Farmers’ Market: Growing pains
Customers familiar with the layout of the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market, which appears by 8:30 every Saturday morning in the parking lot at the Aroostook Centre Mall, may have noted changes of late in the set-up and operation of the familiar stalls of the local farmers who participate.
Early in the season, the tables may have looked a little sparse. With the exception of the members with high hoops that enable them to get crops in the ground when the threat of frost is still in the air, most of the growers are limited in what they have available for sale. Meat and egg producers are only slightly better off as the animals go all goo-goo-eyed over the prospect of lush green pasture and regard the tail end of their winter hay or bagged rations with the relish with which GI’s regard their MRE’s. This year has been noteworthy in its lack of cooperation, from the ravaged snow-cover in January to the apparently endless monsoons of June to the current back-and-forth weather making hay a tough commodity to get into the barn as the summer progresses.
Farmers are also blessed by that regular water and some simply stunning warm, sunny days as well. This is the change seen at the Market this August. Venders’ selections are growing by leaps and bounds as some of their crops come in “gang-busters” with the arrival of August, despite the slow start. We see more venders than we did earlier; Jim Brown has appeared with organically-grown vegetables that he wisely leaves to Wanda and Kim to sell.
The venders who have been attending regularly now set out another table or two to hold their burgeoning selections. Goughan’s Berry Farm sends along a whole ‘nother sales team as Mark and Gloria remain impossibly busy at the home farm stand as well. Barbara and Joe York have added large, pungent garlic bulbs to the selections of cut flowers we have admired most of the summer. Joseph Zook is tempting us with peaches from Pennsylvania and now brings an able young man to help at the table and maybe learn a trade.
The result of these happy changes is that the vendors need to take expansion into their considerations when they park in the lot — more vendors and more space for each. We don’t necessarily do quite as well when we “circle the wagons” upon arrival and we don’t all end up in the same old space we always have had. For the most part, it seems that the Market customers are quite content with the trade-off of needing to hunt a little for their familiar vendors’ wares since part of the fun of an open air market is to discover who and what is new. They go home with bulging bags and happy smiles, enthused with the prospect of culinary creations based on discovered fruits, vegetables, herbs, and animal products they found in the growing market.
This column is written by members of the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market. For more information, visit their website at https://sites.google.com/site/presqueislefarmersmarket/home.
