Oct. 5, 2011:  On Wednesday morning, September 28, in the darkness and pouring rain, Mayor Mary Marvin and I set off on a mission.  We were to be guest participants in the audience of The Martha Stewart Show that was to air live at 10:00 am that day.

A stroke of genius, on my part, which is rare for me, came the day before, and I hired my older son, Billy, to drive us to the show and pick us up afterwards.  We set out at 7:00 am and had to stop on the way at the farmers' market on 57th and 9th in New York City to pick up our very fresh produce from the market of the farm that we were representing.

We were all to bring baskets filled with local goods, and the mayor and I were representing the Bronxville Farmers' Market (BFM) vendor Morgiewicz Produce Inc., since their farm in Orange County was devastated by Irene and they could not take a day off to sit in a TV studio.

We met Ellen Concklin, Rich Concklin's wife, from The Orchards of Concklin in Rockland County at the studio at around 8:00 am, all three of us now weighed down with produce from the two farms.

This whole adventure started when I received a phone call from the audience supervisor of the show in early September saying that one of the assistant producers from the show attends our market regularly and thinks it's the BEST market around.  So after speaking to my farmers, it was decided that the two farms and I would attend.  I then invited the mayor, since she was key to getting the market going with me 11 years ago.  Being the good sport she always is, she said she would love to go.

In the holding room before the show, the mayor had been chosen one of the very few to be a potential person to ask Martha a question at the end of the show.  As luck would have it, the next person to be asked would have been the mayor, but time ran out.  However, we were on Martha's website that day in one of only 12 pictures!

My true mission is to get the show to come to Westchester and go to a few farmers' markets and show the different types that are now in existence.  When the Bronxville Farmers' Market opened 10 years ago, there were about 4 farmers' markets in the county--now there are 40 so-called farmers' markets.  The sad aspect of the growth of the markets is that you have to search far and wide to find a true "green market," as we are.

So, hopefully some day you may see The Martha Stewart Show van at the BFM!  A word of advice--don't expect Martha to talk to you or have a photo taken with you.  Both big no-nos.  And Mary, Ellen, and I are experts at clapping, ooohing, and ahhing on cue.

Pictured here: (L to R)  Mayor Mary Marvin, Mary Liz Mulligan, and Ellen Concklin with baskets full of produce on their way to The Martha Stewart Show in the New York City fog.