A Fruitful Harvest Just in time for the Market Day

Since I moved back to the farm, I started getting more involved at the local farmers market which happens on the first and last Saturday of every month in a small town Called Letsitele which is about 15km from our farm on the main road.

Initially I started with selling some home made jams and cookies, since then my stall has expanded to various other products based on client demands as well as seasonal availability, and with the good rains this year I am able to slowly but surely introduce some organic home grown produce to my stock.

For this week I managed to get a decent harvest of delicious naartjies from one of the trees in my yard and managed to pack quite a few boxes to take with to the local event.

When it comes to growing your own food, especially with fruit trees., I am sure any farmer or homesteader will be able to tell you that there is noting more rewarding, than nursing the tree for as long as it takes to bare fruit and then finally reaping the fruits of your labor.

As for the market this week, we had very poor attendance, so the sales weren't as great as could be expected. We found out later that there were quite a few other events hosted on the same day in Tzaneen (a larger town about 30km's away) And although it was not such a busy day, I try not feeling too discouraged, you win some you lose some, and this particular farmers market is still new, and I believe in time, it will grow.

I sold quite a bit despite the circumstances in any case, so I guess I can not complain too much, and the shop owner that hosts the farmers market was just too happy to keep whatever fresh produce did not sell in her shop as stock on a consignment basis so after a long day at the market - we packed the remainder of the fruit in her juice fridge, and from there it will be displayed and advertised properly in the morning.

I believe that we wont have a problem selling the fruit from there and that the farmers market on the 5th of this month will host a lot more people.

I believe that in these strange and unusual times that we are living in, it is more important than ever to support local and privately owned enterprises, so if you have a local farmers market or fair in your area, why not go ahead and see what is on offer, you might just be surprised at what you will find, and you can only benefit from getting fresh farm produce straight from the farmer, after all it is so much better supporting the farmers directly in stead of supporting the corporations that exploit them.