The Last Community Market for 2010

Today was the last Saturday of community/farmers' market for Point Roberts, and their was precious little farmers' product today.  There is precious little farmers' product in Point Roberts right now after almost of zero and sub-zero (F C) temperatures.  Our kale is lying on the ground looking as if in permanent coma, and all the rest of the winterovers look even worse...the parsley, the chives, the Italian parsley, the sage: RIP, I fear.

But, even without any farmers' product, the market was surprisingly lively today.  It is held indoors in the big room at the Community Center in this weather, and that room is not all that big, so 8 or 9 sellers fill the space/tables, and the library's patrons come cross the hall, providing the market's sellers with a steady stream of customers.  Ed and I are yet working off the supply of CDs that are excess to the 100 that I want to get the collection down to, and he also has an expanded collection of 'Somewhere in Point Roberts' postcards, which I was urging on people as their chance to send Point Roberts Christmas Cards.  And we sold a respectable amount but, more important, talked to a lot of people.  I made fudge for the customers and it was interesting that there was a pretty neat break in numbers as to those who asked if they could have a piece, and those who simply took one.  Kids all looked to their parents for OK's, even if I specifically offered them one.  Good Kids!

Also in the market today were terrific cookies (I buy a bag of ginger snaps each market day and am always sorry that I didn't buy more), several jewelers with their wares, a couple of ladies spinning beautiful wools and offering to sell same, dried hydrangea blossoms, various cards and photos and postcards and books, a table of varied food in jars, and--what the auctioneers in Lakeville, Massachusetts, where I once lived, would refer to as 'boxed lots'--various household goods that came out of and to a considerable extent returned to their boxes at the end of the day.

And, for music, we had a harpist.  Not bad for a cold day in November!

I hoped the market would be able to hold on this first year, and it certainly has.  My guess is that it will take at least two and maybe three years before it gets a stable format and enough record that you don't have to worry about whether there will be enough vendors and enough buyers.  For the vendors that are there each time, it is becoming something of a social event, even though we don't necessarily know one another very well.  But we are getting there!