fresh greens and recycled milk jugs

On Saturday morning I ventured into town and stumbled across a middle aged man with long scraggly blonde hair and coveralls standing in the fenced in green lawn of a gift shop just a block off the main street in Ely.  Naturally I was drawn to him.  You may ask yourself, "naturally"?  Yes, as I travel more and live in more northern er- not as diverse,  towns I have come to notice what types of people, by first glance at least, tend to put me at ease and make me feel at home.   Now I'm not saying I'm a hippie, mainly because I don't fit under just one label, but long hair and/or afros, dirty work boots, Carhartts, most punk rock and/or hip hop shirts ( like the guy in the grocery store with the Black Flag t-shirt, I really wanted to talk to him!), that said also mohawks and dreadlocks.  Pretty much anyone that seems to have their own individual style, counter culture if you will, I like to refer to myself as a Bohemian type, artsy, free wheelin' etc.   

So I stumbled across this man and I noticed there were these rows of plastic containers on stilts and they were holding greens.  Lovely fresh greens.  I then noticed the sign, "FARMERS MARKET".  Now I've been to some small farmer's markets before and this takes the award for smallest for it was just this guy, his greens and a table with instructions on how to care for them.  I struck up a conversation inquiring and he explained that the tubes I was looking at were recycled milk jugs and essentially they were a dirt free green house.  He had Bibb, Green Leaf, Red Leaf and Romaine.   All organic, all local.  He also told me that the real Ely Farmer's Market is Tuesday evenings, 5-7.  I can't wait for tomorrow!  The greens, by the way are delicious!  Quite the change from the Ice Burg I've been eating the past four weeks!

If you live in or near Ely, the farmer is 

Paul Hedrick

1759 N. Pioneer Road

   Ely, MN

218.365.5456

I tried to find some more information about growing out of recycled milk jugs, which is what I googled.  I am having trouble finding anything too specific to what I saw but I did find this website.

www.myurbangardendecoguide.com

There is a lot of cool stuff on there, gardening ideas, articles on building furniture from recycled products. Check it out!

Ahhh, the lilacs are FINALLY in bloom!  Time to enjoy the day.

Cheers!

nyks