Today's Adventures

[ysabetwordsmith]

Today we went out to Mattoon in search of evening farmer's markets.


There was a listing for one at a park with food trucks, but nothing was there, likely due to an outdated listing.

The one at Warren James Winery was open. There were three booths, none of which had food.  (I have noticed a dwindling distinction between farmer's markets selling food and craft markets selling other things.)  The first was just baseball hats and costume jewelry.

Woke Wenye Body Lotions had samples of several versions based on shea butter. The Nag Champa has a nice scent. Next batch of lotions should be ready in about 4 weeks. Custom scents are available in addition to the standard ones.

Asili Cosmetic Solutions offered three different handmade soaps. Olive Branch is a soft green color, made with olive oil. Baker's Chocolate is brown with a faint cocoa scent, made with tallow. Harvest Season is beige with a sweet spicy scent, made with lard. You can make soap with a wide range of fats, but the type influences the texture of the soap and its lather. Most plant soaps yield a lighter lather while animal fats give a rich, creamy lather. We got samples of Olive Branch and Harvest Season. And spend about half an hour just talking with the folks at the booth about soap, local and nearby restaurants and stores, Chicago, Detroit ... it was fun. You never know who you'll meet at a farmer's market, and if they're not busy you can just stand there and chat.

This is how we found out that Charleston now has an Indian restaurant, Mint Indian Cuisine. Looking at their menu, it's more expensive than our usual range, but they do have keema naan which is a favorite at a somewhat more affordable price.

It has been a fun day.

Comments

[thatjustwontbreak]

...dwindling distinction between farmer's markets selling food and craft markets. This is an unfortunate truth.

What a lovely day. So nice to live vicariously!

[rebeccmeister]

I've noticed the same thing with many farmer's markets in this area. Shifts in how cottage industries work, I guess.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I like cottage industries. I love flea markets and craft fairs. I love farmer's markets. But in order to make good plans for my time and budget, I need to know whether an event is selling food, crafts, or both -- accurately.

Re: Thoughts

[rebeccmeister]

Yeah, it is disappointing to show up to a market and discover it is not the type you had planned to visit! In my experience it seems more common to show up and find very few actual farmers, rather than showing up and finding there are no crafts (I tend to think of them as "value-added goods"), only farmers. Hopefully the page advertising something that is no longer active can get updated, at least.

It can get even more complicated - we had to learn by going, that the farmers market closest to home in California was structured to cater to Asian shoppers. So it was great if one was looking for any of a range of Asian produce items, but not so helpful if one was hoping to cook other things instead.

Eventually I stopped trying to go to farmers markets there, because the urban area is so populous that anyone trying to create a market would quickly get overrun, OR the markets would be selling things at such a high price I had no chance of affording them. I wound up shopping at a place that was essentially an overgrown produce stand, instead. It was pretty great - carried lots of direct farm goods, very few ultraprocessed products. Extremely crowded to shop in.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> In my experience it seems more common to show up and find very few actual farmers, rather than showing up and finding there are no crafts <<

Agreed.

>> (I tend to think of them as "value-added goods"), only farmers. <<

If it's something like homemade milk soap or jam or zucchini bread, that's a value-added farm product. If it's mass-produced stuff, that's not the same and I'm likely to be annoyed rather than attracted to it.

>>It can get even more complicated - we had to learn by going, that the farmers market closest to home in California was structured to cater to Asian shoppers. <<

Yeah, that's challenging. There are several Asian stores in a town near us that we love. But like you said, it depends what you wanted to make.

>>Eventually I stopped trying to go to farmers markets there, because the urban area is so populous that anyone trying to create a market would quickly get overrun, OR the markets would be selling things at such a high price I had no chance of affording them. <<

Alas! I dislike crowds. Also part of the appeal of a farmer's market is that they often have seconds at a steep discount, which is ideal if you're making mass quantities of something the same or next day.

Re: Thoughts

[rebeccmeister]

Yeah, so far I haven't found great sources for seconds in my corner of New York! But I will definitely keep trying. I would really love to find oodles of tomatoes, I have lots of ideas for what to do with them...

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yeah, sometimes Amish territory has huge boxes of things, like tomatoes or peaches, for $5 or so. It's great if you have a large family, lots of friends, or time to can or freeze everything.