting the logs. He calls it over the bridge to nowhere. The area we have been using for years gets so water logged that we struggle to get through the mud at times. Not only does the rain cause muddy conditions, but so do we went fill and then empty our soaking tanks. We also had to set up protection for our producing logs. Once the mushrooms are pinning, they have to be kept dry. One stray rain storm and we will lose them all.

So a flat, open area needs to be found and there have to be enough trees close by enough. We use them for necessary shade and to tie tarps to so we have one set up over each A frame set in our efforts to keep the rain away.

Minor setback on this post. I did a update last weekend and believe it or not, something went kerflooey. I couldn’t log in and no one else could get in either. The nice people at HostGater got me back in on Wednesday, but they couldn’t figure what caused the issue. No matter, I am up and running again.

And just in time. Ron and Jo have been zipping out the Tiny House Farm everyday and coming back with pounds and pounds of shiitakes. We moved the air compressor out there so the cleaning can now be done on site. Makes the process much easier but it still a lot of work. Ron had been nervous about our mushrooms, really when isn’t he, as other growers reported flushes much earlier than we did. So he did what he always does, soaked gobs of logs. Now we are close to drowning in shiitakes.

We are also keeping a nervous eye on our mirco greens. These are not just toss the seeds in and water every so often. You have to check them every night to see how they are doing and keep the water lever just right. And worry that they are growing too slowly or too fast. Either one is not good. So hoping people will buy them on Saturday.

All three of us took today off so we have today to get final things done. A wise move on our parts. There is always something that gets forgotten until the last minute. Four days ago I taped our “show stopper” list to the front door. Front and center is the cash box. I will not forget that again. We have pulled all of the equipment from the widespread storage spots and it is collected in our living room.

And hallway.

We learned over the past two years that we need to pull everything out well before the event day. Going through each bin to make sure we have all the supplies and equipment we need is so important. That is when the lists come into play. Each item gets checked off and I put it into correct bin.

The CCE Herb & Flower Fest is the first event we went to as a vendor and, we have to say it remains our favorite. Being just 30 minutes away is a big plus and they let vendors set up the night before. We were out there at 3 pm and got our tent set up. Ron had a plan in mind to fix my shade cover. It works a treat for keeping the sun off me and my products, but it hangs down too low and everyone had to duck to get under it. I banged my head once every five minutes on it. We took the all the heavy things we could. That will make things a bit easier tomorrow. Now all we have to do is get a last batch of my cream made, labels on the jars and some more of our soap labelled. Ron had to get the instructions for the logs to get put together. I am sure there a few more things we need to get done tonight, but it they don’t spring to mind, they are going to wait until tomorrow.

One last thing. Ron pondered most of the winter on a new bag design for our shiitakes. He ordered five different rubber stamps. At the last minute he decided that he wanted the mushroom name to be in red. I had a couple of ink pads left over from my (very brief) rubber stamping days and he really liked the one called cherry red. It was in sad shape from sitting in the box for the last five years. And of course, the company discontinued that color. Poor Ron had to settle for another shade of red. But it turned out great. Now he just has to make sure he gets enough stamped and ready to go.

Tomorrow is going to be a crazy day. Don and Josi will be out there again with us. There is no way the three of us can handle events like these by ourselves. Maybe we could if we stopped offering the samples. But Ron will not hear of that. He wants to have that hook to get folks to stop and taste what he is cooking. After all, we cannot sell them anything if they don’t stop to look, taste and listen.