Category Archives: Learning Adventures

Once again, my plans are out of whack

Learning Adventures

We shall not even discuss the fact that I am never, and I mean never on time with my Christmas gifts for my sisters, Mary and Patty.  Not for lack of trying of course, but I simply cannot get my timing right. It is even worse when I have decided I am going to make them something. This year was going to be different. After the garlic fest, we had no major doings scheduled for Tiny House Farm. Just the normal weekly dealings with our microgreens. Ron was actively planning to meet with other restaurants  in his efforts to bring more of them into the fold.  And of course we have to normal getting ready for winter projects. So all I had to do is getting started with my great idea for their gifts.

Ron was going to be busy with his own doings.  He found a few classes he was going to attend.  I happily encourage him in finding more.  Now that he is retired, he is, to put it bluntly, under foot.  For year before, he would leave for work an hour before I did, so I had that time to myself.  If I took a day off, I tried to plan it when he would be safely at work.  Now, if I take a day off or work from home, he is there.  Ugh.

I know he is all about meeting people at these classes but I did not expect he would meet someone who would throw my holiday schedule totally out of whack.  But he did, of course.  at a tarping class held by Cornell University. Tricia Park, who is an Air force vet was in attendance and she talked to Ron about her work organizing the Cazenovia farmer’s market. They are held every third Saturday of the month and she thought we would be a good fit.

End result is that we signed up to attend our first farmer’s market.  Again we had no real idea of what to expect or how to plan for it.  No shiitakes in the winter months, of course which made our planning much easier.  We just had to grow microgreens to sell.   We chose our standby greats – peas, leeks, radishes and a new fave, sunflowers.  I will admit that I was skeptical about the sunflowers.  Not something that most people would think grow as food.  But they are really yummy.  But we now have another fiddly thing to grow.  And another seed you have to soak before starting on the pads. While the peas also expand when soaked, sunflower seeds expand much more.  So you have to make judgement call about how many to start with.  Too many seeds on a pad and you will not have good and even growth.  Overcrowding is not good.

Then you have to weigh the seeds down for the first 3 or 4 days.  Ron first tried one of our cutting boards covered in plastic wrap.  That was a no go as too many of the seeds stuck to the wrap.  So he bought a brand new cutting board, cut it down to size and then sanded the cut edge smooth.  We have 4 of them now and they work a treat.   The next issue with them is the seeds hulls.  When you are growing outside as flowers, the hulls are not a issue.  They simply fall off as the plant gets bigger.  We really want most of them off before we make delivery at one of the restaurants we sell to. That will require a bit more research to find a method that will work for us.

I had more than enough soap, lotion bars and lip balm on hand to sell. Just had to make fresh body cream and a few more of my stuffed mushrooms. I will be suggesting them as tree ornaments this time. Our instructions for this market was to be festive and Christmas.  So we had to change up our normal display.  New ribbon for the logs and a bit of decoration on each bow. And Ron was being a pain about the bow. Decided he wanted red, green and white raffia for the decoration bit. That meant a trip out to the store to find those colors only to have him decide the white would not work after all. So back to my original raffia colors .

Graphic designer or not; sometimes Ginny does know best. I had to change my basket of skin care products display too. The basket I have used since our first event was not working out. If I took even one thing out of it, the basket went wobbly.

Next I had to come up with way to display my stuffed mushrooms and our magnets and bumper stickers. A small Christmas tree was perfect for the mushrooms and I repurposed a framed cat picture of my Mom’s for the magnets and stickers. Always makes me happy to find a way to use what we already have instead of buying more stuff.

December 21st and we were up before dawn as usual. This would be an easier event as no shiitakes, no tent and just 3 tables to set up. But that still a lot of other things to pack up and load into our vehicles. As usual we had plastic bins all over the place that had to go. They do take up a lot of space, but are the best and safest way we have of hauling things around. All 3 of us were going but Jo was just there to help unload. We hit our first hiccup with Ron’s Transit. The blower has been not working for sometime now and that morning, he was greeted with a frozen over windshield. Inside the vehicle. Scraping was not going to cut it. So my hair dryer and a long extension cord were put into use to melt the iciness. Ron rigged it together and we left it running until we were ready to leave. Then we started loading everything up. Again our microgreens were the trickiest as they could not be stacked on top of each other and had to be where things could not fall on top of them either. We were loaded and ready to go right on time, which set a good mood with Ron.

