Goin' to market

It's no secret that I'm a farmers market junkie.

I would like to introduce you to John and Marilyn Ayotte of Davis Greenhouse. I'm so glad I now know their names because my sister and I have called Marilyn the basil lady for a few years because of her impressive basil displays.

When they told me they did eight markets a week, I had to scratch my head. Then Marilyn explained that they're at the Saginaw Farmers Market Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and the Downtown Bay City Farmers Market and Chuck's Bay County Farmers Market on Tuesdays and Thursdays (they split up on those days - with one at one location and one at the other).

They had the most gorgeous cabbage last Saturday. I really wanted that cabbage, with all its leafy greenness and Southern belle flounces. I mean this thing really was a sight to behold. I could see it as the centerpiece of a gigantic veggie display, filled with a nice, chilled dilly dip. I told them I would return the following Friday, so when I went today they had one waiting for me. It's like we're old friends. Me and the Ayottes, not me and the cabbage. That cabbage is gonna make history tomorrow night.

The Ayotte's booth is currently filled with a lovely selection of summer squashes, beans, beets, cucumbers, tomatoes, garlic and more. You'll also find herbs, annuals, perennials and even a small display of Watkins extracts.

One of the reasons I love going to the market is it helps ground me. I love to talk with the hardworking people, like the Ayottes, who have made farming their life's work. I am such a city girl, with my puny containers of herbs. I've tried to tend a tiny garden in the past - peppers and eggplant and cherry tomatoes. I learned that growing things was just not a core competency of mine. Thus I became a farmers market junkie. It's so different from plucking a bag of tiny sanitized carrots off the pile at Kroger. I like to see some dirt. And I like to be reminded of the seasons.

I always see people I know at the market. Friends from church. Classmates, former teachers and co-workers, neighbors.

Speaking of people I know, I just ran into an old friend today - a nun I worked with when I was with Hidden Harvest and worked out of the Good Neighbors Mission. She told me that the youth in the Houghton-Jones neighborhood are running a farm stand on Fridays from 3-6 p.m. starting next week. Isn't that the coolest? I can go after work!

And tomorrow morning I'm going to Ann Arbor to get Lizz and might just have to pop over to Kerrytown if we have time. I told you I was a junkie. The only intervention I'll need is for volunteers to help consume the bounty.