Finishing strong

[sigh] Last weekend was our last appearance at the Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market for 2011. This year's growing season for ended for good when our first hard freeze turned all the dahlias black from top to bottom.


This year was a first for us as vendor at the DSM Farmers Market. In the past we've always gone as one of the many thousands who patter up and down Court Ave., 3rd, 4th, and 5th Streets on Saturday mornings, sampling this and buying a bit of that.

I can't remember what the key motivator was that prompted us to send in an application for booth space and actually give this a try. However, when you have a yard filled with amazing blooms like this one below, it seems a shame to not share them and let others enjoy their stunning beauty too.

The past several weekends this fall started with Jamie filling the back of the van to overflowing with a carpet of blooms in all sizes and colors.

Then I got to help unload these blooms with the rest of our gear in the wee hours of each Saturday morning. We popped up the tent, lined the table with buckets filled with blooms, and got psyched for a busy morning of hustling on our feet helping assemble bouquets and answer multitudes of questions.

The last step to getting ready for the morning was a trip around the corner to Java Joes for a piping hot cup of coffee, cocoa, or tea to warm fingers and help us wake up and recharge for the busy day ahead.

Watching dawn creep in was never the same. Each Saturday sunrise has been a whole new experience.

When the clock in the tower of the Polk County Court House chimed seven AM the Farmers Market was officially open.

Each morning, all morning long we head comments like, "Wow! I've never seen flowers that big before," and "Look at all the colors!"

I can't remember how many times we answered questions like, "What are these? Are they all dahlias?" And we answered countless times, "Yes - they are."

It was always refreshing when the dahlia paparazzi paused a moment to ask if they could take photos of the blooms before clicking their camera shutters into a frenzy of photo-taking.

We finished our last day at the FM with a late lunch at a nice restaurant to celebrate another successful outing and to thank our friends and family for much-appreciated their help.



My beloved has started digging tubers and corms already and soon they'll be packed safely away for spring. In the meantime, we're looking ahead to repeating all this again next year and looking for early risers who may want to hang out at the Farmers' Market with us on some Saturday mornings next fall.