Sunday, January 17, 2021

2021 Winter Prices: Hatching Eggs, Chicks, Chickens

See bottom of post for payment, pickup and delivery information

HATCHING EGGS

Generally available, for pick up or local delivery. Eggs are gathered several times a day, held in moderate temperatures to prevent freezing in cold weather, and candled (within the limits of colored eggs) before sale to be sure of no cracks, etc. Marked with collection date and hen if known. Accumulated for a week or less in cartons that are turned twice a day. I have had hatch rates around 70% with indifferently calibrated incubators and poor humidity control. No guarantees.

Free hatching eggs (up to 1 dozen) for classroom (or homeschool) hatching. Hatch-and-return is an option if we plan ahead.

ChocoMint $15/dozen (limited availability, will include a mix of hens unless otherwise agreed)

ChocoLink $10/dozen
 

CHICKS AND CHICKENS

Baby chicks are usually hatched weekly in small batches. They are color sexed at hatch, to the extent possible, and marked with sex and breed color codes. I hope to begin wing tagging soon to keep better track of individuals both on the farm and in case of customer questions after sale.

All birds are fed non-GMO or organic feed, usually from local growers/millers,  plus fresh greens when available. Heavy predator pressure prevents free ranging, but we use portable enclosed pens when weather allows.

ChocoMint

I'll be keeping some for the breeding program, but will be hatching as many as possible from my best birds, so some will be available. If you hatch your own eggs, breeding your non-chocolate hens with a ChocoMint rooster will give you sex-link chicks (males are black or have black markings; females are chocolate or have chocolate markings...some breeds are easier to tell than others).

Hatch to 7 days: $7 each, straight run only, no sex guarantee.
8 days to 16 weeks: $7 + $1.00 per week of age, up to $25

Pullets laying brown, or untested: $25
Pullets laying green: $30
Hens retired from breeding program $25 - $30

Young cockerels (as soon as can be determined): $20
Proven sires of hens laying green eggs: $35

ChocoLink WTG

The variable coloring of the Whitings True Green hens results in a wide range of chick colors in the ChocoLink WTGs, making some of them harder to sex than hybrids with more standardized breeds. Both sexed and unsexed chicks will be available. Over time, my ability to interpret chick color will improve. Meanwhile, chicks sold as pullets only are guaranteed...if they crow, I will buy them back for your original purchase price.

I will be changing roosters from time to time. Some hatches may include chicks from two different roosters.

ChocoLinks will not breed true in all traits, but the chocolate gene will be expressed when a ChocoLink hen is bred to a rooster that carries the chocolate gene.

While the hens for the ChocoLink hybrids are lighter-weight laying breeds, the ChocoMints are a heavy breed with English Orpington and Barred Rock ancestry.

Straight run:

Hatch to 7 days: $4 each
8 days to 16 weeks: $4 + $1.00 per week of age, up to $20

Pullets only (sex guaranteed; egg color not guaranteed):

Hatch to 7 days: $7 each,
8 days to 16 weeks: $7 + $1.00 per week of age, up to $25

Cockerels only (will consider quantity discount):

Hatch to 7 days: $ each,
8 days to 16 weeks: $2 + $1.00 per week of age, up to $15

ChocoLink PWL

These should be available in February or March, when the Pearl White Leghorns start laying. No idea what they will look like or what egg colors.

PAYMENT OPTIONS

I accept cash, credit cards, PayPal. and Venmo. Checks if I know you.

PICKUP OR DELIVERY

Pickup at the farm in North Lawrence, by appointment only. Contact me via Messenger (Natalya Pinwheel Lowther), phone (785-979-6786...when I find it, and mailbox never works), or email (natalyalowther@hotmail.com). Please wear clean clothes and shoes. Supervised children are welcome; dogs will need to stay in vehicle except brief on-leash potty breaks.

Delivery can sometimes be arranged locally or along the I70 or Highway 24 corridors between Lawrence and Manhattan.

Chocolate Chicken History

Once upon a time there was a farmer (or two, or three...) who loved chocolate....

