Farmer's Market

The summer is winding up, but the harvest season is in full swing. The farmer's markets where I sell, are brimming with great produce. My favorite market is in Beloit, Wisconsin on Saturday mornings. When I can, I get away from my booth and wander the three main aisles of the Y-shaped market. My booth is in the parking lot, or the tail of the Y.
In the other sections are produce vendors and crafts people from all over the stateline area. I wandered around this last Saturday, and admired the huge variety of great food and items for sale.
On the intersection of the Y, there is music each week. Last week a harpist played.

My booth is fairly close to the raised music platform, and I get to hear the selections really well. Since the set is so long, (9 am to 12 pm) most of the musicians have repeated some of their selections.
 For some reason nearly every musician has played Eleanor Rigby.  The only ones that didn't play it were a jazz quartet. Eleanor Rigby has  become an in-joke in our area, with groans and laughs each time it is played.

Apples are just starting, and so are pears. Zucchini are everywhere. Tomatoes are at their peak, and sweet corn is almost done. Watermelons and cantalope are just getting good, and last week I saw a few pumpkins. One vendor even had some delicata squash already! Many produce vendors are also selling their beets and other root crops now. like a second crop of carrots, and the slow growing turnips.

As the days get cooler, broccoli will appear in the market again, and in October there will be greens again, pumpkins and brussels sprouts.

The farmer's markets have been a great ending to each of my summer's weeks. They allow me to get out and see people, and buy the produce I can't grow. I just love them!

Happy Solstice Giveaway!

Happy Litha!

For this Solstice, I am giving away a soap dish from my latest kiln load, one made from folded clay slabs. Also, you could win a set of three witch hats. 

If you would like to win either of these, just leave a comment saying which you would like to win (or both if you want to be in the running for both of them!) along with how I can contact you (your etsy name, twitter, facebook, or something!).

Feel free to link to your shop or blog, if you have one.

Comments will be open until Midnight, June 24 (Sunday night). Then I will choose two comments at random on Monday to win them. Its that easy!

And while you are out and about, please check out my shop on Etsy, antb.etsy.com and SecondChanceCeramics on Etsy too. 

So, get to commenting, and HAPPY Solstice!

Windowsill Planters

A couple years ago, I was introduced to Global Buckets, and experimented with making my own from found objects. It was a great way to extend my food planting out of my garden.  I ended up giving away several that I started to interested neighbors.  I also made a few pots that had reservoirs and wicking systems but they were so labor intensive that I never even tried to sell one. They also were as heavy as heck.

Then last winter I read about Window Farms for the first time. I was fascinated.  If you don't know what window farms are, check out this blog post. I looked at my windows in a whole new way!  I started putting little potted plants with edibles in every sunny window that could hold them.  The problem was that most of my window sills could only hold the smallest pots because of the way they were shaped, and the smallest pots didn't work well for many edible plants.


I started playing with pot shapes that would work well for windows and yet were deep enough for herbs and  dwarf vegetables. I came up with a bag-like pot, made from thin slabs of stoneware clay, that was quite deep for its size. I planted the first ones I made, and they worked well.  Mache', summer savory, malabar spinach, chamomile, mint, chives, spinach, nasturtiums, basil and most other herbs, and even a strawberry plant all work well in these.

They hold moisture fairly well, probably since the top opening is small.

Watering them is easiest if I use an ice cream bucket that is 2/3's full of water mixed with organic fertilizer. Just put the little pots in and let them sit for a second or two, and hold them over the bucket until they stop dripping.  Then put the lid on the remaining water/fertilizer solution for the next watering.

If I lightly fertilize with each watering, my herbs grow very well in a sunny window, and they don't mind being cut back hard and often.

I am using all of my first batch of pots, but I just pulled a few more out of the kiln. So, if you want to buy one, please look in my shop. They each come with a simple little drip catcher.
I will be listing some over the next couple of days.
 Thanks!

Amazeballs and CF4L!

This week, in my SecondChanceCeramics shop on Etsy, I was asked by April Winchell, the creator of the Regretsy blog to do a special order.

She liked it, and posted a photo of it on her Member's Only site.

(To get in, the password is cf4l )

Since then my shop traffic is through the roof in both AntB on Etsy and SecondChanceCeramics.

AND, I was offered to try out for a feature in a European magazine, and have been offered some features on other blogs.

WOW!

So a big shout out THANK YOU to April, aka Helen Killer, and to all the Fat Jealous Losers who have been stopping by my shops!

:)