Bacon, weed cream and sassy shirts: It’s farmers market time
Published 1:30 am Thursday, May 9, 2019
SNOHOMISH — It’s grocery shopping in the great outdoors.
No shopping cart gridlock. Just good smells, good music and good vibes.
And free samples.
In its second week, Snohomish Farmers Market had 66 vendors Thursday, with flowers, food, crafts, creams and toddler T-shirts with sassy sayings.
Market manager Sarah Dylan Jensen said this is the 28th season for the market that gets bigger every year.
“I play Jenga every week getting everyone in here,” she said of the tents lining the street. “Urban homesteading and small businesses are really taking off and this is a great incubator for them to try a model and see if it works.”
This was evident by the stream of shoppers on the closed road that transforms into a colorful marketplace from 3 to 7 p.m. Thursdays.
The market is kid-friendly, complete with a baby-feeding and diaper-changing tent.
Shayde Lopez cradled her 3-week-old daughter, Mars, in her arms as they leisurely strolled the market.
“We were looking at the apples and produce,” she said.
Ken Huck couldn’t wait to get his wife, Evelina, home with their bounty of vegetables.
“She makes a great salad with these green onions and radishes,” he said.
Markets are a sign that those dull winter doldrums are behind us, especially on a warm sunny day that brought out shoppers Thursday.
“Got anything that hurts?” asked Byron Burns, owner of Releaf Products, a line of cannabinoid topicals that won’t get you high.
He calls himself “The Weed Cream Guy.”
“I have lotions, potions, mists and more,” he said. “I tell people it’s like hot sauce. You can put this on anything that hurts.”
Most shoppers didn’t seem to be feeling any pain.
There are a dozen markets in towns around the county through the summer.
Edmonds Garden Market downtown opened for the season Saturday. The Everett Farmers Market at Boxcar Park in the Port of Everett opens on Mother’s Day Sunday.
Want to throw a ferry into the mix?
The Bayview Farmers Market in Langley at Bayview Corner is open Saturdays. The Langley Farmers Market, previously held Fridays at Sixth Street and Cascade Avenue, won’t be open this year.
The Mukilteo Farmers Market at Lighthouse Park is taking this summer off, because there aren’t enough volunteers to staff it this year.
Many farmers markets are smoke and vapor free. Most accept EBT payments.
Nick Woog’s sauce stand takes cash, debit, credit — and crypto.
“Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum,” Woog said. “Why not?”
The seasoned market vendor sells $6 tubs of Joe’s Savory Sauce and Joe’s Garlic Sauce at outdoor markets and online.
“I work less and make more money doing farmers markets and I don’t deal with the drama and challenges of stores,” Woog said.
“I have had my two best opening weeks. People are out, people are interested.”
He handed out tiny crackers with a smidgen of sauce.
“The first six samples are free,” Woog said. “The seventh costs $6, but you get a sauce to go home with.”
A big pig-shaped “Bacon” sign drew shoppers to the stand run by Hogstead Farm of Marysville.
“Bacon is always popular,” said Nathan Wolff, who stayed busy explaining the ABCs of pigging out.
Best seller: A pound of fatty jowl bacon for $12.99.
“It’s like a bacon on steroids,” Wolff said.
Lard soap, $5 a bar, was another hot item.
“It’s not sudsy,” Wolff said.
The soap is good for getting that bacon scent off your hands so you don’t go around smelling like bacon. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Andrea Brown: abrown@heraldnet.com; 425-339-3443. Twitter @reporterbrown.
