Farmers, After the Market

BY JESS JAGER OF YOUR FRIENDS FARM WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ZOE CRAGO OF DUO DESIGN + MEDIA

There’s a shared excitement that comes with farmers’ market season.

Warm months are spent gathering in public parks, strolling through blocked-off parking lots, and looking both ways when you cross the street, not for fear of a passing car, but on the hunt for the perfectly ripe fruits and vegetables you need to call your market trip a success.

But after a season of farmers and marketgoers mingling together, sharing tastes, stories and recipes, the weather dictates that things come to a close for the winter.

Many of you will transition back to shopping at the grocery store, forgetting about your local farmer until you are welcomed by the warmth of spring and the hot nights of summer, emerging from a long winter of hibernation in celebration of fresh greens and red radish.

But I wonder—have you ever stopped and asked what happens to your farmers after the market season?

Unlike baseball, lakeside eateries, and amusement parks, there isn’t an “off-season” for farmers. One season closes and another opens.

With the cold weather of winter comes space to get caught up on all of the things that summer had no time for—or it was just too hot to work on between everything else! There is maintenance to do, field prep to complete, shelters for animals to build, garden clean-up, seed orders, planning, and accounting. So much accounting. Some farmers (like me) even start taking reservations for next year's CSA programs and meat harvest.

To give you an idea of what a small farmer’s off-season routine might look like, let me share my fall/winter checklist with you.