Despite strong gusts of wind, and ominous clouds looming overhead, the West Tisbury Farmers' Market opened its season Saturday morning to an increasingly robust crowd.
It was the first day of the market, which started 39 years ago. Eighty-eight-year-old Robert Daniels of Old Town Garden in Edgartown was one of the few vendors back then.
Fresh produce, flowers, lemonade, egg rolls, coffee and Kevin Keady on guitar with some haybales to sit back and enjoy the show with — it can only mean one thing. The West Tisbury Farmers’ Market is back in business. The only thing left to say summer is here is a dip in the ocean. Come on already, ride the waves.
Even though folk musician Kevin Keady was singing, “You can’t always get what you want” at the opening Winter Farmers’ Market at the West Tisbury Agricultural Hall last Saturday, it would have been hard to agree with the lyrics. Everything from soap wrapped in alpaca fleece and wrinkle cream made from herbs and honey, to hot curried butternut squash and apple soup was available. Maybe you can really get what you want after all.
Jane Hurst woke up last Saturday morning with a challenge: Think way back to last summer and collect all of the items necessary to conduct business at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market, the first of the season.
Bob Daniels sat on the edge of his red pickup truck, a bounty of flowers, kale, potatoes and rhubarb spread out on the table in front of him, waiting for the market bell to ring. As one of the longest-selling vendors at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market, Mr. Daniels has been waiting for the opening bell every June for the past 36 years.
The general impression is that the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market is having a slow start to its 35th year. Farmers are weathering a recession as well as the persistent rains which are dampening the enthusiasm of crops and shoppers alike.
Nailing down anything more specific, though, is hard work. There are 40 vendors at the West Tisbury market and as many prognostications about the coming season. The market opens from 9 to noon tomorrow for its second Wednesday, and for the fourth Saturday, July 4.
