Been there. I will skip early in the year if it is real hot, chance of storms and windy plus I don't have anything special to bring. But this time of year I would miss too much money to stay home. I hear ya about the week. I sure hope it isn't too slow prior to the holiday and school starting. Last week was good.

After that post I got news that my Uncle Walt died, I'm helping my cousin notify people, make arrangements. I decided not to do market this week, just too much stress to add that on top, spend an entire (rainy!) day picking, packing, and sitting at market when there's so much else to do.

Might be more work and more stress, but I'll just try to can/freeze what I have now, pick the cukes today and throw them in brine to ferment (I already sliced, salted and iced some yesterday I have to make pickles today), pick the green beans and tomatoes Thurs instead of today or tomorrow, and deal with those after the funeral. I don't have that many tomatoes any way (probably split after last night's rain) and the beans will start producing again after picking even if some have gotten huge since Sat. Peppers will hold on the plants. Maybe next week (Wed market and Sat Open Farm Day) will be good.

I had the same situation with my uncle that helped raise me. Lucky for me, I only missed a Thursday market, and explained to customers on Saturday that I didn't have as much. Many were sympathetic and I got lots of hugs which were appreciated. I found out which customers were just customers and which were friends.

Need to vent. Just got home from funeral, we got there early but not early enough with coolers and ice. My 2nd cousin(?), uncle Walt's granddaughter, had already been there and left 4 sandwich platters in the fridge. I cut them in half and then cut the 4 halves each into 12 pieces, since we only had 2 platters to put the cardboard rounds on, I figured 96 wedges of these huge French Bread round deli sandwiches should be enough, we could cut more if/when needed but thought they'd be taking a lot home. Unfortunately they had not brought the bottled water or lemonade mix or paper goods they had said were coming.

Only a few people brought things in before Mass, so I attended Mass, decided to go to cemetary with my parents, left DH and the kids and a couple of church ladies to set out the sandwiches and salads. DH was also making a pot of iced tea and one of coffee since I had brought coffee and our Mr. Tea. I also had him take the plates, cups, and napkins I had bought just in case down. We had to use the church silverware though since no one brought any - my mom had a little bit but not enough. Too bad I had a bunch sitting in my pantry that I should have grabbed.

We got back from cemetery, found tossed salad, cucumber salad out but they hadn't put out the potato salad, 3-bean salad, pasta salads since DH didn't know they were in coolers, so I had ladies put those out, people were already lining up. I went to kitchen to assemble the trifle I was making for dessert (blueberry buckle was already cut but I didn't want to have trifle get soggy). Before I could get 1 layer of fruit on the (already cut) cake pieces (just had to dump from plastic bag into bowl) and pudding, someone was saying the sandwiches were gone, I needed to cut more, the water and lemonade was still in GD's car and her DH was to busy eating to get them until he was asked 3 times!!! No one brought paper products - OK since all mine were opened but we had to use the church silverware.

The kids were grabbing chips (I only bought 1 bag of tortilla and 1 of potato) and then were coming into the kitchen looking for dessert, church lady gave them some though I said "patience is a virtue, they can wait". DH was making more tea and then finally was able to get water on ice and put it out, by then another 2 GDs (1 single, 1 mother) were coming into kitchen to cut pieces of desserts that weren't cut and take from others that were on the island. I was still trying to get the trifle together after cutting sandwiches and sending them out, lady had just finished mixing lemonade. So DH took all the desserts out to keep people from coming into the kitchen.

Finally the 2 of us and 2 church ladies were able to sit down and eat but all the salads were gone but the tossed salad, and everything but the trifle and the buckle that I made and a tray of store-bought cupcakes were gone.

People were ignoring the sign and throwing trash into the recyclables barrel and I had to pick it all out. Everyone except Uncle Walt's immediate descendants (not that there were that many, just my dad's brothers, wives, and a few of their kids) left. The church ladies washed the serving pieces the church owned and left. Mom and I cleared the tables and tried to put away leftovers (not much), throw away disposables and ID other plates, etc. to get back to owners (most of whom were on our ways home so we could drop them off, some people we caught before they left). DH and my dad emptied the trash and swept the kitchen while the rest of the family (Uncle Walt's 2 DDs, 3 GSs, 4GDs and their spouses and kids) sat and talked. No one helped.

