hi I'm Mike it's the last week of farmers market and today we take a look
at how farmers market changes for winter and some of the numbers representing how
the farmers market helps the ranch and impacts our entire community it's all
coming up today on our wyoming life
for the last 14 weeks we spent each of our Saturdays at farmers market now it
doesn't sound like much of a commitment after all it's only four hours a week
that you have to hang out in a booth talk and sell your products to customers
truth is that we have hundreds of hours in the farmers market before we even set
foot under a tent and meet our first customer of the day but it's what
happens in public that people see and the payoff that affects people's lives
thanks for joining us today as we continue to explore the ranch life and
escape the ordinary today we're digging deep into our farmers market how it
evolves through the year and how it impacts our community we invite you to
subscribe and bring come along as we bring you all aspects hey kitty of the
ranch from livestock to machinery and even the gardens this is our ninth year
of attending farmers market over the years erin has gone from a very small
vendor with only a few leftovers from her family garden to a full-fledged
market gardener and market manager I think part of my success that I've had
at farmers market is because I did start small and it wasn't an overwhelming task
in the beginning it was something that just kind of came to us as leftovers and
our family gardens and it allowed me to kind of dip my toe into it and see if it
was something that I enjoyed and I'm just almost every year there's been you
know additional garden space or another high tunnel or we added eggs or we added
beef or we added pork it was something that happened very gradually if I had
started in the first years that I want 15,000 square feet and two high tunnels
and we're gonna raise beef and we're gonna raise pork and we're gonna have
chickens I would have never been able to succeed because I would have been so
overwhelmed from the very beginning it went from being just something to do
to keep me somewhat busy and to make a little bit of money into becoming my
full-time job and it's taken several years for me to say that I'm a market
gardener farmers market may be a full-time job for Aaron not so much for
me I already have a couple full-time jobs but I help out where I can and most
of the time market takes up part of my Thursday Friday and Saturday
picking begins on Thursday for a Saturday market Aaron's surveys what she
has in the garden and what's available for harvest we grow such a variety that
not everything is ready at one time and that keeps us moving through the
different crops throughout the year always offering something new and fresh
today it's a nice day temperatures are in the 40s but more importantly the sun
is shining which makes all the difference we systematically work our
way through each garden almost a full acre in total and pick what is ready
from cabbage to beets to cauliflower it's time to start picking everything
that'll not make it through the cold temperatures that we are expecting this
weekend and we can get it off to customers this is our second year doing
year-round growing and having winter crops and it's sad to see some stuff go
in tomato crap wasn't a huge success for us this year but crops like tomatoes and
rainbow chard and a lot of our outside stuff is it's time for it to be done and
to let it rest for the winter but inside the high tunnels it's full of new growth
and new potential and there's carrots coming up and scallions and lettuce is
looking really good and it's really nice to see the the transition between summer
and winter but know that although there's a lot of stuff to do to clean up
the summer gardens and the summer crops we're not done growing it's just a
transition from one see to the next inside the high tunnel and
growing like a weed which what it may actually be is kale outside it may only
be 40 degrees but inside it's almost 90 the single layer of plastic on the
tunnel keeps the warmth of the Sun in at least during the day and keeps the kale
lettuce spinach radishes whatever else is in here
thriving all winter long once all the veggies for the day are in the shop then
it's time to clean wash and sanitize everything and get it ready for market
farmers market week continues and although Friday is a baking day for Erin
it's my day to kind of catch up on some stuff pick up some slack make sure kids
are picked up from school and of course Lincoln is entertained
throughout the day Erin bakes a ton for market and that
lends to our whole philosophy on the ranch diversification even at our
farmers market booth we want you to be able to get the best of both worlds yes
we have fresh garden veggies but we also have the sweets and the baked goods
that'll offset all those good calories before we are done on Friday we have one
more chore to take care of for this weekend's farmers market with it being
the last market of the season Erin usually likes to end on a high note and
this week we're offering free pumpkin painting for kids and market not only
does this bring in new customers to market but it's also a way to give back
to the community 150 pumpkins are loaded into the truck to take to this week's
market and we get them all moved in ahead of time usually market takes place
outside in the Gillette College parking lot but as winter moves in the college
is nice enough to let us move inside and all these pumpkins are taken in tables
are arranged tarps are spread out to get ready for an onslaught of painters
tomorrow it's now the last day of market and at 5:00 a.m. I roll out of bed to
start getting loaded up and ready to go everything we have gets loaded into
Aarons farmers market truck a 1998 GMC box truck a $3,000 buy that is paid for
itself over and over again the temperature outside this morning is 45
degrees and that's actually gonna be our high temperature for the day as a front
will be moving in and cooling things off and bring it with us and snow by later
this morning after we're all loaded up then it's off we go pushing the truck to
its top speed of 55 miles an hour for the half hour drive to market market
season just isn't over we get a nice little break here but now we just
transition into our once a month market and it's really nice to be able to
connect with our customers throughout the winter and to bring them the crops
that we can still raise in the winter and provide them access to our local
beef and our local pork
it's not long before winter rears its head again and the snow starts to fall
but that doesn't stop our customers from rolling in and a lot of them to date
this year more than 8,000 people have visited our farmers market including our
own kids one great thing about the market is that there's a family aspect
to it many vendors bring their kids to help
and although ours are too young to help much whenever there is pumpkin painting
you're gonna find them there
and soon it's all over the packing begins and it's time to say goodbye for
another season
Aaron are you glad this is our last weekly farmers market yeah I'm glad I am
ready for a break I will miss everybody i'll miss the vendors I'll miss the
customers but I'm ready for a break so and I think the weather is telling us
that Rickett season is over last year farmers market injected almost seventy
five thousand dollars into the local economy this year although the numbers
aren't quite in yet we hope to beat it with snap and WIC they've also helped
hundreds of families with fresh veggies and through the share the harvest
program they've donated almost three thousand dollars in local food to our
Council of Community Services for the needy that's something to be proud of on
our side of things farmers market between veggies baked goods beef and
pork has brought us almost fifteen thousand dollars into the ranch that's
why it's so important cattle markets fluctuate they go up they go down one
year a calf might be worth almost $3 a pound the next it might only be worth a
dollar 50 that kind of fluctuation can cut cut the ranches income in half and
through diversification we can keep the ranch going which is what it's all about
the most important character in our story is the ranch without it there
would be none of this and the tradition the history and the story behind it
would be gone if we weren't here
behind every single fence is a story this just happens to be ours thanks for
coming along today I know it got a bit cold most of us don't want to see that
white stuff lying around yet and I get it I'm not ready for it yet either and
over the next few weeks we're gonna be dealing with it as we continue into
winter here on the ranch soon calves are gonna be leaving we're gonna be working
a lot with the cows here in the next few weeks and I really hope that you can
continue with us as we explore the ranch life and escape the ordinary subscribe
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really means a lot to us there's lots more on the way from our side of the
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week and thanks for joining us in our Wyoming life