Some years back, a friend rented space at Pinwheel to carry out her longtime chicken breeding projects. As things got busier for her, I got more involved in the day-to-day work of R.'s Chicken World. But I never got the marketing end figured out, and she was too busy to market, and we had some predator problems, and so eventually she sold the flock.

Her projects included breeding chocolate-colored chickens...English Orpingtons and Barred Rocks. We joked about how cool it would be to have chocolate chickens that laid green eggs.

At some point, we sold a chocolate-colored rooster to J.

By the time J. came to Pinwheel, she had been breeding from that rooster for several years, and she wanted to expand her program with her birds at Pinwheel. This included hatching some eggs to sell chicks. She was out of town the weekend they hatch, so I ended up in charge. We had agreed to sell them straight run, but with a promise to buy back any roosters since we were selling to city people.

That turned out to be a true God-send. J. chose to abruptly leave the farm, cutting off all ties. Her chickens went, too. But meanwhile, I had placed a couple of orders for hatchery chicks that we wanted to raise, some broilers to butcher and some Whitings True Greens (WTG) to which we would breed her chocolate rooster. Suddenly I was raising 50 chicks by myself, in addition to everything else! A bit overwhelming, but the broilers would finish in 8 weeks and be gone, and I could always sell some of the WTGs.

Then customers called me to return roosters. J. wanted nothing to do with making good on our guarantee, so I took the money out of pocket to make good on the guarantee. Then I realized...R's breeding program had come full circle, and returned to the farm...and I had the chocolate roosters and green-egg-laying hens to carry on the plan that R and I had imagined long ago. Additionally, J. had sold some hatching eggs to my Mom some years back, and she had a rooster and two lovely hens out of that hatch.

So, I started hatching chicks, buying feed, and building chicken facilities, and here is where I am:

I have a breeding flock of what I am calling ChocoMint chickens descended from R's, J's, and Mom's flocks. Some are solid chocolate (light or dark); some are barred (light or dark), some are solid dark chocolate, some are white with chocolate filigree or Columbian markings. Some lay brown, some lay green...I'll be selecting for the green ones.

The ChocoMint flock will produce terminal sires for creating ChocoLinks...sex link hybrids with laying breeds to create chocolate hens that (hopefully) will lay green eggs. The chocolate color gene is passed on by the rooster, but his male chicks from non-chocolate hens will not be chocolate. Daughter chicks from non-chocolate hens will be chocolate...or at least have traces of chocolate. This allows the chicks' sex to be determined at hatching, non-invasively.

For the ChocoLink hybrids, I have a laying flock of 15 WTG hens that lay green eggs, and 6 Pearl White Leghorns that will lay white eggs. My first cohort of ChocoLink WTG hybrids should be laying sometime in May...I can barely wait!


2020 Hindsight

Just over a year ago, I started the new year by renewing my determination to keep a blog again. I wrote:

Facebook took a toll on my writing...along with a variety of distractions and general busy-ness in daily life. Now, in 2020, I hope to get back to less Facebook, more blogging.

Since my last posts, here are some of the significant changes, as well as continuities, at Pinwheel Farm.

Border Collie transition: Sookie left a couple years ago, and I adopted Daisy in spring of 2019. Daisy is a bundle of anxieties, erratic in her ability to pay attention and learn. On the other hand, she is sweet, gentle, and friendly with everyone, and she is VERY interested in sheep. Unfortunately, I can't do much herding training until she decides it's in her best interest to listen and learn. She's about 4 years old.

Livestock Guardian: Many years ago, I tried out a semi-retired Great Pyrenees, who turned out to not be a good fit for the farm. Then we had a llama, Freckleface, who was amazing. After his demise, I tried another llama who was aggressive with the sheep. Generally, we've done alright without a livestock guardian, but this spring I had the chance to see some great Great Pyrenees at work with a friend's flock that was scattered by the tornado, and then had a chance to purchase an LGD puppy from working parents on a friend's farm. Thus Luna became part of the farm...a small white bundle of fuzz at 8 weeks old, now a rangy 8 month old weighing over 70 lbs., with her back nearly at table top height when in the house. Daisy's most important contribution to the farm so far has been exercising and socializing this energetic puppy...a task that would have overwhelmed me if I had to do it myself.

