You couldn’t have ordered a more perfect Saturday to kick off this year’s Hitching Lot Farmer’s Market. Though the morning started off chilly, temperatures warmed quickly, drawing veggie lovers and bargain hunters out in droves to shop and visit with old friends.
Market Manager Tony Rose was in his usual spot, holding court over a table of Better Boy tomato plants, Confederate roses, daylilies and crape myrtles. As a child, he came here with his parents, the late George and Janice Rose. He can still remember the way the sun beat down on the gravel lot and how everyone tried to arrive early to park their trucks beneath the handful of shade trees.
Now, there’s a paved parking lot and a covered pavilion with bathrooms, making things more comfortable for sellers as well as buyers. Rose estimated between 150 and 200 people came to the market’s “soft” opening Saturday — a pretty good crowd considering there’s not a whole lot in season just yet, he mused.
By the May 12 grand opening, the growing season will be in full swing. And if tomato fans are lucky, maybe, just maybe, the Ellis family will have one or two early Mayhew tomatoes.
Melvin Ellis said he’s been fielding phone calls at the farm all week, and he tells everyone the same thing: “The first ripe tomatoes will be ready in late May, if the weather holds, the creek don’t rise and the sun keeps shining.”
Saturday, they were selling strawberries and mason jars filled with homemade jellies and salsa.
Across the aisle, Scott and Lydia Enlow helped Bonnie and Tim Chaltry choose between radishes, Swiss chard, arugula, mixed lettuce, and several varieties of kale and mustard greens — all sustainably-grown at Black Creek Farms in Columbus.
Not far away, Annie Fair sat in the back of her van, munching cookies and keeping an eye on her table of MaeLue’s Sweet Dreams jams, jellies and relishes. Like her mother, for whom her company is named, Fair first started canning as a way to save money and provide her family with nutritious meals during the winter months.
But every time she sent goodies back to college with her four sons, the boys’ friends ended up calling and asking if they could get a jar of this or a jar of that. By and large, her most popular seller is her hot chow chow, but the jalapeno jelly sells pretty well, too, as do old-fashioned treats like pear and fig preserves.
Fair said she was pleased with the turnout, as were budding entrepreneurs Sonia and Marie Seguin, daughters of Columbus Air Force Base Col. Barre Seguin and his wife, Nancy.
The girls hit upon the idea to start their business, “Beautiful Beads,” while walking through Hobby Lobby one day. They enjoyed making their own bracelets and earrings so much, they decided to try their hand at selling to others.
“We’ve never come here and had it not be worth our while,” Marie Seguin said.
Indeed, there was a little of something for everyone. On one table, farmer Phil Lancaster’s gospel CD shared table space with his popular free-range eggs. Mike Childs sold ballpoint pens handcrafted from exotic woods (as well as one made from a corncob), while his wife, Becky Childs, showed off her stained glass and broken china jewelry.
While the pavilion was teeming with market veterans, for some, it was an entirely new, but welcome, experience.
Newlyweds Justin and Abby Malmstrom strolled the center aisle with their fawn boxer, Timber, searching for flowers to dress up their front yard. They moved from Sacramento, Calif., to Columbus in July, when he was assigned to CAFB.
Rose said he’s seeing more and more young couples like the Malmstroms, and he’s hoping the new soccer complex nearby will bring in even more families who might otherwise overlook the little pavilion at the intersection of Second Avenue and Second Street North.
Beginning May 12, the Hitching Lot Farmer’s Market will have live music, demonstrations, children’s activities and entertainment Saturday mornings from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. The market will also be open Mondays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. (a change from the usual 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.) and Thursdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Upcoming events include: May 12, Suzuki Strings and children’s activities with the YMCA; May 19, ice cream eating contest and Farm on Wheels; June 2, an herb presentation with Dr. Lelia Kelly; June 9, a presentation by the Lowndes County Farm Bureau; June 16, music by Kelsey Collins; June 23, corn shucking contest; July 7, watermelon seed-spitting contest and music by Kristen Colvin with the Warehouse Dance Company; July 14, live music by Star & Micey; July 28, pet parade and a book signing with author Margaret Gratz; Aug. 18, live music with Katie Ryan Burchfield.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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