Flyover People - Opening Day
Cheryl Unruh
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
“Oh, he’s got asparagus,” a woman said excitedly.
A pickup truck crept through the crowded parking lot. The tailgate was down, revealing a shiny silver bucket, half-full of asparagus.
A trail of people followed the truck.
“I’m going to get the two things I came after today,” a woman said, “my asparagus and my spinach.”
The asparagus sold for $3 a bundle and all of it was in the hands of grinning customers a few minutes after the 8 a.m. bell sounded at the Emporia Farmers Market.
On opening day, Saturday, May 3, a bright sun beamed down on the parking lot at Seventh Ave. and Merchant Street.
A brisk breeze from the west blew away any warmth offered by the morning sun. Wind chill in May. The temperature checked in at 42 degrees but the gusts made it feel abut 10 degrees cooler.
A vendor’s plastic tablecloth slapped back and forth. Across the street, the wind kept the flag busy at the bank.
Before the market bell sounded, one woman sat on a tailgate, wearing a coat and gloves. Her legs were wrapped in a blanket.
My own hands were cold as I took photos and notes. And then I saw Steve Graham wearing a thin short-sleeved Hawaiian shirt and shorts. Shorts?!
“Put some pants on,” I suggested.
“Well, it wasn’t windy (and thus cold) when I got up at 6 a.m.,” he explained.
A friend walked by and said to me, “I’m looking at Tracey’s husband (Steve Graham) and I’m thinking – now there’s an optimist.”
Bob Karr sold rhubarb from his tailgate.
“Two dollars a bundle,” he told customers.
“I want five,” a woman said.
“I want two,” said another.
Jim Wallace offered a variety of things: candles, jelly and plants, handmade soap and lotion, morning glory muffins and lemon poppy seed bread.
But Wallace’s big trade is in meat and eggs. He sells bison, sausage, elk, and lean hamburger. His farm-fresh eggs with brown shells are laid by happy chickens in his barnyard.
Tracey Graham, who is in charge of Farmers Market operations, was pleased with the crowd and with the number of vendors.
“This is about typical for the first market,” she said. “We usually have about 10-12 vendors. Today we have 11.”
I bought a sausage-with-jalapeño breakfast burrito from Tracey and put the warm, foil-wrapped burrito my jacket pocket to eat when I got home. To make these tasty burritos she gets eggs, meat and vegetables from local vendors.
The killing frost in April 2007 left us without (gasp!) sand hill plum jelly last year. Apples and other fruit were victims of the frost as well.
“April 7 – that was Easter Sunday, we had a 16-degree freeze,” Bob Karr said. Karr owns an apple orchard north of Emporia.
“A lot of people around the state called that the Easter Day Massacre,” Tracey Graham added.
No killing frosts this year, but the spring has been a late one, a cool one, and plants are slow in blossoming and in producing.
At the opening day market, customers found a variety of items including cinnamon rolls, cookies, tomato plants, geraniums, pies, bread and burritos. There were turnip greens and spinach, green onions, asparagus and rhubarb.
Market season has only just begun; we have six months of garden-fresh produce ahead of us.
On Saturdays, the Farmers Market bell rings at 8 a.m. at Seventh and Merchant. On June 18, Wednesday sessions are added. Those begin at 5 p.m.
“Flyover People” is online at www.flyoverpeople.net.
F Cheryl Unruh can be reached at cheryl@flyoverpeople.net.
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