Today was Green Market #3 for us. And it was a great success! We had a record 13 vendors (haha, woohoo!) and sold a ton. I decided to bring my canned pear recipes (roasted pear chutney, cranberry pear chutney, cranberry pear relish, pear ginger marmalade and pear butter infused w/vanilla bean & rosemary) to see if there was any interest. And there was. My original plan was to make recipes we would like to eat or give to friends and family for gifts. Only one problem with that plan, we sold every single jar (28 total). Well, we did barter the last 4 jars of marmalade (for salsa, homemade soap, lavender honey and a goat cheese tart), but as far as I’m concerned it still counts. Not bad for hanging around downtown for 3 hours (if you subtract the 4 bartered, that’s 6 sold jars per hour; 1 sold jar every 10 minutes for those of you who were wondering). So I’m very happy with the results, but now I have to get cooking again.
The next market is mid-October. I still have some Bartlett pears left which is what I used for these recipes, but not many. We have a ton of some kind of asian pear, but I’ve yet to test them in the recipes. They’re not as sweet and a little coarser whereas the Bartletts are sweet and soft. I think they’ll do fine in the “cooked” recipes, but I’m not sure about the raw relish. I guess I’ll find out soon enough.
So my plan is to make more of the cranberry pear concoctions for the upcoming holidays. People really like the idea of anything with cranberries for the holidays. Festive and somewhat traditional I suppose. The other big seller was the Pear Butter (my personal favorite). Although I guess they were all big sellers since they all sold out!
I’m also going to try and incorporate some of our pomegranates. They’re not quite ripe yet, but they still taste good to me. And if I don’t do something with them now, they’ll all rot on the tree. We get too much rain during the last part of their ripening and the fruit ends of splitting. Last year, we kept waiting and waiting and they kept rotting and rotting. So sad. I think if I use them in a recipe, it should be fine even if they’re not quite ripe yet (they’re so close). I know somebody sent me a recipe for pomegranate dressing. I’ll have to search for others. Pomegranate would be a nice addition to the upcoming holiday line (haha).
I think it was Stephanie who had an awesome dressing. I made it last year, here in South FL when pompegranates where on sale for 2 for $5. It was so yummy. Not like any of the store-kind, which has no seeds (so yummy) and not much of the natural flavor. Now on the other issue of pears, how rewarding that your recipes are so popular at the Green Market. Although as one who thought she would be at the receiving end of the goodies, well -
Hey — I just found your weekly update…obviously I’m a little slow. These are great!!!
I’m impressed with your canning and business acumen! Not to mention learning how to cultivate and reap your harvests.Keeping a notebook to record what happens when is the only to keep up with everything going on. Keep up the good work.
–Brenda
PS I liked A long way down too. I listened to the books on CD version. Right now I’m reading The Swamp — everglades 201.