Winchester Farmers' Market

Most the our surrounding towns have had farmer's markets for years. Lexington has one on Tuesdays; Arlington has one on Wednesdays; but our town doesn't have one; or didn't until today. The farmer's market opened for the first time, over protests by the chamber of commerce. Some local businesses complained that it would bring in competition. Isn't that what business is about? Some complained that it would take up parking spaces where they planned to locate it. I might point out that our town is pretty dead and there is lots of parking on the weekends. So the market which was supposed to be in the parking lot next to the town green, was moved to the town green proper after a promise to reseed the lawn if it got messed up from all the people.

So my daughter and I took a trip there this morning in search of the first local strawberries of the season. The place was humming. A little band was set up and played for the crowed as they shopped and had picnics on the grass. It was indeed harder to find parking than usual. We walked two blocks to the town center (oh the horror). I'm thinking the businesses are happy now since I saw many people carrying packages that were not just from the farmer's market.

There were not many vendors at the farmer's market. There was a vendor that sold coffee and tea, one that sold fish and four that sold herbs, fruits and veggies. I was shocked that three of the vendors had almost ripe greenhouse grown tomatoes. I bought two. They will ripen on my counter for a couple of days. And they all had strawberries. Jackpot. Supermarket strawberries suck compared to the ones grown around here.