Baking for the Market

Well, I decided to continue my quest in finding the perfect items for the Farmer's Market! I baked some Cherry Almond Muffins-- I know-- sounds like heaven, but unfortunately, it totally bombed! :( They taste good, but they raised on the ends and sunk in the middle, they did not cook all the way through, and the sides continued to rise and move outward. I have never experienced such a complete flop before. Oh well! Throw that recipe away! :)

The next thing I tried was croissants, both chocolate and almond. Oh my goodness they are wonderful! I took them into the office where I had several different people try them. One said, Excellent, another said, I give them an A! I was very happy with the way they turned out. With my first batch, the appearance was not that great, but they did taste and smell like real croissants. My second attempt I was able to get the appearance to match the taste. I put out some samples tonight and that really helped in selling them! I had 9 packages and I sold them all! (Each package had either 4 or 6 croissants in them.)

Here are some pictures of the croissants.
The recipe called for Almond Paste and Pain au Chocolat. I ended up making the Almond Paste from scratch. A small can of it at the store was over $5! So, I figured, I could make it for a lot less than that. And it turned out pretty well.

I was explaining to a customer how I made the croissants and that I made the Almond Paste from scratch and she smiled and me and said, "You know you can buy that in the store!" And I laughed and said, "Well it was cheaper for me to make it and I'd rather not buy what I can make."

Another customer came to the table and looked at some of the ingredients in my cranberry orange bread and said, "I see you've listed that there is real butter in here, is it really butter or did you use margarine?" And I smiled and said, "It's real butter, I don't like to bake with margarine." And he smiled back and said, "I think you just made a sale!" :) He ended up purchasing the croissants.

Here are a few pictures of the croissants before they went back in the oven.

The Chocolate au Pain was hard to find--so in lieu of that--I just used semi-sweet chocolate chips and actually I really like it. So, I am going to continue with that.


Here is a picture after they came out of the oven! Some of the Almond Paste drizzled out of the croissant and baked on the pan--which made a nice little sugar treat for me! :)

I have been bringing homemade soft pretzels to market and they have become quite popular~here are some pictures of them!


Here are a couple of pictures showing the different kinds~ I have salt, sesame seed and cinnamon/sugar!

Another new item that I attempted was Focaccia bread! The recipe had cheddar cheese in the dough-- and I topped it with olive oil, Oregano, Rosemary, Ground Peppers, Parmesan Cheese, Roma Tomatoes (from the garden!), and a little bit of Mozzarella Cheese! I made the crusts fairly thin--so they were crunchy on the edges.

They were 10" in diameter -- so like a small pizza. They were very popular! I sold out of the four I had made in the first 15 minutes of market!


I decided that I would attempt to sell some more pies this week! Here are some pictures of my Strawberry-Rhubarb Pies! I had two of them-- and I even had someone come up to the table looking for a rhubarb pie, how fortuitous! I hope it was delicious!





I'm having a lot of fun attending the markets and it's even more enjoyable when the customers enjoy my food! :) I have been setting out more samples of things that I'm making and that has made a lot of difference in my selling strategy. Right now, I only attend the market on Thursdays. The Monday night markets seem to be dominated by a bakery that brings 2 - 10' tables full of different items. It's hard to compete with that.

A customer told me that I should come back on Mondays because the bakery that overpowers the market doesn't have what I have... but I don't know. People seem to go to them and not look anywhere else on Mondays. I was heartbroken when I made a table full of food and was unable to sell much of it. It takes a lot of time and preparation to go to market--so I'd rather go when I have the best chance of selling everything~or at least much of it!

Tomato Blight and Blossom End Rot

Tomato Blight and Blossom End Rot... better to be proactive than reactive. Unfortunately, I was the latter. :( My garden has been hit with Early Blight. There is a difference between Early Blight and Late Blight. With Early Blight, you can still hope to salvage your garden.

Early Blight has small round, brownish circles, encased in a halo of yellow. Early Blight is also similar to Septoria Leaf Spot. (http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/A2606.PDF) Late Blight takes the leaves by storm, turning them brown and wilting quickly. You can lose a garden within 3 days to Late Blight. This season has been ideal for both--the rainy wet days, turning humidly hot (90's) and having damp evenings. Blight is fungus. I should have prepared better especially once I noticed mushrooms growing in my yard. The environment was perfect for blight.

