June 23, 2009

This is the first post I've written about a Tuesday! Yesterday, I met Tracie, Marsha, Ashley, and Ty at Crow's Nest to pick blueberries and sugar snap peas. It was so much fun! I love my job. This was my first time picking both types of produce.
I was surprised by how tall the blueberry bushes were. I expected them to be low to the ground, like a strawberry plant. But they were nice and tall, so there were plenty of berries to be picked standing upright. I also had a different preconception of how the berries would look on the plant. I (once again) thought they would be scattered throughout the bush individually like strawberries, but they aren't! There are in little clusters...in the case of this year's crop, they are in bunches like grapes! Some of the mid-season variety blueberries were as big as grapes too!
After we had been there for a while, we went over to the greenhouse to pick some sugar snap peas. Now, with these I really had no idea what the plants were going to look like. I was worried that I wouldn't know how to distinguish between the ripe ones, the just right ones, and the overripe ones. But Tracie assured me that there is no such thing as a bad sugar snap pea...unless it looks shriveled and bad...but in that case it's not hard to tell that they're no good. It was so funny (and not funny) because I had been bitten by an ant on the back of my left knee at the blueberry hill...and then when we got to the sugar snap pea vines Tracie said not to worry because there would not be any bugs. I got stung by a bee on the back of my other knee. Of course it hurt at the time, and I think Tracie was worried that I would just be too upset and all that. But it really wasn't a big deal. I just came home, put some tea tree oil on it, and it was fine.

Lessons I learned yesterday:

• Make sure you get there EARLY. ( I saw a couple arrive at the blueberry hill with only 10 minutes to pick... not fun.)
  
• Don't converse loudly. Just because the view of other people two rows away is blocked by the bushes doesn't mean the sound of your voice is blocked.
• If you feel something tickling make sure it's not a bee before you swat it. Actually, it might not hurt to wear some bug repellent.
  
• Eat at least one berry/pea pod off the plant. It will make your life richer.
  
• Bring children with you. They have so much fun, and it's infectious.
  

June 18 & 20, 2009

First, thank you to all the customers who stopped by "le blog" for customer appreciation! I hope you liked what you saw. It was so much fun to see you and hear your comments in person on Saturday!

Thursday was our first day in the Kitchen with Ashley. She is such a huge help! We were done with our work in record time, I even got to take Friday off because we finished that work too. Tracie also had time to make a new product: biscotti! I have never made those before, so it was a new learning experience. It really is a delicate dough so you need lots of extra flour on hand, and you must be very gentile when you shape it and put it on the pan. It was so lively with Tracie, Ashley and me working in the kitchen. It was even more busy when some of the neighborhood kids came over to play with Tracie's son Ty...and Marsha came down for a little bit. It was a nice bustling place to be.

Saturday was ... noteable. There was only a little bit of rain, but it was inconsequential. As a matter of fact the rain was a nice break from the hot sun! There were some crazy wind gusts...which caused The Green Umbrella to topple over. Tracie said it's fixable. But most importantly, there were lots of customers! There were people visiting town for the Master Gardener's convention, people out for the Summer Solstice festivities, people out for the good weather, and most importantly, people were visiting UtGU for Customer Appreciation Day! Many reasons Saturday was a fun day. People were so excited to get their free Oat Power Cookie. Tracie put the power cookies, and the scones in these lovely glass jars! I hope they area weekly occurance. They looked so nice!

On the cake front, I have found that people here are not crazy about Kahlua cake. I hope to be more successful with my next flavor which will be arriving on to market on Wednesday. I'm very excited about it!

June 17, 2009

I am so over this Wednesday rain! That is all.
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I'm looking forward to working it tomorrow!

June 13, 2009

First, I would like to welcome our newest intern Ashley!! She came to market on Satruday to help us out, and I"m so glad she did! She's a quick learner, funny, and just lovely. We were swamped on Saturday morning so we were really glad for the help!

Saturday morning got started a little late. Tracie had some car troubles, so we unloaded her car, loaded my car and had to stop for gas before we went to market. People were beating down the door, so to speak! We hurried the best we could to get set up. I brought one cake for slices and two whole cakes. I thought this cake would sell like crazy- Kahlua cake with Bailey's cream cheese icing. NO. But I did sell my whole sliced cake by the time the market was over, so that was fine. The weather was so great on Saturday, so I didn't mind too much. Overall it was a wonderful market day! I didn't want to leave after my shift was over!

Here are some photos of the wonderful day:

This is our new intern, Ashley! She's a writer and she's writing a book about food. I hope we can help her. I just know everyone at the market is going to love her!

This is Tracie! She's my fantastic boss/teacher! So cute!

These are two customers tasting the cake. They seem pretty pleased with the product that actually made it into their mouths, rather than on them. :o)

June 11, 2009

Today's post will be a little different. I'll start with the things I learned today and then I'll write about the fun bit.

