Pros & Cons at the market 6-26

Pro - when College View Manor brought a van of their residents to the market today, I noticed one lady with a strong German accent. "Come with me, I'd like you to meet Bert Ott" (of Bavarian pastry fame). "Bert, I have someone here who speaks German." He greeted her in his native tongue, she greeted him and the conversation began. Later, the lady looked me up to say how special their visit was. "We grew up in villages 20 miles apart."

Pro - Speaking of language, Jared Zamouski, was by today. He is the NALA volunteer who will begin our English as a Second Language classes at the market next Friday. It is designed to help our immigrant farmers better communicate with their customers, but will be open to anyone. The class will run from about 1:15 to 2:15 in the south end of the pavilion.

Con - The line for tomatoes at Shoal Creek Gardens. We should be loaded with tomatoes in about 10 days, in the meantime we'll try to figure out a way for the line to go more smoothly.

Pro - a kind lady stopped by with hundreds of canning jars that had belonged to her recently deceased mother. Customers and vendors took many and the rest will go to the market canning class on Monday.

A con that turned into a pro - Just after market closed a little boy (who I will call John) sat down at one of the pavilion picnic tables. With a name tag and backpack, he obviously had come from school and looked like he might be a first or second grader. As we put things away, I asked if he was waiting for someone. Yes, one of his parents was picking him up. But another 15 minutes passed, so I asked if he'd like to make a phone call. He called his father who was mystified as to why he was at the market but would come to pick him up. Shortly thereafter a mother and two boys joined John at his table. John had apparently gotten on the wrong bus at the request of a friend who then went his own way leaving John on his own. The mother who came to the market became concerned when her son told her about the situation. We left him in the care of these family friends and about 10 minutes later got a call from his father, thanking us for watching out for him. We were happy we could help. On Saturday, John's mother and father were both at the market at opening to convey their thanks in person. Sweet little boy, loving parents.