You can treat your garden with anti-fungus products and you can prevent your garden from producing the spores that are blight. BUT--once it's started to grow, there is little hope of killing it before it destroys your entire crop of tomatoes and potatoes.

Here are some images of stems that I cut off of my tomato plants.


Remove all of the bottom stems that touch the ground, and remove anything that has a touch of the blight on them.

When you are removing the damaged foliage from the garden, try not to touch any other plants or leaves of the same plant, it can be transferred VERY easily!!! Early Blight can settle into your soil if you don't take precautions (and it may already be too late). Once it is settled into your soil, your garden is now contaminated. That is a depressing thought--the fungus can overwinter in your garden soil and begin its killing spree the following season in your garden. Even the tomato cages you put around your plants are now contaminated. I would recommend wiping them down with a disinfecting cloth before you store them for the winter. Also, clean all of the garden utensils with bleach/water mixture. You really can't be too careful.

A little preventative care can save you a lot of heartache later.


I plan to purchase some anti-fungus spray/powder/ bomb! Whatever it takes! And I hope that I can still salvage my plants. Blight should not effect anything but tomatoes and potatoes. Remember the Great Potato Famine in Ireland? Late Blight is what took their crops. Late Blight is a beast of its very own. Early Blight--you can hold some hope--Late Blight, however, there is nothing you can do. You will lose your garden :( It's just a matter of time. And your soil is ruined..etc. It's highly recommended if you have Late Blight to simply pull every plant that is contaminated and hope that you can save the others. Late Blight can travel on the wind--that is why it is such a damaging disease of these plants.

I have also experienced Blossom End Rot on some of my tomatoes. Here is a picture of a couple of my Roma Tomatoes with BER.

BER is fixable! I would recommend pulling all of the tomatoes that show signs of BER. Your best bet is to have your plant put all of its energy into making new blossoms--instead of trying to grow these damaged tomatoes to term. BER is a sign that your garden is low on Calcium. You can put Calcium back into the soil easily! Ready? Eat a few eggs in the morning and save the shells! The shells are loaded with Calcium. Make sure you wash them really well and crush them into very fine particles. (You can put whole shells out there but it will take a long time for the soil to break them down.)

Mix the egg particles into the top soil. The best time to do this is before or as you notice that
blossoms are starting to form. The development of blossoms pulls Calcium from the soil...and once they are developed--it's too late. That's why you should pull the tomatoes that are already showing BER. There is nothing you can do to save it. But you Can help the soil mend itself by adding in some Calcium, removing the damaged tomatoes, and by allowing the plant to develop new blossoms that have plenty of Calcium for creating healthy tomatoes!

Besides BER--there is also such a thing as damaged blossoms. When a blossom is developing, if it gets bumped, crushed, damaged in some way, it will/can effect how the vegetable/fruit looks once it is formed!

Here is an image of an interesting looking cucumber!
But we don't discriminate at ARohlk Farm ;-) He gets to come into the house with the rest of his friends.

Gardens are not as easy to grow as one might think. You have to pay attention to the signs that your garden is giving you and try and stay on top of its needs...because they have plenty! If you love to garden, it will show in its production. Your garden is only as good as the gardner's passion for growing it!

I think back on when I was little and the garden that my mother was able to produce. I wish I had images to show you because there are no words for the effort and production she was able to yield. Amazing, really. Imagine a nicely sized backyard in your hometown. Think about a tree, a swing-set etc. a nicely sized yard... and now think of this area covered in garden growth! THAT is what my mother was able to produce! Can you imagine!? I'm scrambling to save my tiny little plot--I can't imagine how she did it. I can only hope that some of that talent was passed down to me :)

Japanese Beetles and Cucumber Beetles

I went out to my garden last night and noticed some bright yellow--beetle looking bugs--with black dots on its back. I looked it up online and I think it's a cucumber beetle. I haven't noticed them on my cucumbers (crossing my fingers) but they are on my zucchini plant. I have read mixed reviews on the bug--some say it destroyed their garden--some say they never really touched anything. I'm not sure what the result of my garden will be, however, I did notice a bloom fell off of the plant--there is a picture of it below. The yellow bug is in the dirt beside it but I couldn't get a clear shot of him because they move so fast.

The rest of the garden seems to be doing well! Here are some pictures of my tomatoes.

