This was published in the Active Aging August 1998 issue and written by fellow writer and friend, Kenna Bruner after a personal interview with Gail & Clyde. Posted with Kenna's permission.
Fresh produce, homemade goodies
Backing their trucks into a long line of spaces, a group of industrious gardeners open their tailgates, spread out their excess bounty from their backyard gardens, and turn an empty parking lot into a bustling farmers market.
Their colorful produce lures customers giddy at the sight of plump, red tomatoes, crisp peppers, and sweet corn-on-the-cob.
Laid out on folding tables are herbs fresh-cut or dried; blackberries sold by the pint, in jam or as pie, squash in the summer tones of yellow and green, and homemade bread in whole wheat, honey oatmeal. garlic, raisin, sugarless raisin, dill or cinnamon.
A Farmers market can be anything from a handful of local gardeners selling their extra zucchini out of the back of pickup, to an organized gathering of growers. It provides gardeners with a way to sell an overabundance of produce, make a little money and stay active after retirement.
For ten years, Gail and Clyde Martin of El Dorado have been selling produce at farmers markets in eastern Kansas and locally. Every Tuesday and Saturday morning, and Thursday afternoon they park in a stall at a closed hamburger drive-in on west Central in El Dorado, where along with a group of other gardeners, they display their harvest to gathering crowds.
In addition to the usual agricultural farer, such as potatoes, tomatoes, green beans and lettuce, the Martins’ prolific gardens furnish them with Swiss chard, mustard greens and Kuta squash.
“Clyde just doesn’t know when to stop planting,” said Gail. “We don’t grow for the market. We grow for ourselves and take our surplus to the market. You can palm this stuff off on your friend and kids only so far.”
Gail provides customers with samples to taste. She includes recipes for some of the vegetables such as Swiss chard and Kuta squash.
“A lot of people don’t know what Swiss chard is or how to cook it straight from the garden.” said Gail. “We put out samples of Kuta squash for people to try and that helps sell it. We only take produce to see that we would want to buy if we were the customers. We don’t sell anything that doesn’t look first rate. We’ll eat that ourselves.
As the family’s bread baker, Clyde sells a variety of his loaves at the farmers market. With a bread purchase, customers receive one of his brochures, “Clyde’s Great Bread,” which Gail prints on her home computer. The brochures include tips on how to store homemade bread, serving ideas and recipes for spreads.
All their produce is clearly marked with price labels Gail also makes on her computer. “It is a lot more work to price everything like that, but it is worth it,” she said. “How we like to buy things is how we sell things.” The farmers market is something we look forward to all winter long. I don’t know what we’d do if we didn’t have the market.”
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