Opening Day at the Lane County Farmer's Market

Today marked the official "opening" of the Lane County Farmer's Market for the year. In actuality, the Market has been running all Winter but not on a weekly basis. Today starts its weekly run, in conjunction with the Saturday crafts market too. The weather began with promise. The skies were mostly blue, but it was a chilly 48 degrees. While we had some breakfast there, a quick shower came through. And right as we got in our car to leave, a downpour commenced. Typical April weather in Oregon! I was pleased to see how many people came out to support the Market on opening day. The stalls were filled with shoppers. As expected, cold weather crops were the stars. Early greens, such as Bok Choy, Salad Mixes, and small Cabbage, were common.

I loved this technicolor display of "Rainbow" Swiss Chard.

An enormous pile of "French Breakfast" Radishes.

There were also lots of vegetable and flower starts for sale. I had to laugh at all the optimistic Oregon gardeners who were enthusiastically buying tomato plants. It is still a good 45 days before our last frost free date here but it is hard not to get seduced by all of the beautiful starts. I did spend some time at the Hayhurst Organics booth, pictured above. This is were I picked up my onion seedlings last year. I was pleased to see they had some nice options again for this year. I was tempted to buy today, but I need to get my vegetable bed next to the house cleaned up and prepared before I do any purchasing.

It was also fun to stop at the Raintree Nursery booth and look at all of their fruit trees. They were having an end of season "blow-out" sale and you could buy any tree for $12. I was very tempted, but held back. I do think a few apple trees are in my future, perhaps next Winter.

There were also a great selection of flowers for sale at the Market. The bouquets of Narcissus, pictured above, smelled absolutely amazing. Only a cat with allergies stopped me from taking some home!

These colorful potted Hyacinth smelled wonderful too!



After returning home, I spent most of the rest of the afternoon continuing to sort through my dahlia tubers. As you can see, these four tubers of "Emily C" have definitely awaken for the year . I hope to begin potting  them up sometime around Mother's Day weekend.