"United we bargain, divided we beg."

Friday, April 16, 2010

Steppin' Up the Trade Network

In light of my vast surplus of eggs and milk products, I decided to post an ad on Craigslist looking for a gardener with whom to trade. Alas, the Kale Fairy has moved away and will no longer be supplying me with her excellent and bountiful produce. Veggie-man is still a good source, but he cannot absorb the approximately six dozen extra eggs per week that I am getting.


The ad I posted:

Eggs for Produce?

My free-range flock produces FAR more eggs than we can handle. We are all getting cholesterol poisoning over here. Are you a gardener? Perhaps you are in the same situation, but with spinach, asparagus, greens, berries, or tomatoes (in season, duh). Maybe you have fruit trees and the fruit just falls on the ground. Maybe we can help each other!!! I will give you a dozen gorgeous eggs each and every week in exchange for your garden produce in season! I don't mind fronting you eggs and stockpiling veggie futures, or eggs are $3 cash per dozen.
Thanks for looking! Happy digging in the dirt!
aimee
xxx-xxx-xxxx (ferndale)
p.s. no, bacon does not come with the eggs.

  • Location: ferndale
  • it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
image 1693787710-0

I got a response last night from a very interesting guy I'm going to call X-man. He has recently built a greenhouse with hydroponic system where he is raising not only tons of tomatoes, chiles, and other hothouse produce, but also tilapia, trout, and catfish. He started the veggeies in January and anticipates beginning harvest in about a month. Pretty freakin' awesome. He himself is a mightily eccentric guy - I've spoken to him on only two occasions but I already know quite a bit about his colorful naval career and youth growing up on a chicken farm in Illinois. He's a talker. He's also trying to convince me to raise pheasants and split the meat - he'll act as butcher.

I told him I'd have to read up on pheasants.

Meanwhile, I'm going to make some more cheese now, so excuse me!

14 comments:

Olive said...

To raise pheasants Aimee, you need a STRONG cage with over head netting....they blighters can FLY !!!

penelope said...

why x-man? I like talapia man myself, I just like the sound of the word. X-man is boring, change his name :-)

Aimee said...

penelope: his name starts with the letter X. Olive: so I've heard! I have an enclosure which is pretty feather-tight - sides and roof. I don't know - I'm looking into it.

Dr24Hours said...

So how many hydroponic pheasant farmers named Xavier could there be?

Cattle Call Farm said...

Wow, I wish I lived closer, I have 16 dozen eggs in my fridge right now. I have been so busy with the girls softball and keeping the grass mowed I hadn't had anytime to do any trading.

Aimee said...

CCF I feel you! Many times I have had so many eggs I didn't know what to do with them. My local food bank won't accept home grown eggs but maybe yours will?

Unknown said...

Hi Aimee. I have the same problem with eggs, but only 1 doz more than I need a week. Sounds like a great idea to advertise your glut, so you have inspired me to do the same.

Penelope said...

I know 16 hydroponic pheasant pharmers named xavier. I wonder which one he is????????

Aimee said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Aimee said...

Bro and Sis- pheasants cannot be farmed hydroponically, you twits.

Susie said...

That sounds like a great trade off. You've given me an idea to check Craigslist in the area where we have a summer home and check for fresh eggs and produce I can buy!

Milkweed said...

We LOOOve the trade economy. So much friendlier than cash. And more likely to get you in touch with the eccentrics, who are FAR more interesting than normal people. We've traded veggies,trasnplants, and farm credit for farm work, eggs, rent, and just recently have started a conversation about trading veggie credit for an airstream trailer. GO bartering!

sunset pines farm said...

I love to trade.
I don't know about those pheasants...but I am venturing into the world of turkey-raising in just a few weeks, and looking forward to the eggs and meat.

Dr24Hours said...

They can too! You run warm water over the eggs until they hatch.

Sadly, this is also where the process ends.