We arrived at the American Legion Post 88 in Cazenovia NY at 815 am and were delighted to see we could jump right into unloading. Tricia took us inside and identified our spot which was, per Ron’s request, on the lower level. It was a huge change being inside a building for an event. There were a few tables to move and some chairs to shove out of the way. Tricia had lots of help on hand to get this stuff done. Once everything was out of all the vehicles, Jo headed home and we got started with our set up. This was going to be tweak as we go because it was all new to us. We got the tables set up, shoved all that we could under the tables and then started working on our displays. Move this or that and then step back to take a look, over and over until we were both satisfied. Tricia stopped by a few times, checking to make sure we didn’t need anything. The doors would open at 10 am and we were ready long before that. As usual, I was restless with nothing to do. Ron loved being ready so early and spent his time walking around talking to the other vendors. He is always on the lookout for new contacts.

The new signs he had made focused on the holiday season and made sure the people walking by could tell who we were and what we had to sell. We had a slow start to the day and for the first 30 minutes, were worried that our day was going to be a bust. Then Ron sold the first log and both took a relieved breath. Being freed from shiitake sautéing left Ron with more ability to grab people’s attention and hawk our goods. His technique might seem a bit, shall we say, brusk, but it is who he is. A wannba carnival barker. But it worked. We sold all 15 of the logs with most of them being that unique gift you are always looking for. I did a little dance every time someone bought one of my stuffed mushrooms and ended up selling more than at any other event.

We had a good day at our first farmer’s market and we will be looking into attending more of them in the future. This was a good first market for us to start with. Tricia did a great job organizing and promoting it. It will be interesting to find out how well our shiitakes will do at one of these markets. The microgreens drew a lot of interest with most being happy to give them a try. We sold a respectable amount, but we are always hopeful that we will start selling more of them at the events we attend. It is all about getting the word out there and then getting people to try them. That surprising burst of flavor is what tends to hook them.

And these ladies really enjoy our microgreens. Being one who hates waste, I found a co-worker who has chickens at her house. So every week or so, I bring a bin full of our leftovers to her and the family has fun feeding them to the girls. Works out well for us as Anna shares with us the odd dozen eggs. And Ron got a great and fun video to post on THF facebook page.

You will be glad to know that I finally finished my sister’s gifts and they will be mailed out this week. Just don’t tell them. I want it to be a surprise.

Mohawk Valley Garlic Fest 2019

Learning Adventures, , ,

It is Tuesday morning; I have the day off and we are still slowly working our way through packing up the event supplies. Things have to be washed, sorted and organized. This has been an event saving policy for me. Nothing was forgotten this time, though I must admit supplies were not always found where they should have been. There was a scramble to find the hand soap and I thought I forgot to bring my camera.

We did adhere to Ron’s time line and were out of the house by 5:30 am and pulling into our spot just before 6:30, We were so early we beat the spot markers and had to wait for them to measure and draw the needed lines. But we weren’t the first vendors there. We made the “brilliant” decision to unload everything and get the vehicles parked. Ron’s favorite word used to describe both good and bad moves on someone’s part. Once our chalk lines were in place we jumped into down loading our stuff. We needed to get both vehicles emptied so we could get them parked and out of the way. Brother-in-law Don arrived early too. And his help was greatly appreciated as we struggled to get the tent up. It is a beast to maneuver and the fourth set of hands was a blessing. The forecast called for a rainy day and we needed the tent up fast. I thought we would then be able to take a breath and take our time getting the setup just right. I had forgotten who I was married to. I guess because we had not been the first vendor to arrive, the goal now was to be the first one ready to go.

