What’s been going on! 

Old dogs, new tricks.  This is going to be the story for some time to come so bear with us and each other.  There is a lot of new information in this newsletter so please read carefully and completely.

First we want to thank everyone for the overwhelming show of support, both for us and the market, last week and as you all have sent kind words through the week.  Because of your support and the changes that the vendors and market made last week we are being allowed to stay open when other markets are being closed.  But we were not perfect and changes have to be made for us to continue to operate as you will see below.

The biggest change is that the Town of Carrboro is requiring us to have 20 feet between vendors it will have us spread out all over the Town Commons including using all of the parking lots, which is still not enough room for all of the vendors when we reach peak season.  Customer parking will be found over at the O2 Fitness lot and on the streets.  You will have to find us in the market as we don’t know yet where we will end up.

The Market will begin its 7:00 a.m. opening hours this week to help spread out the crowd and we encourage those folks over 60 to shop the market early for greater safety.  The Wednesday afternoon market will also open early this coming week on March 25^th,  we will not be there initially.

The strongest feedback we received from last week is everyone has to do a better job of “social distancing”, if we don’t improve we may not be able to stay open so there are several things you all need to do:

1. Stay at least 6 feet away from other folks. We will remind you with a smile.
2. As much as we all like to visit, we need everyone to shop and head home to minimize the time of potential exposure.
3. If you have kids, leave them at home if possible. The playground is closed anyway.
4. Do not touch any of the products for sale, let the vendors handle all the product, they will bag and wrap it and hand it to you.
5. and of course, wash your hands frequently or use hand sanitizer.

To facilitate less contact and faster exchanges we are encouraging people to pre-order so that it is ready to go when you get to market, an option we have always offered.  For those who want to reduce the amount of cash handling we have set up an on-line store where you can put in your order and prepay with your credit card or we can take a credit card at market too.  Ignore it if it tells you that the pick-up date is for March 28^th.

For those of you who are being extra careful and don’t want to get into the market fray you can text us at market and we can bring your order to your car.  Your order already needs to have been received and paid for the day before.  Text or call (919) 314-7043 with your car type, color and where you are parked adjacent to the market and we will bring it to you.  It may take a few minutes depending on how busy we are and you need to parked along either Bim Street or Laurel Ave.

We are not sure how all this will turn out.  Whether the Market will be allowed to stay open or how much of a pain in the ass the new market set up will be.  Betsy and I will be there selling this Saturday and will evaluate.  If either the market is closed or we don’t want to deal with the changes we will change to a curbside pick-up location near the market for an hour or so on Saturday mornings for on-line prepaid orders only.  We will keep you apprised.

Our restaurant friends are also taking a big hit and we encourage you to support them by using take-out or buying gift cards or more.  Starting this weekend a group of Carrboro business people are starting Carrboro United, an online ordering platform for take-out meals from Carrboro restaurants and CSA type produce and meat boxes from the Farmers Market vendors who cannot sell all of their crops.  The orders can be picked up three times a week in front of Cats Cradle.  See the website http://www.carrborounited.com for details.

We continue to plant as if this will end soon and this situation could last only a few weeks but the experts we are talking with think more like 8-10 weeks, through at least the end of May.  We are all in a strange new world and it will take all of us working together to make it smoother.

Picture of the week

A bunch of beautiful lettuce

What’s going to be at Market?

Large doses of patience and joviality.

The flood of Ranunculus continues, like miniature peonies, orange, red and maroon. Still a fair amount of Anemones but they are finally beginning to wane.  We all need some brightness!

Red and Green Little Gem lettuce.  The first of the tender Green Boston Lettuce and Escarole for soups, salads or sauteeing.  A limited supply of crunchy Red Radishes and tender and sweet Japanese Salad Turnips.

As a reminder if there is anything that you would like for us to hold for you at market just let us know by e-mail, by the evening before, and we will be glad to put it aside for you.

Hope to see you all at the market!

Alex and Betsy

If you know folks who you think would be interested in news of the farm then please feel free to forward this to them and encourage them to sign up at the website.