We did lemonade, brownies, chocolate chip cookies ( I portioned those out), granola and Tracie cooked the beans for the hummus. We also did some dishes and unpacked all the stuff from Wednesday's wet and wily market. The only other thing of note from today is that I cut my finger. Luckily Tracie was prepared with the healing cream and Finding Nemo bandage. Luckily it was at the end of the day, and I had already finished the food preparations for the day. I have a bit more to do on Friday than usual, but that's okay since I had Friday off last week.

Now for the fun bit. I was on the Martha Stewart website today and found this!
Tracie is doing a good job teaching me, I got a perfect score!

June 10, 2009

It rained and there was crazy lightning today at market...so I packed up and was home by 5:45. Of course it had all passed by 6:00...but the market was pretty much over once the lightning started. I'm starting to get annoyed with these afternoon showers! I have to say though, in spite of the weather, sales were pretty good for such a short time at market! Tracie had some sugar snap peas she picked earlier today. Those were pretty popular!

In other news, we are going to have a new intern joining our team this week. I am so excited for Ashley (or is it Ashleigh?) is going to start helping us out on Saturday! We had a chat on the phone and it seems like we are going to get on very well. She's a writer and her current project is a book about food. I hope Tracie and I can be helpful for this!

My cakes are coming along quite nicely! I am selling more and more at each market to which I bring them. Tracie suggested that I make business cards so people can order cakes from me. That way, if they would like a particular flavor of cake that I've made in the past they can have them on demand. I had my boyfriend help me with that and on Saturday I will have business cards! I'm so grateful for all the support everyone is giving me with my cakes!

June 6, 2009

Market Day!!! The weather was beautiful! Such a nice change from Wednesday. This was the first Saturday for my cake. I was so nervous, but it did well. I ended up selling out (thanks to my dear friend Takako who bought FIVE!! pieces!). It was funny, the cake was going so slowly. Not many people were sampling it, but as soon as I didn't have anymore cake, people started tasting the samples and asking for it! Weird.

My parents asked me to take photos of the market because they wanted to see where I work. Here are a few:Tracie's delicious baked goods! Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies, Double Dutch Brownies, and Irish Scones!!!


My Key Lime Cake!! I'll have it for the last time on Wednesday. I'm excited about my next flavor...which will be revealed on Saturday!

Part of a sign I made. Tracie added the Tapenade and Bread parts. :o) I see the "S" in berries is getting erased. I need to make a new sign.

Raspberry Lemonade Sample!

I have simply fallen in love with the market, and I love working for Tracie. She's not only been a more than fair boss, but she's supportive of my growth in the market as well as a good friend.

June 4, 2009

Remember how I said it was going to be C-R-A-Z-Y on Thursday? Well, as usual Tracie had a surprise for me. I walked into the basement to find Tracie's friend Beth (who assisted her for many years before I got there) and her mother Marsha, already organizing and working! It was such a relief!

Beth was such a sweet heart! She was so up beat and really organized! That is one quality I really lack, but I'm trying to work on! She shared all sorts of stories from when she was around working with Tracie, and stories about her new baby Cameron. With her help we got all the new stuff put away and organized to make room for the new oven, had Kenny take some things to the YMCA thrift store, and all of the packaging and baking was done! I didn't even have to come in on Friday, because most of the cleaning was finished too!

Tracie also had Ty's "Yaya", Marsha there to help us. She kept the adorable little guy out of Tracie's hair so she could work. She is so fantastic! I love it when Ty goes down for a nap and she can stop in and talk to us for a bit. I love that she reads the blog! (Hi, Marsha!) I just love her!

It really helped me work better to have new people around. I think I worked faster, because Beth was working faster. It was nice, I had all day Friday to bake for Saturday!

June 3, 2009

Wednesday was a big day! Not only did I make my cake for the first time, but Tracie's new oven arrived! I know Thursday is going to be busy since we will be making stuff for Saturday in addition to reorganizing things to make room for the oven. I worked on that a little bit yesterday. She bought a lot ingredients this week, so I put those away and organized them.

I waited until I got to Tracie's house before I cut my cake, because I wasn't sure how big to cut the cake or how much to charge for it. She was so helpful with that, and she even found me an extra pan so I can make more than one cake at a time for Saturday! I decided to go with something that was a reflection of who I am for my first cake, so I made a key lime cake. It was based on my great grandmother's cake recipe and key lime pie recipe. I reworked them into a bundt cake. People reacted very positively which I really appreciated! One lady bought three pieces!

At around 4 the heavens opened! It rained really hard for about half an hour! Luckily Tracie came and brought me some weather proof cloth to cover the table and a rain jacket. One lady was so die hard, she was shopping in the rain and bought a a muffin! Luckily it cleared up pretty quickly and it ended up being a very nice and fairly busy evening. I'm surprised at how few people come to the Wednesday market. It is really nice. In addition to all the vendors who sell baked goods, produce, plants and crafts there are the pizza guys (as I like to call them) and there is usually some live music. Last night it sounded like there was a string trio. Lovely! Wednesday market is just different from Saturday market. It's too bad a lot of people go to either one or the other. Both are wonderful in their own ways.