This was easier said that done. We were able to get the cooking and samples section up and ready to go quickly, but we had to deal with how to set up our new T shirt display and a changed mushroom bolt set up. Ron’s shop class skills came into play again. He had a new sign printed and laminated but they would not able to give him the rigidity he wanted. So he needed to come up with a plan.

And he did. The wire hanger was strong but light and the sign did not flop over. Getting it secured to the middle tent post was another matter. That took some wire and the rubber bands I found.

Only a few hiccups in the process but soon everything in its place and ready to go. We have to tweak the T shirt display. The sign describing it was up too high and most people did not read it. The shirt itself, was a big hit and got a laugh out of everyone. I will be keeping my new location in the future. I liked having my skin care products on the front row as it was easier to catch attendees’ attention and make my pitch.

So there we were, set up and ready to go by 9 am. Just waiting for potential customers. One problem. They would not be arriving until 10 am. The vendor paper work clearly stated opening time. We just did not register that. Well, at least that gave me time to run over and get breakfast sandwiches for us. We were going to need the fuel in order to get through the day.

After a slow start, we had a steady stream of customers all day. The hook was Ron cooking shiitakes for samples and his constant stream of chatter. They listened and bought. Jo once again manned the sample prep table, handing them off to me for sharing with crowd. Don sold all our logs again. People who came asking about them told us again and again they had seen someone carrying one again. They wanted to know what they were for. I ran the register again. We had 11 credit card transactions this time. Ones we probably would not have made without using the Square, but cash was used for the bulk of all purchases. This is why I don’t understand why some keep pushing the idea we will and should be a cashless society.


We learned again that people can be odd. More than one person wanted to eat the shiitakes we had on display. Ron had to be vigilant in making sure they did not follow through on this process. We will have a sign at the next event stating for display only. Do Not Eat. I brought a jar of dehydrated shiitakes with us to show folks what they could do with an extra bag or two. I pulled one out to show a customer. She caught me off guard when she took it from me and bit off a piece to try it.

The rainy day did not materialize and this made the day better for all of us. The bread lady was next to us again and the garlic guy across the aisle. We had been shifted down the row a bit this year. The pickle man was on the end of the row across from us and he always has a line around his booth. The organizers wanted to make sure the aisle did not get jammed up. The crowds started thinning out after 4:45 and I was able to send Jo off to get something to eat. None of us had left the tent since the first customer stopped to watch Ron. Promptly at 5 pm everyone started breaking down their site. We pulled everything out of the tent so we could collapse it. Being so large, it would have blocked others from getting their vehicles close enough to load up their stuff. We dumped what we could back into bins and then sat down to wait for a break in the traffic congestion. I was able to get the Outback moved in and we loaded that up. Ron was finally able to bring in the trailer and we were soon heading home.

Once there we unload only what was most important, and collapsed on the couch. Jo had to work the next day so she was soon off to sleep. Ron and I talked shop while we each had a drink and decompressed. There are things we will change for our next event and others that worked out just the way we hoped. One of those was my idea to bring our “staff” Tiny House Farm T shirts and offer them for sale. And I sold one to a young lady who loved the mushroom house.

Sunday morning was unload day for Ron and me. Jo missed all the fun by being at work. We also had to head out to THF to check on the shiitakes and drop off the supplies. We took a chance and drove the Transit onto the property. It made it so much easier to unload the trailer. One trip in and out. Neither one of us was up for a lot of work. We picked what shiitakes we could and headed home. The plan was to dehydrate them for later use. Over the next few days we will get the rest of the supplies stored away. Lists have already been started with the things we need to replace and ideas for what we need or can change. One big take away is my taking time off before and after is a huge benefit. I was able to help Ron bring in the mushrooms and supplies. And now I am able to get the stuff all put away.

It was another good day for Tiny House Farm. And we are looking forward to attending again in 2020. It is anyone’s guess what Ron will come up with for us to add into our product line.

