It Takes a Market

As the old adage goes about raising children, it takes a village. Over the years in my line of work, I like to think that it takes a market. For twenty years I’ve watched vendor’s kids grow up accompanying their parents’ weekly, some as toddlers corralled in play pens, napping on coolers, and older ones told to not go outside of the confines of the market. It’s like growing up in a small town—when they misbehave or need help, other vendors and even customers step in.

The real magic begins when market kids start helping. They develop people skills, learn math, and understand what dependability entails. My favorite has been market kids, be they children of vendors or high schoolers who work for vendors return to the market to work during college breaks. You might think they’re here to earn extra cash, but they’ll tell you it’s the vibe of the market and seeing all the regulars they really enjoy. Seriously, what college kid wants to be at work early on a weekend morning?

I’ve had the joy of watching both patrons’ and vendors’ baby bumps graduate from high school and college and I ask myself, have I really been doing this that long?  And now there’s a new wrinkle—those market kids are having babies of their own!

Anyone who has walked by Springfield Farm’s stand in the last several months couldn’t help but see Rachel had gone broody. She was incubating her own egg and it finally hatched on July 21st.  Jettson Reynolds is a new market baby who will also grow up at the farmers  market just like his momma.

But Jettson isn’t the only new market baby. Like farm life, sometimes life hands you a bottle baby when the birth mother walks away. I’ve taken plenty along with me over the years, but they always go back to the pasture once they’re grown.

We’ve all watched the boys at Two Acre Farm grow up and go to college. You would think their parents would breathe a sigh of relief as their nest emptied, but a few years ago they showed up at the market with news of fostering a baby. Last week the judge made it official that there’s a new Olson kid who will grow up at the market, too, once he’s old enough to dip pickles.

I realize that a farmers market is a place of business and I’ve overheard grumblings from patrons who prefer traditional business operations minus children, but we, as vendors, get to choose not only how to run our stands, but also how our children are raised. There have been people who lament our kids didn’t get a real childhood because they were expected to help out on the farm or go to market, but here’s the truth about it. Even though our market babies grow up much differently than most kids, they’re the ones that get the scholarships, go to the top schools, and even when they don’t follow in their family business, go on to do great things because they’ve been raised within a supportive community, in a place that feeds not just the body, but the mind and the soul.