What a splendid kickoff last Thursday for the new Farmers Market on Queen Anne. The sun shone with a wonderful afternoon intensity - pushing aside the recent incessant rain clouds. The hiss of balloons being inflated ... the giggles and raucous energy of the younger participants ... the traffic jams with the strollers ... the great turnout of "ancients" (over 50!) mixing with the young moms - the energy level and sense of community was indeed over-the-top.
The farmers and craftspeople seemed a bit tenuous, and that is certainly understandable. They had to make do with their allotted space and neighbors. The sheer logistics of setting up in a new place and making sure that their product stayed fresh in the afternoon heat is a feat that most of us wouldn't have a clue about how to execute it with seeming élan. You could sense the tension in the air, and I think this is where we, the lucky consumers, need to start welcoming them all to the community. Engage with them by asking questions and buying their products, especially the food-related ones. I do hope that the focus for the market will remain on the food producers, rather than crafts. We can go to street fairs and to the artists'/crafts' Web sites for their products. The farmers only have a brief, intense season as their lands push forth the rich harvest.
I do not mean to be harsh. I was appointed by the mayor to the Pike Place Market Historical Commission where I chaired the Farm Committee for two three-year terms. We worked so hard with the issues that divided the farmers and the craftspeople. It appeared that there would never be any well-thought-out resolution to the issues. So, in the long term, the Market became irrelevant to the broader community, for they were not finding much interesting farm product at the "farmers market."
From this failure, the neighborhood Farmers Market program was born. With incredible energy and perseverance, the grand lady of the movement, the University District Market, was opened. And then it just became a matter of time before all our neighborhoods realized that a farmers market was an important and critical cultural, social and economic aspect to the community. Additionally, the markets reinforced and nurtured the sense of neighborhood community that Seattle has always prided itself on.
While it is true that the Ballard Farmers Market has a large contingent of craftspeople in the mix with the farmers, one also has to recognize that there is enough space at the Ballard site for that mix. With the limited space at McClure school, I might propose that each week there would be only three craftspeople - new ones each week, on a rotation basis. And then I would like to see the merchants, out on the Ave, let the craftspeople set up a table outside their store or restaurant on Thursday afternoon/evening. Then we would know, for sure, when we had talked with a craftsperson at the Farmers Market that we could find them again, out on the Ave.
Our local merchants have done a wonderful job with their newly instituted Art Walk on the third Thursday of the month - and their new program of extended hours (till 8 p.m.) every Thursday evening. This addition of craftspeople to the new, dynamic mix on the Ave looks like a winning proposition for the community-at-large.[[In-content Ad]]