As we left I told Uncle Walt's DD there was food left in the fridge (1 out of the 4 huge sandwich platters was still almost full, plus tossed salad), to take it home. She did thank me and offer money (I won't even get into the scene between her sister and my mom when Mom called to get GD's phone numbers to ask for help paying for meal, since Mom didn't want me spending $200-300 which was price I was getting for deli platters around here, GD knew of great place only $28 for each sandwich platter). But someone could have helped!

DH and I couldn't have done it without the 2 church ladies. It just got too hectic once everyone was eating.

Unfortunately there seems like there is 1 person who does all the work, and everyone else sits around. Sorry that you had to the be 1. Now it should be over, and maybe your life can get back to semi-normal.

If your market was like ours, you didn't miss that much. Ours was the worse (dollar figure) since mid-June when we didn't have much.

I don't know - only know that I have tomatoes coming in now (picked Wed and today, lots cracked since it rained last night but it's POURING now), also have lots of beans picked Wed (aunt used canned for the 3-bean salad) and today (before Mother Nature sent a warning shot across my bow and I decided it was not a good idea to be picking beans off a steel fence). Still have peaches picked Thurs left over - turning mushy in the basement by the dehumidifier. As soon as DD is done with lunch and I have the kitchen to myself I'm going to start canning and blanching.

Hopefully the tomatoes will still be good (I picked a lot at blush so those may not even be ripe) by Wed. I would put the farmstand OPEN sign out but it's supposed to rain all through Tuesday morning now, so today's beans will have to be blanched and frozen too.

We got some rain yesterday, and very happy to have it. We only have 2 more markets for this year.

We've got 4 - plus Open Farm Day on Sat. There is going to be another event 1st weekend of Oct but the town is hosting it, not the library, so my insurance certificate won't work and I'm not about to spend another $50 for one to cover that weekend. That's the weekend after my 50th birthday - maybe I'll just take it off to celebrate!

Darn SWDs were in peaches that looked unblemished when we picked them - I peeled and sliced the ones that had a few soft spots on Friday for the trifle, found 1 bad one but others that were firm on Friday were leaking today, threw some out (in ziploc bag, cut bad spots out of others and peeled them, cut up the firm (not even ripe? Light yellow) parts for sliced canned peaches and put the parts I couldn't peel with a knife, and some soft spots (not brown parts) in pan for peach butter but I'm finding what looks like white larvae (not the brown with dark heads) in the pan now after simmering so I think I'm going to have to throw those out - going to hot pack the slices instead of raw pack, hope I don't find the same thing. Beans will have to wait until after dinner now that I've spent 2.5hrs prepping peaches and haven't even canned any yet.

Oh, and the sun is out now...

Could it be that other wasp that is just coming into the north? I haven't seen any around here, but I'm leary of the peaches that I got from SC earlier this year, only because that wasp is more active the further south.

Could it be that other wasp that is just coming into the north? I haven't seen any around here, but I'm leary of the peaches that I got from SC earlier this year, only because that wasp is more active the further south.

It's definitely the SWD - recognized the red eyes and spotted wings on the males when I was picking. What other wasp (fruit fly? SWDs are smaller than even regular fruit flies) are you hearing about? Most wasps are beneficial - parasitic, lay their eggs in grubs and caterpillars not fruit, and/or are pollinators so I wouldn't be too worried.

This one definitely isn't a good one. I'll have to look it up (Tom, can you help with the name). We learned about it last year at Mt Vernon.

I guess you were correct with the SWD. I had forgotten the spotted wing part. It was found in southern IL last year and almost everything was subject to it.

Here's a link to some information.

http://www.pantagraph.com/blogs/gardening/linda-smith-pest-that-attacks-soft-fruit-working-its-way/article_bfed34fc-00fb-11e2-ae7e-0019bb2963f4.html