I know this should really be a photo of our stall at the farmer's market yesterday but somehow we managed to corrupt the photos as we were getting them off the camera. This it such a shame as the stall looked brilliant. This is the mock up that I did in the shed on Friday to make sure I had enough buckets, flowers and things to put them on.
What an ace day, the sun was shining, our market colleagues were welcoming and friendly and all the Keynsham folk were really lovely. Things couldn't have been better really, we sold lots and lots of flowers and what was really pleasantly surprising was that some of the flowers that I thought wouldn't do well were really enthusiastically received. English Marigold Calendula officinialis was a good example of this. I've sown and planted almost a whole bed full and to be honest I thought they would just be too bright and unglamorous to appeal to flower buyers....how wrong I was. They looked fantastic when arranged into small bunches with the lime green Euphorbia and the purple Atriplex with a dash of pink Strawflower and everybody loved them, so they've won a reprieve and I'll henceforth show them a little more love. Talking of the Pink Strawflower, they are so wonderfully prolific (and I suspect they are only just getting going) that I'm picking at least 100 a day and bunching them in 20's to dry. None of the florists have been particularly interested so I only took 25 bunches just to decorate the stall. Everybody loved them and one bride to be was so enamored that she took 15 bunches to decorate the ends of the pews at her wedding next weekend. I bet they'll look beautiful, really simple and old fashioned.
The best thing about being at a market is being able to talk to people and it was great to feel the support for locally grown flowers that haven't traveled half way around the world and also see how much people LOVE Sweet Peas. There is something about this flower that turns people inside out and reminds them of being a child. It must be something to do with the way memories are triggered by the senses, particularly smell. There was much reminiscing about grandparents' gardens.
The drama of the day couldn't have been more "Farmer's Market". Whilst I was setting up the stall at about 8.30am, Jon was unpacking the trailer and heard lots of tweeting. After some investigation he realised that there was a Robin's nest with three young chicks which was tucked away in the frame of the trailer. The chicks and the nest had miraculously survived the 8 mile journey from Radstock to Keynsham and were all calling for their breakfast.
When we got home, after we had unloaded our flowers and counted our takings for the day we waited to see if the chicks had survived and were still being fed by their mum.
Yay, here she is!
Jo x
