Westport Market - opening day report

Friday Links continues it's hiatus due to computer issues.

I've been quiet for a long time. This is partially because I've been so busy. I bought yet another house, work strange hours, rescue fallen birds, refilling the Little Library on the front of my house, have had nice weather to sit and read on the front porch in, have been spending time with various tabletop gaming groups, and I've been helping to start a farmers' market in my neighborhood. As well as the usual mowing and spraying for poison ivy when there's time.

My neighbor, let's call her Dee, is an organizer. And I sometimes wonder if she know how ghetto the neighborhood is. She decided we need a farmers' market. I didn't really think it would do well. There's not enough money in the neighborhood and there's not enough of the food conscious sorts who really care about where their food comes from. And there's not enough people to make it worth it for the vendors. ...so I thought.

Still, I knew I could be wrong, I want to improve the neighborhood, so I jumped in.

I ended up, as I often do, being a major doer. I'm not a caller. I'm not their PR person. But I'll make sure that things get done.

I created the postcard, with Dee helping refine the design, that someone else mailed to everyone in the neighborhood. The postcard featured a picture of blackberries taken on my cousin's farm in Oregon... to pitch a local food event in Maryland.

I learned screen printing and made shirts.

A few prototypes. The color they picked with bright, electric, neon, lime.

I made 5 signs to put up around the neighborhood. One permanent one on the site, one outside Dee's house by the light rail, and a couple that can easily move. Then a dozen small signs that go up the day of to give directions to the market and to parking. The big ones showed me how good I'm getting with a paint brush. The little ones showed me how bad I am with spray paint.

I attended a lot of meetings, some which Dee was supposed to attend but got held up at work.

I rebuilt two picnic tables in the park where they were rotting or vandalized in an ownership dispute and painted three.

The first two tables

I mowed the park... twice. My new electric lawn mower only does about 1/3 of an acre with a charge. It took two trips.

I helped plant a sunflower forest to help advertise the market. I'm not sure exactly how the sunflowers do that. It'll be quite a site from the light rail train as it passes, but doesn't do anything for the market.

I went to an existing market and tried to sell those vendors on coming to ours.

I designed a lighting system to go with a emissions free generator we wanted. I mean I had every watt accounted for.

I brought Gandolf to socialize and have pictures taken with people. [instagram] [facebook]

I picked up the generator and got trash and official Baltimore recycling bins for us to use.

I wasn't really involved in the press releases. Or harassing vendors to come.

The first market was last night. 5:30 to 8:00. We had five food vendors and four "other"s.

One guy was selling bags of food. You weren't sure what you were getting, but it was a mix of vegetables. He sold out and plans to be back week after week, now.

The next was from a community garden the next neighborhood over. They've changed management since we started planning and are only doing the opening weekend.

The next was from a garden of only 1/4 acre. And he has a ton of hula hoops that he brought for people to play with. He'll be back on weeks when inventory allows.

Then there was some people with a respectable farm. They had similar anticipations for the farm to mine, but sales were good enough from their two tents that they plan to come back with more food.

Then there was the egg guy. He got held up, but he had plenty of eggs for sale. This was his second farmers' market of the day. He'll be back.

Then there were the others. First there was a representative of Retrofit Baltimore. They help people in low income areas find affordable ways to make their homes more energy efficient. They'll be along once a month.

Some people from the University of Maryland Agriculture Department were talking to people about gardening.

A woman talking about the hazards of a plan to ship oil through Baltimore in fragile train cars that are known to explode was there. Her group also helped with the initial park cleanup back in April.

And a woman who makes her own veggie juice was selling there.  She says she'll be back, too.

This doesn't even mention the news crews or the politicians who showed up. State Delegate Brooke Lierman comes out to all our events. Enough that she knows my face.

We had a good turnout. A raffle helped keep people around for awhile. The hula hoops and Gandolf helped.

Then we tore everything down and shoved it all in Annapolis Bog. Then we'll do it again next Thursday, and every Thursday after that until mid-October.