Customers line up for delicious fruit from Hillside Orchards.
Laura, who we first met as an Andersonville Farmer’s Market volunteer, has been interning in our office for the past few weeks helping our busy staff prepare for the Sidewalk Sale and the Taste of Andersonville Dinner Crawl as well as continuing to assist with the market. Unfortunately this is her last week with us, but considering she has been working with Hillside Orchards selling their delicious fruit we thought it would be fun for her to write an account of what it is like to work a typical night at the market. After the jump, read what it is like to be behind the table!
At 2:30 pm on Wednesdays, Paul backs his truck up to Hillside Orchard’s slot at the Andersonville Farmer’s Market and greets me with a cheery “How long have I got you for?” “All day,” I answer. “Great!” calls out his assistant. The three of us, helped by other volunteers, unpack the two tents, four tables, five tablecloths, and innumerable berries, cherries, apples, apricots, peaches, preserves, honey and chestnut products. Box by box the farmstand emerges from the truck. Flats (plastic open top boxes) filled with fruit must be rolled (inspected for damage) into quarts, pints and half pints. Tender apricots must be gently stacked into green boxes, setting aside the bruised for tasting. I carefully tumble out red and black raspberries into the small half pint boxed, pulling out a squished one and pop it into my mouth, staining my fingers guilty red. “Let’s checkerboard the raspberries,” says Paul. Black and red are alternated, creating a (hopefully) eye-catching display of the tender, juicy fruit. Stacked in tiers on empty boxes, Paul hopes that bringing the raspberries up to the eye, our customers will find them irresistible.
The highlight of Hillside Orchards is their cherries. Along with the classic sweet Bing cherries, Hillside Orchards carries sweet White Lady and Rainier cherries, all free for the tasting. I put out our “Pit Stop” for people to plop their cherry stones. It’s been a hard year for cherries in Michigan. Endless rain causes the cherries swell and burst, making them vulnerable to insects and disease. We pick through the endless bushels, tossing the damaged and bruised into bags that will be used for composting. The pie cherry season just ended last week, and personally, I am glad to have seen the last of the sticky neon red sour cherries. Now it’s rows and rows of sweet cherries.
Blueberries are the other hit at the Andersonville Farmer’s Market. The large Michigan blueberries are wonderfully sweet and burst in my mouth. As a Maine girl, I was more than hesitant about what I considered monstrously oversized berries. But my reservations are long gone. After working for Paul for three weeks, I take home 2 pints a week and make blueberry pie, blueberry scones, blueberry pancakes, drizzle them with honey and eat them by the handful.
Around 3 pm the early customers begin trickling into the market, curiously tasting the early (and extremely tart) Lodi apples. At 4 the market officially begins, and the stand becomes a blur. People love our tips about keeping raspberries fresh (spread them on a plate lined with paper towel, unwashed, in the refrigerator and they’ll keep twice as long), and the infinite free samples. It’s a constant rush of helping customers, rolling fruit, and restocking the display, and it doesn’t let up until around 8pm. As the shadows get long, we pack up the leftover fruit back into flats, stacking them gently in the truck. The last stragglers to the market come racing through, and we sell the last few peaches to a breathless, grateful couple. We toss the cash box and plastic bags into the back of the truck, and Paul turns to shake all our hands. “Thanks you guys. Great market. See you next week.”
For time, location, dates and complete list of vendors at the Andersonville Farmer’s Market, click here. We look forward to seeing you out at the market!