Elder care: I have been traveling more and more to Manhattan, KS, to aid my parents as they "age in place." They are in good health and energetic for their advanced years, so a lot of what I do is groundskeeping and facilities maintenance on their 20 acres in the Flint Hills....

And then...I got distracted and never finished the post. I would have been busy preparing for my annual trip to Phillipsburg, KS, to the Shepherd's Mill to teach natural dye workshops at their annual fiber festival in early February, and to deliver fleeces. And J. moved to Lawrence to apprentice at the farm. And suddenly there was a pandemic, and everything changed.

So, it's January, and I'm going to try again.

J. is gone. Luna is gone. Daisy the Border Collie is gone, and Briar the Border Collie is on duty. I did not do Farmer's Market. Chickens happened, and continue. A year of solitude on the farm interspersed with trips to Manhattan has, in retrospect, been good for me, personally, and for the farm in practical ways, if not financially.

 

 

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Welcome, City Shepherds! P.S.

Last but not least, before getting an animal that needs shearing to be healthy and comfortable (angora goat or wool sheep), be sure you have a plan for having it sheared. You COULD do it yourself, but it is truly a challenge with a squirming animal (and the smaller they are the wigglier they are, it seems). It is horrible to nick your own animal by accident, and all too easy.

I will be making plans for City Shepherds to bring their sheep to the farm on our regularly scheduled Sheep Shearing Day Open House. They will be kept separate from my flock, and biosecurity measures will apply, but it will make life soooooo much easier for new shepherds. Our shearer can also give lessons at shearing day.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Welcome, City Shepherds!

The City of Lawrence just passed regulations allowing small ruminants (pygmy goats and sheep) to be kept within city limits! This is exciting news for livestock lovers with large lots!

But there's a down side. Goats and sheep are cute, but they ARE livestock, not pets. They aren't just dogs that eat hay.
 
Here are some words of wisdom from a livestock pro: First things first! Before you decide to get any kind of livestock, esp. sheep and goats, you need to have the following things really nailed down, not just "we'll figure it out when we get there".

1. Carcass disposal. Even if it's years in the future, you need to plan this BEFORE it happens, because you won't be in any shape to make decisions or track down options when it does. A rabbit or chicken isn't a big deal (chicken bones go in the trash all the time), but a goat or sheep in the garbage can in the middle of the summer is probably a bad, bad idea. Alternatives that work in the country probably won't work on a city lot.

2. Manure management. Everything poops (yes, dogs do, too). With livestock, this is a good thing IF you have a system set up before the manure starts rolling in.

3. Transportation. Don't just have the seller deliver your new livestock. If you don't have access to safe, humane transportation for it, don't bring it home. You may need to transport it to the vet in an emergency. Veterinary "farm calls" are an extra $100 or more on top of the cost of exam or treatment.

4. Veterinarian. Most Lawrence vets want nothing to do with small ruminants. Hopefully this will soon change, but unless it does, plan on taking your livestock to Eudora Animal Hospital, Pleasant Valley in Tonganoxie, or Baldwin. Many medications, esp. for sheep,  legally require a vet's oversight, even if you administer the medication to the animal yourself. That means establishing a relationship with an appropriate vet BEFORE there is a crisis.

5. First aid kit. Treatment tools, thermometer, basic treatments, bandages, wound treatments, etc. Figure this out with your vet. When crisis hits, you can handle it much better if you have the items you need at hand. Your vet, or an experienced livestock handler, can talk you through a lot on the phone.

6. Willingness to administer injections. Those vets are a long way away if your animal needs daily or twice-daily injections to treat an illness or injury. Also see #3.

7. Good fences, gates with good latches, animal shelters, AND animal-proof storage for hay, grain, etc. BEFORE the animal arrives. These need to be stronger than you can even imagine, because these animals like to rub (sheep) and climb (goats). Facilities must also include a small gated pen that can be used to catch and restrain the animal. They can run faster than you...even when they are almost dead.

8. Proper, humane restraints designed for sheep and goats. A collar and lead rope, at least. Also preferably a gambrel restrainer or cuff, for emergency restraint.

