Time goes by fast in the high tunnel, listening to some old classic country like Johnny Cash, sipping a glass of red while I loose my gloves, just to find them under a pepper plant that is coming up on reaching my shoulders in height. The peppers at the bottom of the plant are the most colorful, bright cherry red, then midway up the plant they turn to a glowing fiery orange, and then fade vertically to a rich deep forest green. Its getting dark earlier now that we are at the end of August in Montana and time to put on the headlamp, so we can continue our harvest.
Its a Friday and tomorrow is the Clark Fork River Farmers Market in Missoula. Just like last week, its going to be a scramble getting all the vegetables gathered on time. During the week, we are busy with making soap, filling honey jars, making lip balms and working on the house boat project. So, its now crunch time! We are just starting to have our heirloom tomatoes ripen and start to color on their shoulders. Peppers have been harvested the last few weeks. There's Nadapenos, 5 Color Chinese Hot, Mini Bell Mix, Banana Peppers, Buena Maultas and a couple more. Cucumbers we are growing are the Marketmore, Persian Pickling, Lemon and White. Cherry tomatoes are going nuts, baskets and baskets have been brought to the market, loaded into the farm stand and given to friends in handfuls.
A few weeks ago we made a significant decision, it was brought on by curiosity, maybe my competitive nature, and the desire to make people happy. We bought an ice cream machine! Its a soft serve with three handles. For now the flavors are pineapple, raspberry and you can also have a twist! The ice cream machine is in the self serve, unattended and all on the honor system. On Saturdays we bring it to the market! Our first Saturday market we made well over 200 cones and hit the highest gross profit. now we are on week three and the ice cream machine has mostly paid for itself. Its been an amazing addition to our farm, its bringing people in and they are actually buying more produce in the farm stand while they get a cone.