The other pest in my yard is the Japanese Beetle. They have devoured one of my ornamental trees--to the point where I will need to dig it up and plant something else. This year they have headed for my roses and my Basil plants. I did spray the plants and as you can see in the picture below, there are hundreds of them dead in the dirt below. I had added more soil just a few days ago, covering up a layer of these bugs--this layer of bugs is only a few days old. Can you imagine how many are actually around?
Our entire neighborhood is struck every year by this beetle. Some neighbors put out beetle bags, which has an aroma to it that attracts the beetle and pulls it away from the plant. However, some believe that the bags themselves call the beetles to the neighborhood. I tried the bags last year, and they would fill full every week. Imagine a plastic bag from Walmart being filled with Japanese Beetles every week--that's how bad the situation is in our area. :( Spray does deter them--does kill them--however I hate to use it. I hate to use it because it can also deter the insects I want and need in my yard--like bees! I love my bees! :(

I have planted some bush beans in a pot, however, I have read that the Japanese Beetle is a major lover of them! So, I still have the beans in the house--I'm scared to put them out there to fend for themselves against this six legged garden destroyer.

Here is a picture of my rose bush after a weekend of being allowed to eat all they could.

I picked up some spray shortly after I noticed them in the yard--the roses have begun to bounce back--however I fear the Basil has been lost to them. I'm hoping that I can, at the very least, keep the beetles at a distance so that I don't lose more of my yard to them.

New Craft Ideas!

Here are some new craft ideas... as you can see... the tags are still on the items! I am hoping to get some of these done for the Farmer's Market next week. These will be a little bit higher in price because the cost to produce them is more...but hopefully people will still fall in love with them!

Here is a picture of a birdhouse that I painted cream and the roof hunter green with some textured paint added. The bird picks up the green really well in his wing. This project will be like the one in a previous post, where the birdhouse gets put on a dowel and then glued into a base. I think for this one, I'm going to cut the dowel a bit shorter so that the berries and leaves can cascade up and around the birdhouse.



Here is another color scheme of the same project described above. This birdhouse was painted cream and then I used green textured paint over the entire thing. This project will also have a base and a dowel to connect it to the birdhouse.




This is a picture of a grapevine wreath with harvest colors and fruit. There are apples on there now and I'm going to add some pears and more leaves. Right now I have the bird sitting in a nest, but I haven't decided if I'll keep that yet or not.


I really like the look of this wreath. The vines that point outward really give it a unique look. This is going to be another harvest wreath. I plan to put harvest colored flowers, leaves and gourds (closer to the middle then what is displayed) of the wreath.

This one is probably going to end up being one of my favorites! I love this little owl!!! And he really matches the harvest colors that I'm using. This one is going to have harvest colored leaves and berries. It will be filled out more once I cut the bouquet of silks apart.



That's it for now--Lots of projects underway! I have a few more that are still in the works but I haven't had a chance to take any pictures of them yet! I will post more soon!

It has been raining for most of the day so I'm not going to the market tonight--but wouldn't you know it? The sun just came out! DARN! Oh well. It will give me an evening to work on one of these projects. I need some helpers! :)

My Crafts for the Farmer's Market

I decided I wanted to make some crafts for the Farmer's Market--just to see how they would go over. Also, I enjoy putting together little projects and seeing how they will turn out. Here is the first item made (And the first item to be sold! YA!)-- it is a grapevine wreath with a texture painted bird house. My mother helped me put this first one together--she is the one with the eye! Any talent I may have gotten came directly from her!






Here is my second craft item. I painted the birdhouse cream and the roof deep blue--which matched the bird. (I enjoyed making this item--any excuse to get out my drill!!! lol) I had to drill a hole in the base and in the bottom of the house to fix the dowel. I have had numerous remarks on how pretty this item is--but it has not sold yet!

Here is a picture of a Welcome Basket. I really love this one. The colors are so--well-- welcoming! They brighten up the area. And I loved the little butterfly that I attached to the handle. This item is not sold yet either!




Here is my second attempt at making a flowered topiary. The first time the ball was WAY too big and the flower head was too heavy for the pot! This one is more balanced. I also decided to do the cracked paint look on the pot. For a first attempt at that kind of painting, I think it turned out fairly well!



More craft items on the way! I picked up some fall colors this past weekend and I'm piecing together some ideas!