The Farmers’ Market Summer Equinox Blues

The Farmers’ Market Summer Equinox Blues

What is this you ask? This little known experience is common to all market growers. I am not sure what the syndrome is called. I am sure it is the end of summer, common experience for grower friends.

It is made evident by the strained tone coming from the stalls of married growers as they negotiate the Framers’ Market set up. Normally generous and kind spouses get short. They remind me of friends with their second child and are sleep deprived.

 

Eddie and Linda Negotiate Set Up

Our movements are stiffer and we are slower moving than the spring market. With the exception of pumpkins and fall ornamentals there are few new crops to show.

We can see the end of market season from here but it is still quite a ways off. You find yourself skimping on the yoga. You up the analgesics and while trying to judge if you need to add another bottle to your “things to buy in town list”. I find myself lingering over my morning coffee break.

The thing that gets me over it is light. The shadows lengthen and the sun drops toward the south the quality of the light begins to change. The softening of the evening and morning is accompanied with cooler air.

I find a nice place to sit with Dixie in the fading light of the day. We settle still and quiet. The sounds of the woods and fields slowly build around us. We are swallowed in a crescendo of night sound.

Dixie Listening 

Insects sing their last burst of summer energy. The bird sounds move away from mating songs. The goats clunk around in the shed as they settle down. The occasional burr oak acorn or black walnut slaps to the ground.

Dixie and I ride this out till we can see little on the ground and the stars sweep across the sky. I notice that I have not been bitten by a mosquito all evening and the air is absolutely comfortable. So much so that my clothing is superfluous.

Fall Blackbird Move House

I rise and tap my leg to call Dixie to me. As I turn to the house my back is still stiff but now I can feel the end of the market and a break in the routine is close.