Sunday was a great day at the Mercer Island Farmers Market: beautiful weather; lively music; plenty of activities and community events; and, most importantly, tables overflowing with our state’s fresh produce.
Music
Young customers dancing to live music by Patrick Daughtery at the Mercer Island Farmers Market on August 21, 2011. (Photo by Joel Wachs)
Patrick Daughtery has been a popular musician at the Mercer Island Farmers Market since its first season. His music always helps to establish a festive mood for our customers and vendors always commenting on how much they enjoy listening to him throughout the market day.
Patrick’s music always inspires some of customers to be in more than a good mood; often they spontaneously begin to dance. At Sunday’s market, one of our volunteers captured just such a moment in the photo above.
We want to thank Patrick for playing—and inspiring—at the MI Farmers Market.
Community Sing-Along
Singers at the first community sing-along at the Mercer Island Farmers Market on August 21, 2011. (Photo by Cecilia Finnegan)
In addition to his regular music duties during the market day, Patrick also helped to organize the MIFM’s first-ever community sing-along. With the strong leadership of our colleagues at Transition Initiative Mercer Island (TIMI), community members gathered at 1 p.m. on Sunday to join their friends and neighbors in singing.
Patrick says, “…the community sing-along was a definite success. In addition to the local choir and TIMI folks up front with me, I could see lots of shoppers walking through the market singing along.”
Farm Day
Young shoppers examining chickens up close as well as admiring from a safe distance at the Mercer Island Farmers Market's annual Farm Day on August 21, 2011.
This past Sunday, in addition to the presence of our local farmers, the MI Farmers Market also had farm animals. There were goats, rabbits, bees, and chickens for our customers to pet, examine up close, or admire from a safe distance.
A big “thank you” to our friends and neighbors for bringing out their animals for the Mercer Island Farmers Market’s annual Farm Day.
Jones Creek Farm, Sedro-Woolley, WA
Les Price and a customer discussing the different varieties of fresh garlic from Jones Creek Farm at the Mercer Island Farmers Market on August 21, 2011. (Photo by Joel Wachs)
Farmer Les Price and his famous garlic finally arrived at the Mercer Island Farmers Market. Les is an orchardist and so most of his produce doesn’t ripen until midway into the MIFM’s market season.
Les does grow other crops including garlic. At this Sunday’s MIFM, Les brought two varieties—Korean Rocambole and Asian Tempest. These rare varieties attract customers from around the region not just Islanders. Some of the MI Farmers Market volunteers have reported being actually stopped by customers who just want to let them know that they have come from several towns away for Les’ garlic.
Jones Creek Farm’s tree fruit isn’t quite ripe yet, so Les brought several varieties of heirloom tomatoes. He told us to expect his apples and plums either next week or the week after.
Les and Jones Creek Farm are not the last of the farmers and farms to arrive this year at the Mercer Island Farmers Market. We are still looking forward to the arrival in a few weeks of Booth Canyon Orchards, Carlton, WA, and their tree fruit.
Tonnemaker Family Orchard, Royal City, WA
Pepper display at the Tonnemaker Family Orchard Booth at the Mercer Island Farmers Market on August 21, 2011. (Photo by Joel Wachs)
One of the many interesting displays of vegetables that we saw on Sunday was one of over a dozen varieties of peppers at the Tonnemaker Family Orchard booth.
The peppers were arranged left to right based on how spicy they are. The mildest were on the left, while the hottest were on the right. In this photo, the peppers—going from left to right—are Spanish Spice, Kapellos, Bell, Whitney, Greek Pepperoncini, Mariachi, Astry, Fushimi, Anaheim, Sandia, Banana, Jalapeño, Padron, and Cayenne.
