Winter Is Here
What gave it away? Ten inches of snow for many of my customers and fellow vendors, but not a single flake for me. I know, many of you are thinking, “Lucky her,” especially if they were caught in any part of the I-95 Nightmare. And I’m thinking, “Dang, I got shorted out of play-time.”
I hear from many who vacation this time of year in Vermont, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Switzerland. A courtesy from the weeklies is the advance of an impending absence. As a vendor, I try to do the same for customers when I know I’ll be missing a market, but sometimes, especially in winter, me (or any of my fellow vendors) may unexpectedly not be in our Sunday spots.
Remember last week’s snowstorm? Some of your farmers got snow, others didn’t. If a choker like that happens on a Saturday night, there will farmers who don’t make it out. The twenty four hours, if not more, prior to market is a critical time for vendors. When Mother Nature knots up the system with severe weather events, our risk analysis of the situation may dictate we stay home.
There are three hops for me to get to the Interstate—a quarter mile long driveway, a municipal road with a significant hill, and a state road. Fortunately, there are seven farms on my road, six of them are dairy farms which means the road is heavily traveled by milk trucks on a daily basis. If the township can’t plow the road, at least one of the dairy farmers will do so with their massive tractors.
Given the extensive trucking hub in southcentral Pennsylvania, the state roads serving as arteries from the Interstate tend to be kept clean and salted during inclement winter weather. Once I hit Maryland I’m home free. Never have I seen such a phalanx of plow & cinder trucks when the forecast calls for snow. The familiar white lines of anti-icing guide me in and out of the city.
But the one that shuts me down every single time is my driveway. I am the one who is responsible for plowing it. I am fortunate to have two pieces of equipment to do this with—an open John Deere tractor and an enclosed diesel runabout. The dilemma is which to use and when. Both are loud and obtrusive, but the ire of having to plow for an additional hour or more prior to leaving for market just aren’t in my cards. And if the snow keeps up during the day I might have to walk back the driveway in the new fallen snow and then plow the driveway again to get back it.
I’m not the only one to encounter such logistical winter weather problems so if one of us doesn’t show up on Sunday after the National Weather Service issues a bulletin, cut us some slack.
Another sure sign that winter is here are the winter hours at the Bethesda Central Farmers Market which now start at 9:30 AM. No, I don’t sleep in any later, but enjoy the gentle ease into my day instead of the tightly timed event of getting on the road and pulling into my spot at the same time regardless of necessary pit stops and/or unexpected delays like the one that waylaid Cipolla Rossa Pizza on 495 last week and Young Harvests’ battery troubles a few weeks prior. Another bellwether of the season’s change is a new cast of characters in the vegetable department. I was afraid the kalettes would never arrive, but as soon as colder weather set it they finally showed up. Likewise, the thick leafed braising greens like collards, kales, and chards are coming into their glory as the plants push sugars into the leaves which acts as a natural antifreeze. To grow and harvest vegetables in the winter months is an act of perseverance and dedication. Don’t believe me? Consider having to do what your farmers do in last week’s snowstorm—harvesting, packaging, loading, transporting. A lot of love goes into getting fresh food from the farms to the market. This year make a resolution to try a new winter vegetable or ingredients from a market vendor. It just may give you something new to look forward to in the coming winter months.