9. Feed suppliers. More than one source for the kind of feed you need, in case your usual supplier is out. Sometimes "out" means "until the next hay crop". There will inevitably be times when you can't just feed grass.

10. Back-up chore people. You generally can't take livestock for boarding, so you'll have to have someone come to your house while you are on vacation. Or out of town for work or funeral. Or when your entire family has the flu and can't crawl out to the sheep shed through a blizzard.

11. A lawn mower. Because there are kinds of grass your goat or sheep won't touch with a 10 foot pole.

12. Insemination. If you want to breed your sheep or goat so you can have babies and milk, be sure you have a deal with a stud owner in the country where you can take your gal for a honeymoon, or learn about AI for goats. Sheep pretty much have to be naturally bred. Bear in mind that many of us keep closed flocks, do not want other people's animals on our farm, and do not "loan out" our rams. Promiscuity can spread disease, right?

13. Backup source of colostrum and milk if you are breeding sheep or goats. Again, you won't have time or mental capacity to figure this out from scratch if your mom-critter doesn't have milk for her newborn. Colostrum must be given within 8 hours of birth.

14. A plan for male offspring. Please, please, please be real about this. If you want milk, you have to keep breeding goats or sheep every year, and you can't keep all the babies with limited space. Someone else will probably want your female animals, but most of your friends do not want non-productive animals unless they can take them for slaughter. Inevitably most male animals will be slaughtered. Don't breed if you don't want this to happen.
 
15. Learn about prey animal psychology. Sheep and goats are very, very different than dogs...they are more like horses. Studying up on low-stress livestock handling, Monty Roberts-style horse training, etc. will help you learn to interact calmly with your sheep and goats. Most people only know how to interact with dogs, using predator body language. If you interact with sheep and goats that way,  they'll panic, and you'll be frustrated.

NOW you're ready for the fun part--deciding which species, which breed, which farm, which animal, and what to name it!

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Still Here

Yes, Pinwheel Farm, the sheep, Sookie, the chickens, and the whole rest of the Community of Life are still here. Facebook has been a powerful distraction, as has simply survival. Send a friend request to "Natalya Pinwheel Lowther" and like "Pinwheel Farm" if you want to keep up to date with farm events and products available.

It was also actually still here at the farm this morning...and quiet...unusual these past few years. Not just a stillness of wind and an absence of people coming and going at the farm, but also a blessed absence of the "new normal" background noise of diesel engines idling, large trucks sounding their horns, and earth-moving equipment alarms constantly chiming as they roar around pulverizing soil and trees at the neighbor's place.

The past several years have been a frustrating ongoing effort to get the county to enforce applicable codes...doubly frustrating, because of my own long history of being subjected to non-existant codes and falsified complaints. The recently intensified flurry of earthmoving and construction next door seems to be, finally, some progress towards compliance with codes and away from the junkyard it had become. (Quadruply frustrating, because I'm poised to begin working with the FOURTH Zoning and Codes administrator since the situation next door began to escalate, and since this is an interim Administrator, there is a fifth in my not-so-distant future.)

Anyhow.

I took advantage of the perfect day--peaceful, still, quiet, overcast, pleasant fall temperature--to sort out sheep for breeding groups. This will give us lambs just before and during sheep shearing* in the spring...a bit earlier than usual, hoping to clear the calendar later in March and April for more timely intensive spring planting. (*Third Saturday in March every year...Open Farm Day...Like Pinwheel Farm on FB for information as the date nears.)

It was great having a constant stream of WWOOFers here from June until a couple weeks ago. We were able to "work sheep" (run them through the handling system** and record weights) every week or two, something that hasn't happened in a couple years due to lack of volunteers. One of the lasting benefits now that everyone is gone is that the sheep are well trained to the chute, so I can easily work them solo. Which I did this morning...more than once. (**You can click over to Pinwheel Farm's album on Facebook to see photos and notes on the handling system.)

