Farmers’ Market: Denial
There comes a point when denial is no longer a useful tool. With the passing of the solstice, we are less able to convince ourselves that the splashes of color along the ridgelines are just the result of swamp maples stressed by wet feet.
We struggle to believe that the Canada geese honking indignantly to each other at the confluences of rivers are just over-eager youngsters whose annual rhythms are addled by pubescent hormones. Camouflaged moose or bird hunters creep through the brush or sit motionless in a stand or blind. Reality arrives with frost on the windshields; nighttime gardens are populated with ghostly apparitions as ambitious gardeners fling sheets and blankets over tomato and cucumber vines. Despite the “flip-flop days,” we now have some “extra blanket nights,” and may rethink the wide-open bedroom window policy, however sweetly scented the nightly breeze. Can it be that the solstice has passed and autumn is truly upon us?!
This change of season produces changes for farmers as well, and not just the threat of frost. Stan and Gail Maynard, Phil and Jackie Doak, and Barrett and Deena Parks reluctantly admit that the end of their pasture season for Highland cattle, Katahdin sheep, and finished pigs, respectively, is at hand … there is pasture season and hay season; the time of transition has come.
Anne Chase has laying hens that retreat into the coop earlier and earlier as day length shrinks. Joe York’s garlic is dried and bagged; Barb’s cut flower bouquets now flame gold and orange. The same is true of Gloria Goughan’s pumpkins and Jack-o-lanterns. Her husband, Farmer Mark, continues to grin in a diabolical fashion at the twists and turns of his “Sno-mazing Corn Maze,” but the stalks that confound his willing victims are no longer a deep dark green. The leaves rustle with the passage of eager visitors and stirring autumn winds.
Joseph Zook will need another horse to help pull the wagon if his crop of winter squash continues to enlarge. More than one chilled soul may feel justified in an extra bag of fresh doughnuts or a second apple fritter from Craig and Amy Inniger’s bakery. The Browns think hard about their annual pilgrimage to Florida and their horses once they finish the vegetable season. All the girls from Hidden Meadow Farm have reluctantly conceded the need for shoes as they carry armloads of fall crops to their customers’ cars.
The change is bitter-sweet, but no surprise. The Presque Isle Farmers’ Market continues through Columbus Day Weekend in the parking lot of the Aroostook Centre Mall. Venders continue to bring an extensive selection of good food to market every Saturday morning. Come share the fruits of our summers’ labors!
This column is written by members of the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market. For more information, visit their website at https://sites.google.com/site/presqueislefarmersmarket/home.
