Dispite 2 light frosts 2 weeks ago, we still have at least some decent cherry tomatoes to pick for market. But it's getting harder to find good tomatoes so I've bumped my price from $2 / pint to 2.50 last week and $3 this Sat. They are still selling pretty well as other sellers are even higher, especially if what they have is greenhouse or high tunnel tomatoes.
But there is one farmer that is selling decent big tomatoes for $1/lb. That is a rediculous price for around here. But that farmer seems to price a lot of his stuff too low all the time. I don't know how they can afford to do it with the price of labor around here.
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As far as the thought of banding together and opposing the "no tasting" rules -- it would never happen here. Here the rules are set by the city health dept and only enforced by the market. This market is too big. Well over 150 farmers most Saturdays. You would never get enough of them together to protest. And it has a large and long waiting list of farmers wanting to get into it. None of the farmers would risk getting kicked out of the market.
But we will set out a wedge of watermelon to "show" and we will eat the melon during the market. When people ask for a sample we will tell them "we would love to. But the health dept won't let us". They agree it's a stupid rule. Maybe the education will help in the future.
Carol
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