“eat my shiitakes”

Learning Adventures, , ,

Though Ron would love to find a few more events for THF to sell our wares at, Mohawk Valley Garlic Fest is the last one we are doing this year. He has looked into a few others in our area; but we are not ready for two day events and others are too far away or just cost too much. Sometimes you are just not a good fit for the event too. That is something a vendor always has to factor in when deciding which events to sign up for. It can be very disheartening to run your tally at day’s end and discover you have just barely covered your costs. You also have to factor in the expected clientele at each event. That will change the items that you bring to sell.

We have made a few changes this year to our set up. The biggest (pun indeed) was purchase of a larger tent. Most event sites are ten feet wide but you can pay for a double space. We have done that for the past few years as ten feet is really not that much. At the CCE Herb & Flower Fest we had great wings on each side that gave us more covered space to work with. Turns out Ron thinks it does not look “professional” and he pushed for a different tent. That way we won’t have to worry about getting enough protection from the elements. Because we liked the brand we had, we went with their larger model.

We had a beautiful Saturday morning to work with so we loaded up the new tent; along with the tables, coolers and stove and headed out to Tiny House Farm for a practice set up. There was no way this testing could be done in our yard; the tent was just too big. A practice run was necessary as we did not want to be struggling to get the darn thing up at the Garlic fest on September 14th. We had set up and taken down the smaller tent numerous times over the past few year. It should have been easy enough, but the new one was a totally difference beast. The thing is twice the size of our other tent, obviously. But it took more than twice the effort to get it set up. You have to put the canopy on before you raise the tent frame up. Unless you are someone who can float in midair, you are not going to get it on after the fact. The problem is that once it is on the frame it adds to much weight that Jo and I struggled to get the legs we were working with up high enough to set the pegs.

This is going to be such a change for us. There is so much space inside the tent now that it feels a bit empty. But the biggest difference I will have to deal with is being inside, not outside. My table has always been outside and that left me free to move around, bagging the shiitakes, handling sales, and hawking my products. Now most of my time will be inside and I will have some figuring out to do. We will no longer have our logs outside on right side either. Which will change the way our salesman, Don is going to manage. Right now Ron is planning on having the logs front and center (literally) and Don working his magic from there. Ron will be cooking on the right side of the tent with Jo behind him getting the samples ready.

Once again our mushroom bolts will be sold un-soaked as we are offering them as Christmas presents. I am making special bows for them too. Ones with a more Christmassy feel. But not going over the top.

Ron will be hawking our bolts as the perfect gift when you are looking for something unusual. My skin care products will also be included in the Christmas push. They will make great stocking stuffers. They just need to right signage to catch the attention of those walking by.

A big attention getter we will have at this event and one we hope will sell well, is our new Tiny House Farm T shirts. We had THF shirts made three years ago but they were planned for staff wearing and giving to our returning shitake inoculation volunteers. This shirt was specifically designed for us to see. Ron went all out with it. The shirt itself is a combination of hemp and organic cotton, all sourced from the US. Did you know that New York states is new one of the sources for hemp? And before anyone asks, suggests or even thinks about it… NO we will not be growing hemp on Tiny House Farm. Turns out that crop is even more fiddley than shiitakes are.

The process of getting these shirts made was more than a struggle. To start with we had to decide if the large investment would be worth it. Once we all agreed it was, Ron tweaked his design until he was happy with it. Finding the right company to work with is made much easier by the internet. He was able to contact multiple companies at the same time. The price point was a huge factor in choosing the printing company. But then we had to deal with additional expenses as they advised we needed to use 6 different ink colors in order to get Ron’s desired result. We even took a hit from Labor Day as our shipping was delayed until the day after. BUT, the boxes arrived on Friday. Ron sent me a picture and my response was… Are you happy? It was a stressful couple of minutes before he replied with a strong yes. Both of us took huge deep breaths of relief. The whole process had been nerve racking. Until we had shirts in hand we had no way of knowing if they were going to be right. We also had no idea what the heck we would have done if they were terribly wrong.