Just so all you non-livestock-farmers can appreciate what goes into your lamb chops and mittens, and so you wanna-be-livestock-farmers can have a glimpse of what you're getting yourselves into, here's the morning's drill:

1. Realize that the older ram, Wesley, has jumped the electric fence out on pasture to get closer to the ewes.

2. Ewes loafing in the barnyard decide to explore the loading ramp, and push open the gate at the top (gate at the bottom was left unlatched and open, and top gate left closed but unlatched, when I loaded market lambs last Wed. Note to self...don't do that!) while I'm doing chicken chores. Suddenly they are all in the garden. (Must have been a lovely waterfall of fat wooly sheep cascading off the upper end of the ramp...I'll have to stage that sometime and take a video.)

3. Round up ewes with novice working dog (sometimes helpful, sometimes unhelpful, always eager) and get them into an unused paddock near the garden.

4. Let them graze there long enough that their tummies are full and they are willing to leave.

5. Run them up to the barn and into the crowding pen for the chute.

6. Start weighing sheep in the chute.

7. Realize that the list of which ewe goes with which ram is still in the house. Hope sheep stay in chute while running to house for list. (They do.)

8. Mentally run through the whole Rubick's Cube puzzle of how to organize the sorting and moving so that the groups can be joined as needed and moved to the right places on the farm without mixing. (Another sort pen would be really handy, sometimes.)

9. Sort out Wesley's ewes into the side holding pen while weighing all ewes and trying to evaluate which white ewe lamb to keep (the black one's a no-brainer--she's close to my end breeding goal for perfect fleece). Oops, two of Wesley's ewes end up with Quincy's ewes and the market lambs because I'm distracted by doing too many things at once.

10. Run Quincy's ewes and the market lambs back into the crowding pen and through the chute again to sort out the other two Wesley ewes.

11. Run Quincy's ewes and the market lambs back into the crowding pen. Open gate between main holding pen and "buffer zone" between the holding pen and the crowding pen. (Don't usually use this buffer zone for holding animals, but without another sort pen it's the only solution for this puzzle.)

12. Run Quincy and the ram lambs over from the other side of the farm and shut them in the buffer zone. (Handy that Wesley has trapped himself in the pasture and can't join them...saves a couple steps in the whole process.)

13. Run Wesley's ewes to the other side of the farm where Quincy and the ram lambs were. (The grass is greener over there, so no problem.)

14. Walk out to the pasture and take down the fence that Wesley jumped. Follow Wesley as he walks up to join the ewes, and observe who's going to lamb in exactly 5 months (April will lamb in March).

15. Back to the barn. Manually separate Quincy from the market lambs and put him in the main holding pen.

16. Run the ewes through the chute to join Quincy, sorting the white ewe lambs out into the sort pen for a final evaluation. (One of them will be kept as a replacement ewe.)

17. Realize that I've been miscounting ewe lambs, and actually have one more than I thought. Which means one more than I have scheduled for processing. Which means either keeping an extra one for breeding, or selling one on the hoof. (Don't need to decide that now.)

18. Watch ewe lambs for awhile: compare weights; look at hoof color; ear/skin/face/leg color; tail mobility, wooliness, and length; wool density, length, texture, and character; wool cover pattern (clean face, legs, belly), overall conformation and behavior. (Sometimes I consider who the dam is, but in this case I'm just looking at the lambs. Whoever the dam is, she will get extra "points" for having her lamb selected, rather than the lambs getting extra points for having a particular dam.)

19. Choose two, actually the smaller ones. Judging by ear tag numbers, they are some of the youngest, they were sired by Wesley, and they have the silkiest and densest fleeces plus some dark skin on their faces which indicates some colored genetics lurking in there under Wesley's whiteness. Put them in with Quincy and his ewes.

20. Run Quincy and his ewes out to their side of the pasture and close the gate. Hope that Quincy and Wesley will both be content with their own ewes and not figure out how to jump into the main lane that serves as a buffer between the groups, which would probably lead to fighting through the fence and maybe jumping the other fence and getting into the same pasture which would lead to a lot of fighting and general mayhem. (Wesley--older, bolder, wiser, and larger--is on the side with the strongest, highest fence.)

