Last week’s market was just as successful as the first– we had 31 visitors in spite of the fact that it was pouring rain and thundering for most of the time. Even though we stayed for an extra thirty minutes after the worst of the rain had subsided, we were still surprised by the turnout. There were plenty of returning customers from the past week, but also a number of new people– it seems that word is spreading, and that there are plenty of people willing to brave some bad weather.

Harvest was up last week, with the cooler at the Urban Farm nearly full to bursting, which was awesome, but it did make loading our van… well, interesting. Casey and I not only had a quite a few heavy bins to maneuver, but many of them were also overflowing, which made them difficult to stack on top of each other. The van-loading felt like a bizarre version of car Jenga or Tetris, and although we did succeed in loading almost everything in one trip, it made me wonder if next time two vans or two trips would be necessary.

But once we made it to 10th and Pine, setup went smoothly. In addition to having harvest from the two farms (new items included red onions from LaFarm, and green beans and carrots from the Easton Urban Farm), we also had donations from the Lynn Street community garden and Safe Harbor, which included cabbage, Swiss chard, and, most interestingly, thai and lemon basil– varieties that the three of us previously didn’t know existed. With four varieties of basil, and cut flowers from the Urban Farm arranged by Sophia, we had an herb table that was especially dynamic and pretty. Even the rain was manageable– although we had a massive puddle that flooded the ground behind our second table, the tents kept us relatively dry; we only had to keep pulling on (or in some cases, punching at) the edges of the tent so that the excess water would fall off. We just had to be careful about spilling water on each other!

We were again reminded of the importance of conversation with our customers as we shared recipe ideas with each other, and several people expressed interest in cooking at or for the stand in the weeks to come. As obvious as it may sound, those plans would never have been set in motion had we not started some friendly conversation with our customers. And it’s between these conversations and the community garden donations that makes this market feel that much more like a broader community effort, which is really encouraging.

For the next Market at 10th and Pine, we’ll have (among other things) carrots, the first of our pepper harvest, and green beans!