But they are fabulous. I had pushed Ron into getting 4 sizes; small, medium, large and extra large. That was really all we could afford to go with as we had to get 50 of each size. So that ending up being a total of 200 shirts. We are going to be selling them for $30, tax included. I know that seems a bit high for a t shirt, but these are 60% hemp and 40% organic cotton. We had them printed by a company in North Carolina so we can state, truthfully this is a completely American made product. We did have one last battle over the shirts. Ron is determined that people will notice the shirts so just stacking them neatly on our tables was not going to do. I do believe that if he had his way, a female model wearing the shirt with the full sales pitch memorized would be a new addition to our event set up. He went through the gambit of possibilities from a simple carboard shirt form to a set of 2 human sized standing forms that would cost us $200. I put the kibosh on that plan. He settled to two flat torso forms that we can hang from the tent frame.

Ron’s immediate thought for advertising our new product was to go back to his friend Jennifer and have her do a make over of her previous shiitake shot. The two of us headed to Rome with cell phones and camera in hand. I tend to get better results with my trusty camera and those shots are easier to upload into my blog. Jen was happy to sign off on his model release with payment of the t shirt, some shiitakes and the promise of lifelong friendship. What she doesn’t realize is that her continued participation in our shiitake inoculation events is assumed.

He has already posted the final result on THF Facebook and our Instagram pages. But I got a couple good shots of him tweaking the scene. He really does love to tweak.

And you can bet Ron will be doing some serious tweaking on to our event planning right up to opening time.

CCE Herb & Flower Fest 2019

Learning Adventures, ,

There are 4 stages to being a vendor at any event. Prep is one of the longest as that entails getting everything ready for sale. This means growing or making your products. Which can mean actual months of work depending on what you are selling. And you have to get your booth set up ready and pray for good weather. The final prep, of course is getting yourself and stock to the site and then getting set up there. Which is a task in and of itself.

This is the third year that Tiny House Farm was a vendor at the Herb & Flower Fest so we knew the routine going in. It should have been smooth sailing for us, but Ron just had to throw in a curve ball with the addition of microgreens being offered for sale. We had no idea if they would sell at all, but we had hopes and of course all the needed supplies. At the last minute and after much discussion, we decided to buy the Square. Now we can give our customers the option to use their credit card.

As always we were up at the crack of dawn so we could repackage our shiitakes into one quart bags. It works out great that way as all we have to do is grab one of the bags out of the cooler and slip it into our stamped bags. We had gobs of shiitakes and I carefully stuffed as many as I could into each cooler. Then it was a quick breakfast, then showers and we started loading up the trailer. By 630 am we were on our way to the Fest.

We took all three vehicles with us this time and somehow, we ended up needed all of that space. Of course the microgreens in their trays took up all of the rear space in my Outback and nothing could be stacked on top of them. When we arrived on site, we discovered that we had been very smart to lower our tent and set out the heavy weights. The wind had kicked up overnight and blown a few other tents over. But the wind had also helped dry the place out. The grass was still soggy but at least the puddles on the roadway were gone. Jo, Ron and I raised the tent and started unloading and setting up. This again was familiar routine. Don arrived and helped us with the finishing touches. Ron’s idea to prop up my shade cloth was a good one. He had attached a PVC pipe T to a six foot long piece of the pipe. Then he drilled a hole into the side bar holding up the shade cloth and through a PVC cap. The cap was affixed to the shade cloth bar and the pole went into the cap. And viola, no more bumping of the head.

Start time was 9 am and by 830 Ron was getting his station set up. He just needed to know where the thermometers were. They are required by the health department. Oh boy, I had forgotten to bring them. Guess what is going to be added to the show stopper list? Jo grabbed her keys and headed home to get them. As she would not be back before we got started, I would be in charges of getting the samples put together. I slipped on Jo’s apron (remember this) washed my hands using our hot water dispenser and pulled on rubber gloves. In the midst of all this, Josi arrived and we were ready to go.

