Fill ‘er Up!
No, I’m not talking about the fuel tank {ouch!}, but the farmers market. Last week a few newer customers remarked about all the new vendors.
“Who?” I asked, and they pointed to the end of the isle where Westmoreland Farm was set up with their tables full of potted herbs and vegetable starts.
“Arnie!” I replied as I hadn’t noticed their return for another year while explaining that Westmoreland Farm has been a regular for many years, but they are seasonal.
The pandemic, supply chain issues and recently built condos have resulted in a new wave of customers to Central Farm Markets. I can spot them as soon as they pose such an observation or ask questions to which seasoned patrons already know the answers.
As a year-round vendor, I no longer experience the excitement of opening market day. The anticipation of again seeing fellow farmers and customers after a winter away has now fallen by the wayside. But for others, especially the fruit and vegetable farmers who grow outside instead of in greenhouses and high-tunnels, their market season ends when the fall season casts a long shadow and the weather turns cold and gray. One by one they disappear between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s always such a joy to see them again when they return and catch up on each other’s lives.
Those same farmers have been hard at work since mid-winter getting seeds planted, pruning trees and canes, and with the advent of warmer weather they’ll be putting crops in the ground. Before you know it, they’ll have tables of cool season produce piled high on their tables. I’m looking forward to big bundles of collards, kales, and snow white cauliflower. If I’m lucky, I’ll get one of the purple or golden varieties as well.
In addition to herbs and vegetable starts, flowers are beginning to make their way back to the markets. Even though there’s not much of a holiday for me as this week as this tends to be my busy season, I may go for a bunch of those colorful tulips everyone has been carrying around. I opted for a few bunches the week they first showed up and they lasted for three weeks! It’s not just the food at market that travels less miles, lasts longer, and is of better quality than the big box options. Even the perennial native plants I took home last year are starting to grow again which is a miracle in itself since I have a brown thumb when it comes to landscaping. Maybe it also has something to do with the too-free-ranging chickens that tend to wander into the gardens as well as the pastures. There’s something about fancy ornamental plants that scream dig me up and eat me at a chicken.
For the newbies I go through all the wonderful reasons, tips, and tricks for shopping at the farmers market, but the one that tends to really light up their faces is when I inform them that in a few weeks there will be a Saturday market opening in Rockville at Pike & Rose with many of the same vendors found at other Central Farm Markets. If it’s one thing that hooks a shopper, it’s convenience.
In addition to the seasonal vendors, other signs of the regular market season include music—wasn’t last week’s bluegrass jam awesome!
At the same time, there will be a bit of melancholy as the weekly seasonal Saturday market customers return to their summer schedule. I only have the bandwidth to do one trip to the city each week and so they offer a hug and an apology promising to return to the Sunday market in winter. I like to think of them as perennials, who come back each season, too.