21. Since I'm out there, take a side trip to evaluate the pasture they've been grazing down in the far west, along the drainage ditch. They've done a great job on poison ivy and other weeds. (Need to rearrange fences so Quincy's group can clear out some other areas before frost. That will also give more separation from Wesley.)

22. Spend awhile watching a mixed flock of small birds catching bugs in the big elm trees. Junco, tufted titmouse, and apparently several species of warblers in fall plumage--hard to identify, esp. as they move quickly and appear mostly silhouettes against the gray sky. (Good reminder that what I've done with this land DOES make a big difference for wildlife...esp. now that the neighbors are bulldozing most of the thickets and trees on their property, destroying a lot of wildlife habitat.)

23. Notice that the neighbors who are doing the earth moving have set up a situation where if we get a heavy rain, a lot of silt will flood over my pasture. (Mental note to follow up on this with appropriate agencies to ensure that adequate sediment control is in place to prevent erosion/siltation).

24. Notice that the other neighbors have set up their horse fences so that the horses are walking up and down a fence line at the top of the bank of the drainage ditch, which could lead to severe erosion and sedimentation of the publicly managed ditch that drains most of the county north of here. (Mental note to do some education with neighbors and follow up with Drainage District. I'm not a busy-body; this ditch is vital to the whole area, and my pasture is one of the places the water first backs up into if the ditch doesn't function as designed.)

25. Check fences. (This area has been subject to several incidents of people vandalizing perimeter fences over the past few years, rendering parts of my pasture unusable at times.)

26. Head back towards the barn to put the market lambs in their new pasture. Oops, here they are! How did they get out of the barn? (Turns out the heavy gate to the sort pen was unlatched, and they eventually pushed it open.)

27. Round up the market lambs and put them in their pasture.

28. Back to the barn to check that there's mineral in the mineral feeder, check all gates, etc.

29. Mental checklist to be sure that all groups have access to water and are well separated by "hard" (not electric) fences.

30. Gather up weigh sheet and breeding group notes and head to the house. (I'll compare weights to last week's and calculate gains/losses later.)

31. BONUS! Discover that there has been an egg in my sweatshirt pocket ever since I chased the ewes out of the garden, AND IT HASN'T BROKEN! A testimony to good handling equipment, trained sheep, and a (somewhat) trained working dog...not to mention a lot of experience and understanding of sheep psychology and behavior. And patience. Especially notable since some days I can't even seem to walk from the coop to the house with a pocketed egg without an "eggsident".

If this all sounds like a fun, exciting morning, just give me a call. We can arrange a "play date" at the farm sometime soon...like when I need to weigh all three groups again in a week or two.


Saturday, September 28, 2013

Market Research

About 8 years ago, I started an experiment at my Farmer's Market booth. When I settled on my current popular salad green/herb display--"mix 'n' match, $10/lb., as little or as much as you want, take what you like and leave the rest"--I soon realized that often folks just wanted a few herbs, which didn't even register on the scale. So I started the "$1.00 for a small bag, whatever herbs you want to put in it."

It's been very popular, and enlightening as well. People love not having to buy more than they will use, and being able to get just the fresh herbs they need for the recipe du jour. They love not being forced to waste food. Often they are happier with one fragrant sprig than they would be with a larger package, because they don't want to waste.

There are also always a few who make their pesto (because this usually happens during basil season) in the small bag, cramming in the tender herbs until the juices run. I don't weigh the bags, but I'm sure I've seen $3 worth (by weight) of herbs in a $1 bag.

And then there are the "regulars" who put twice their usual amount of herbs in the bag, and give me $2, even though they are still only getting a few snippets of this and that. Even though I still smile and say, "That'll be $1." They know what it's worth to them. It's twice their usual.

From time to time, someone new to my booth comments on my little experiment. "Don't people take advantage of that?" No, not really. For every pesto-maker, there are many sprig-takers. It all averages out...and overall, I make more money on the herbs this way that if I sold them by weight or by pre-measured bunches.

It's a good deal for everyone...people get what they want, they essentially choose their price, they take only what they can use, and I don't have to pre-weigh/pre-bag/label/etc.

