Farmers Markets!

I fell in love with farmers markets a few years ago in college, and my senior year I was spoiled because we had an amazing farmers market every Saturday right outside our apartment complex. And it was in California, so the produce was abundant. So when I went to my first farmer's market in Tucson I was less than impressed. There were like 4 stands and not much available.

Well, now I have a much greater appreciation for them! Partly because I've started working with the Community Food Bank farmer's markets, and also partly because I now know how hard it is to grow things here! Back when we started our little garden, we had to dig and pick-ax like crazy to even get a hole big enough to plant seeds. It also is so HOT and DRY here in the desert that many special precautions have to be taken (like adding shade, watering A LOT, etc).

So, anyway I'm liking working with the Food Bank! My new schedule is kind of complicated, but it goes like this:

Every other Monday I work at the Marana farm stand (in Marana, where the farm is, 30mins North of Tucson)
On Tuesdays I work at the Food Bank's farmers market
Some Wednesday and Fridays I work in the garden
On Thursdays I work at the Santa Cruz farmers market downtown.
(On my days off I am working at Casa Maria and other places I'll blog about later)

^this picture is from the Marana farm stand I worked at yesterday with Audra!

I'll also be working on the weekly e-mails that go out about what will be at the markets and contacting vendors and volunteers. So, it's pretty cool. All the people I've worked with so far have been awesome.

My responsibilities are mostly setting up, weighing the produce and checking out the customers (they can pay with WIC checks, food stamps, cash, credit, etc.), and packing up/closing down. I've learned about so many new veggies since working there (dragon's egg and Armenian are two new kinds of cucumbers I had never seen!)

One of my favorite customers was a little boy about 10 years old named Sky. He told me he found some coins while he was cleaning up and wanted to buy carrots. So he grabbed some carrots and I weighed them and told him they cost 35 cents. He was so excited he could afford them and had extra money, so he decided to get some little tomatoes too. He found an extra dime and I think the total was like 65 cents or something. He did this all while his mom was shopping. It was so cute :)

Yep, that's what I'm up to now! This Friday I'm going on Samaritan Patrol to help out migrants if we see any in the desert. I'll let you know how it goes!