Farmers’ Market:
Take it to the next level
Our cultural lexicon includes common phrases like “Where’s the Beef?” and “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” Similarly, we now periodically hear a (mostly) young person suggest that s/he will “take it to the next level.” The phrase usually refers to experiencing something with which the speaker is familiar, but with a twist. The addition will elicit a greater level of excitement.
Examples include adding a layer of salsa to your previously comfortable and predictable macaroni and cheese recipe, taking a canoe solo down Class III rapids you previous paddled with a partner, or transitioning from a climbing wall to a rock face in the great outdoors. You get the idea — to take it to the next level is sort of the same, but different … and better.
Many gardeners put in cut flowers every year and do well with their old stand-bys, whether the seeds are familiar varieties of annuals purchased each spring or perennials that hold their own year after year in the spot where they were initially established. Local gardens experience the same cold winters, wet springs, and droughty summers in soils likely to include dense, cold clay. This yields a Maine gardener’s motto … “If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere,” or to put it another way, “don’t mess with success.” There is nothing wrong with that approach! It certainly beats looking out the window at rank weeds and dead spots where your garden was supposed to be.
However, normal powers of observation will support the contention that there are Green Thumbs who consistently refute the concept that “white bread” is enough. Many people have lupine. Heck, it has naturalized to the banks of the highway in blue and pink and white. Red, on the other hand, is tricky — you don’t often see red.
Barb York has both cut flowers and sometimes lupine plants that grow a deep, eye-catching red on her table at the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings in the Aroostook Centre Mall parking lot. She has delphiniums that grow in a deep shade of indigo. Her yellow and orange lilies exhibit the intensity of flames. She shares her “secrets” and her root stock freely with self-deprecating modesty regarding her gift. She definitely has one where her flowers are concerned. She blends colors and textures to make bodacious bouquets that take your breath away! You can tell by the smiles of her customers as they walk away that she has once again managed to “take it to the next level.”
This column is written by members of the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market. For more information, visit their website at https://sites.google.com/site/presqueislefarmersmarket/home.