***
Green onions are another long-time experiment. It used to be, there just wasn't much demand for them. I bunched them in rubber bands like the store, and then took them home and took off the rubber bands to throw them in the compost (before Just Food). Eventually I got frustrated with the wasted effort and just laid them on the table in loose bunches. Figuring out how big to make bunches of anything can be a pain in the neck when the items vary in size both within the day's offering and from week to week. Every bunch required at least some small mental activity to decide what was in that particular bunch.

One day I didn't separate them into bunches. "You get to pick your own bunch," I told the customers. "How big is a bunch?"they asked. "You know how big a bunch of green onions is...like in the store," I replied. "No, I don't." "Yes, you do" I would laugh and smile. And timidly, they would start picking up onions, looking at me for cues after the first few. "How many is in a bunch?" they would ask, hoping I would relent and spare them the responsibility. "It depends on what size they are. You might want all big ones, all small ones or some of each." I would smile and repeat myself. "You know how big a bunch of green onions is." And by golly, they would almost always pick out exactly a bunch of green onions.

This was, in part, about getting customers involved in the process of vegetables, the post-harvest handling that for conventional grocery-store veggies is often done by migrant workers living and working in grueling conditions. It was also about building self-confidence, about showing people they know something that they didn't think they knew.

Sometimes people needed a little more guidance. "It's enough that you feel like you're getting a good deal, and not so much that you feel like you're cheating me," I would tell the still-skeptical.

There are, of course, outliers in the range of green-onion-purchasers. These fall into a couple categories. One is people who don't normally shop who have been sent to Farmer's Market with lists. It's pretty easy to tell from the deer-in-the-headlights look that they truly do not know how big a bunch of green onions is. They aren't even quite sure if they know what green onions are. I demonstrate, teaching them gently for next time. Another is people from other cultures where informal direct sales venues like our Farmer's Market are common, and haggling over prices is the norm. They are inclined to make somewhat larger bunches, and then keep adding to them. I don't argue. It's just a few onions.

As with the $1 herb bags, there are also those who won't use a whole bunch. So I sell half bunches for half price. But sometimes, people don't even want half a bunch. They hold up one or two onions. "Whatever it's worth to you," I say. Often they give me the half-bunch price. It's worth it to them to not have to waste the rest of the half-bunch. And it's worth it to have the one green onion.

***
This year, for the first time, I planted a row of okra. For some yet-undiagnosed reason, the plants are suddenly dying, one by one. Harvest is slim, but more than I need for home use. So I take a small bag to market each week.

Today, a customer picked out the choicest small ones that she wanted. "How much?" "What's it worth to you?" I asked. "How about a dollar?" "That's fine." She paid and went away happy. Not long after, another customer looked at the remaining okra, about the same amount but coarser pods. "How much?" "What's it worth to you?" "How about a dollar?" "OK" The  customer handed me a dollar...and then handed me another one. "No, two dollars!" And walked away happy.

A little later, a customer and I discussed a small purchase while I was packing up. "A dollar or whatever," I said. She handed me a $5 bill. I went to make change. "No, keep it," she said.

***
A few weeks ago, a FaceBook (and long-time face-to-face) friend posted an angry comment about the high price of fresh food. She took stores to task for overcharging consumers...but also held Farmer's Market vendors accountable for charging high prices. When I responded with comments about small farmers' costs of production, and how artificially low our US food prices really are, she got angry with me. It was sad, because I'd long thought of this person as a friend and ally, and someone who (as a high-end food service professional) truly values food.

I challenged myself to reflect on whether there might be some truth to her accusation. I survey prices from other vendors, from the stores, and consider my production costs and quality differences when I price my produce. Are my prices were ridiculously high? Am I helping fuel inflation?

My market research says that for many people, my prices are just fine. And left to their own devices, my customers often would pay more than my set price.

In my friend's defense, we're both old enough to remember when gas was $.25/gallon and tomatoes were $.25/lb. (If you stop and think about it, the price of high-quality tomatoes in the store is often right about the same as a gallon of gas. Go figure. I'll take the tomato any day!) So yes, there has been a lot of inflation as the decades add up. But in the case of Farmer's Market prices, it seems to be a mutually agreeable situation.