The second stage is the actual event. The gates opened, folks were walking by and Ron was hawking his wares. A mushroom bolt was our first sale. Customer told Don that they wanted to buy a log at our last event but we were sold out by the time they came back around. Jo came back with every kitchen thermometer we had in the house and I gave her back the apron and her spot at the sample table.

Don was kept busy with our logs. He always had a crowd around him and he never stopped his sales pitch. Some logs were taken right away, while others sprouted sold labels. Then we got our first credit card purchase. Now to use the Square you have to plug it into your cell phone or a tablet. My phone was nowhere to be found. I knew it was in the tent area because I had used it to send text to Jo while she was dashing back to Sherrill. She tried calling my phone and we could hear it ring, but still couldn’t find it. Thank goodness the customer pulled out cash so we did not lose the sale. I was supposed to be working the microgreens and my skin care products, but I really needed to find the phone. Jo kept calling it and we kept hearing the ring but no phone. It was 15 minutes later and we had our second request to use a credit card when Jo came to the rescue. My phone had been in the apron pocket all this time. Which explained why when Jo and I were searching the same area we both clearly heard the thing. Good grief. We do have our crisis’s, don’t we?

It was lovely day with a good crowd of people and lots of sunshine. The wind did cause a few issues with our tablecloths, but fix is in the works. Don sold all of our logs included the display. And we did sell some of our greens. Everyone who tried them thought they were delicious. The sticking point seems to be how to use them. I think we will need to a few actual dish ideas to toss out. Maybe even print up a few recipes to hand out.

The third stage of an event is packing up to go home. Everyone is tired, hungry and a bit cranky but it we have to get it done. With so many vendors all wanting to get out, there was little hope Ron could our trailer into play. We packed up everything and waited for the traffic to clear. Our left over greens were given to one of the CCE staffers for her chickens and some were just tossed into their compost bin. Sadly some of our shiitakes ended up in there too. We were luckier than other vendors. Our open trailer allowed us to basically toss stuff onto. As long as we covered it with a strapped down tarp, they would be safe. Other things were shoved into one of the vehicles, hugs for Josi and Don and we were off.

Well, Jo and I left. Ron hung around a bit longer as we were waiting for one of our log buyers to come back and get her log. As of today, Silvia hasn’t made herself known. At home finally, the cars were emptied out and we were done. Well, for that day we were.

The fourth stage is the clean up. This is the most boring, time consuming and annoying stage. We have to unload everything and clean it all before putting it back in the bins. Making note of anything that needs to be replaced too. It poured rain most of Sunday, and we waited until late afternoon to empty the trailer. Now the living room is once again crammed full of stuff. Rainy days all week kept us from getting it all back to the farm. Our next event is the MV Garlic Fest on September 17 and we cannot function with all of this underfoot for the next three months.

There is actually a fifth stage. The after action report. This involves counting the money made, getting said money into the bank account and lots of discussion of how the day went. Every time we do an event we learn something new. Josi recommended I do a better job of hanging up my milkweed stuffed mushrooms. She believes most people thought they were a decoration and not for sale. Ron thinks we need to buy a bigger tent for us to use. My budget is shuddering as I type this. We need to buy another thermometer that I then leave in the cooking supplies bin. We made eight sales using the Square so that was a good addition. I spent some time getting our account organized with prices plus the service charge and photos. And I made sure Ron had the app set up on his phone too. I need a nice sign for my skin care products as people don’t always see what other items we have for sale. Ron and the shiitakes samples are center stage so I need to step up my game a bit.

June 15, 2019 was another good day for Tiny House Farm. We are definitely getting more comfortable in our own skin. But that is the trouble. Jo and I are giddy with happiness when we know what we are doing and what to expect. Ron, on the other hand, to put it plainly, gets bored. And that is when he finds a monkey wrench to throw into our lives. Just to shake things up a bit. And to see what more we can do. One day he just might find out what his two girls can do, when we toss him in the compost pile.

Prepping at THF

Learning Adventures

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.

