A full day at full sun farm.

We are lucky to have over three dozen farmers' tailgate markets in the region. These are the seasonal markets where farmers gather at regular times and days of the week and set up tents and sell farm fresh food and other goods direct to the consumers. For the consumer it is an opportunity to meet the farmer and to also enjoy the fresh flavors of Appalachian Grown food. For the farmer, it is the culmination of months of planning and planting and full days in the fields and greenhouses.

On market day the farmers, bakers, and other producers of fine foods are lined up and ready to meet people. Seems simple enough. But for the farmer there are months of work that go into bringing their products to market. In order to consistently deliver the freshest foods, the farmer must prepare carefully and work hard.

At Full Sun Farm in Sandy Mush (near Asheville, NC), Alex Brown and Vanessa Campbell start working and planning well before they go to market. On their 17-acre farm they cultivate five acres of produce and berries for the Saturday North Asheville and Wednesday Downtown farmers' tailgate markets in Asheville and their thirty-member CSA. To come to market on a Saturday morning in June, they begin planning and planting in the fall of the year before. Seeds are planted, beds prepared, and plans are made months before the end of the year. Fall is the beginning of the day for a June market.

By December, Alex and Vanessa begin their crop plan for the following year. They look back at their records and remember what sold well or what their customers particularly liked. They get out the seed catalogs and make their choices. They find it very satisfying to grow things their customers really like, so they grow a wide variety. In a typical year, they are growing more than forty different vegetables and fruits and over 100 varieties.

They develop a sowing schedule for the year so they know exactly how much to plant and when to plant. They start most of their plants in their own greenhouses. Starting in February, they begin sowing the seeds for their market harvest. Over the next few months, they continue to plant for the coming harvest season. In early March, they start putting plants and seeds in the ground and plant continually through early May. Throughout the planting process they are cultivating, weeding, and composting. By the time markets start in mid-April, they are ready to harvest early greens and other early season vegetables.

Once June market days arrive, their months of planning, planting, and cultivation are in every farm-fresh product they bring to sell. Getting to market starts on the Thursday evening before the Saturday market. Vanessa and Alex, with the help of their one and a half-year-old daughter Ada, look over what was sold the previous week and walk the fields to see what is new and ready for this week's market. They make a harvest list to prepare for the work to begin early Friday morning.

By 7 am on Friday, they are out in the fields harvesting and bunching and loading produce into boxes and then on to the truck. They then take the produce to their packing shed and return to the field for cut flowers. After lunch, they wash and prep the vegetables and then put them in a walk-in cooler. Vanessa notes that they put a lot of time into the produce after harvest to ensure its quality and freshness. With the produce all washed, prepped, and put in the cooler, they begin making flower bouquets. If all goes well, they are finished by six in the evening. They do this every Friday, rain or shine, for the entire season.

Market day starts early. They get up at 4:30 am and start packing the truck to arrive at market by 6 am. The North Asheville market opens at 7 am, and there are often customers waiting. By start of market, nothing is older than 24 hours from the field. The market day is a blur of returning and new customers: many of them have been buying produce from Vanessa and Alex for years. By noon, they are tired but satisfied. Vanessa and Alex love the community and festivity of the markets and the satisfaction of producing fresh quality food for people who truly appreciate it.

Arriving home, they check to see how much sold so they can be sure to bring enough the following week. The full day for Full Sun Farm is over and they rest on Sunday, only to get up early on Monday to start over and begin to prepare for their next market on Wednesday.

You can find all local farmers' tailgate markets in the Local Food Guide, available free throughout the region and online at www.BuyAppalachian.org. Charlie Jackson is the director of the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project.