I’m
back and it’s a little disorienting. I wasn’t gone that long, just 5
weeks. It was summer when I left and it’s full blown fall now and this
coming week ends the regular season at the market and we begin the
winter market. Things are moving way too fast. (It doesn’t help that I
spent those five weeks enjoying a tropical Australian spring so
basically I’m experiencing a full year in 6 weeks. Ah, life in the fast
lane.)
(All photos are from this week.)Next week is our last Tuesday market of the year so if you love the evening market, it will be your last chance to enjoy it until April.
Tuesday has
been the market step-child for years with much lower sales than we saw
on either of the other two market days. We tried all sorts of ideas to
improve sales - special activities, sampling (remember Tasty Tuesdays?),
changing hours, extra publicity. Finally this year, we found the magic
combination. The vendors decided to change the hours from 4 to 6 to 4 to
7. (That being said, we’ll only be open from 4 to 6 this Tuesday
because it’s getting so dark so early. It’s not fun packing up the
market in the pitch black.)
The longer
hours made a lot more sense for serving meals and the vendors thought
three hours would be more convenient for customers than two.
This year,
since we received some funding for food stamp matching, we decided to do
that program on Tuesdays. That allowed us to learn the system on a
quieter day and draw a few more customers as well. We were not sure how
long the funding would last so doing it one day a week rather than three
gave us some feel for numbers. By August we were confident we’d have
funding for the full year, especially since we had joined a research
project that dramatically expanded our funding, so we expanded to all
three market days.
Our
wonderful nutrition educators from Extension asked if they could do
their cooking demonstrations on Tuesdays. It meant they had to put in
after work hours but since their mission is in part to educate low
income people on how to incorporate more fresh local produce into their
diets, it made a very good fit with the food stamp match.
And then we started the free kids lunch and, wow! Tuesdays had arrived.
Next year
we’ll need to think about Fridays, which seriously slumped this year. I
wonder how our customers would feel about us going to just Tuesday and
Saturday or to Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday? The vendors and the
board have not discussed a change, but we always welcome customer input.
Let us know what you think. And if you have ideas to perk up Fridays,
let us know that too.
Tomorrow we have two favorites:
The
Mayfields are playing. We expect them as a duet, but sometimes there are
more and they magically turn into Red Bridge Trio. Whatever
configuration appears you can expect lots of high energy bluegrass and
gospel.
Cooking for
a Cause benefits our regional food pantry, Crosslines. Breakfast will
be cooked to order pancakes, grilled ham and farm fresh eggs. Both music
and meal run from 9 to 11. The market is open till noon on Saturdays.
Speaking of
eggs, we are finally getting a good supply. Those hens apparently love
fall and we’re seeing over 100 dozen at each market. Enjoy them while
the hens are happy.
The
Radiology Club from MSSU will have a bake sale on Saturday (and yes,
they will be baking in the traditional manner, not zapping the baked
goods).
Jim Oxley will be at the market Saturday with his lovely hand-made dresses for little girls.
Jim Oxley will be at the market Saturday with his lovely hand-made dresses for little girls.
On Tuesday,
the Pommerts will play and Carmine’s will bake artisan pizzas to order.
Jordan Nichols, who is a dietician with Mercy Clinic Endocrinology,
will demonstrate and share samples of Carrot Apple Harvest Salad. Jordan
specializes in recipes for diabetics but I think we’ll all enjoy this
regardless of our dietary restrictions.
We’ll have lots of fresh local produce, so come celebrate our last Tuesday and feast on local fresh produce this wee