Paw Paw Festival in Hallam, PA

Learning Adventures

Yes, this is a thing.  Thankfully this was a one day event but it did involve a five hour drive down to Pennsylvania again and a hotel stay.  I am going to push Ron to find more events that are close enough for us to drive there and back in the same day.  New York needs to step up its game.  Ron decided it would be better for us to head down Friday after work, spend the night and then go to the festival on Saturday morning.  A good plan in my mind as this meant we didn’t have to get up at crack of dawn and drive down in order to get there for opening time at 11 am.  Actually Ron would want us to be at the gate about 10 am so we can be first in line.  He really likes doing that. Besides it gives him time to chat with the other early birds.

The Friday night drive started out with scrambling to get out of the house.  Ron, of course was home with a cold.  Rotten timing on his part.  I had arranged to work from home so I did not have to lose time on the drive home before we headed out.  It was a slap dash run out the door.  This time I did remember my toothbrush and the glass measuring cup I use in a microwave for my tea water.  As it was only one night, we didn’t bring a cooler or any food.  Snacks is what we forgot.  I try to bring something to eat on every trip, just in case.  Zombie apocalypse could happen any time, and we really should be prepared.

We ran in some of that annoying mist, serious fog and traffic on our drive to York, PA.  But it wasn’t too bad.  We stopped to grab a quick bite for dinner and arrived at the hotel just before 9 pm.  Car was unloaded and I, for one, tried to fall asleep.  That is when I realized what I had forgotten.  My ear plugs and sleep mask.  That made for a long night.  Ron always has to unwind with TV before he goes to sleep.   But it was the traffic outside the hotel that made the night so hard.  We were on the second floor and the noise was constant and loud.  I don’t think my ear plugs would have made much of a difference.

Anyway, I was up early (think well before dawn) and restless.  As Ron was still sleeping, I didn’t want to turn on the TV, so I got some clothes on and went walking.  There were 4 floors in the hotel so I went up and down, back and forth and chatted with the few staff members who were also up and about.   I don’t remember the last time Ron slept past 6 am before, but it was 7:30 before he finally woke up.  The cold really did a number on him.  Thank goodness we had separate beds.   I simply refuse to catch his cold.

The folks behind the festival were on top of things and sent out an email telling those who were on their FB page about road closures in the area.  The remnants of Hurricane Florence had hit this area too.

We could still see the after effects along our way.  The amount of water that came through here had to have been very scary.

As usual we were early to the Paw Paw Fest, but were not the first people there.  There were a few vendors already set up and Ron headed over to talk with Lori Shellenberger from Nurturing Nature Nursery about the paw paw plants she had for sale.

The plan this weekend was to come home with some paw paws and a dozen or so saplings to plant.  The ones we planted two years ago did not do as well as we hoped.  It does take 5 years of patience before you have the chance of fruit being picked, but we lost quite a few plants.  It was very sad when I gave a gentle tug on the stems we planted and more than I liked pulled out in my hand.  The others either have leaves or resisted my tug.  Fingers crossed that we will see life in them next year.  Personally I think we are going to have to expand our paw paw area.  I have 18 pots ready to go at home with my attempt at growing from seed.  That of course will take years, but I can be patient.

I was amazed at the number of people who came to try paw paws.  Most of them had never had one before.  They had stations set up with slices of different varieties of paw paw for every one to try.  Just like apples, there are serious differences in the varieties.  Some are creamer, others taste more of melon.  When I had people at work try the ones we came home with, some told me they tasted apple or pear. There were muffins, popsicles, salsa and ice cream for us to try too.  The ice cream was hands down, the best thing.  I am really looking forward to trying out some recipes with our own paw paws.

We spent a few hours at the festival and learned a few more helpful things about growing paw paws.  And I found a possible secondary use for the seeds.  Earrings.  Fair warning.  A set just might be in your future.

Our ride home was a simply a nice drive with great weather and very little traffic.    Even though we were only gone for one night, it was so good to be home.  I think I am done with trips for awhile.  But I have to say, for a spur of the moment idea,  this was a good one.  After 30 years, Ron’s Adventure Tours is still going strong.