Tetris Time

I know, it’s the annual National Farmers Market Week put on by the Farmers Market Coalition designed to promote the preservation of farmland, stimulate local economies, increase access to nutritious food, support healthy communities, and promote sustainability. But last Sunday we weren’t kicking off the week-long promotion that runs from August 4-10 this year.

Nope, we were doing what we do best—dealing with a load of manure masquerading as a white Tesla. And of course being farmers who are completely at home with the unexpected, we rolled with it. {Or should I say rolled around it?}

Occasionally we must play vendor Tetris due to an illegally parked vehicle left in the middle of a market location.  This has been going on for as long as I’ve done markets. Some have wiggle room to temporarily move around vendors from their usual spot to accommodate an errant vehicle, but for some markets with limited space there’s no other option than to have it towed.

Years ago I didn’t want to be a total jerk when I found a cab parked in my spot at a DC market I had attended so I called the number on the car repeatedly leaving messages until the tow truck arrived and removed the illegally parked taxi. The driver, having my number, called me back several days after the event leaving threatening rants on my voicemail. That was back in the days when you couldn’t block a number on your mobile phone so I just had to put up with it until he quit.

At another market someone illegally parked their cute little sportster in a lynch-pin vendor’s spot making it near impossible to set up the entire market. All the big, strong farm boys got together and lifted the car, moving it on to the grassy median between two sidewalks.  Problem solved.

Fortunately, our farmers and market management are super smart when it comes to spatial analysis, not having time for discussion or drama, and can quickly assess and rectify the situation. By simply switching two side-by-side vendor locations to adjust for the shorter spot left by the Tesla, everyone slotted in and set up just fine.

But shoppers are creatures of habit and the initial rush of the first-in-line crowd was a bit flummoxed at first. You wanna know what our markets are in addition to all the stuff National Farmers Market Week promotes? We’re prepared. A nice big chalkboard alerted people to the switch with accompanying arrows to point the way.

And we’ve got a great sense of humor to keep our customers entertained while facing a deviation from the normal market layout. We had plenty of laughs at the For Sale sign, but no takers and the farmers took their sign home with them so the Tesla driver never found it. And if he came to the market and found their car boxed in with tables stacked with fruits and vegetables enthroned with lines of shoppers they sure didn’t identify themselves as the perpetrator. This is not the crowd in which to commit a social faux pas. 

Finding cars parked where they shouldn’t has unfortunately become such a norm that the colorful VIOLATION stickers have been spotted on vehicles throughout the city before the owners could remove them. We got the ones with extra strong adhesive which makes offenders think twice about ever parking somewhere they shouldn’t.

And from the looks of the forecast for the path of Hurricane Debby this weekend the farmers, especially the fruit and vegetables vendors are either going to be doing some fancy footwork to get in the market harvest or will show up light in their load. Like the poorly parked car, we’ll all adjust and all will be well.