Washington Farmers Market ends for the year

    The last Farmers Market of the year was held on a brisk and blustery Thursday evening. Although the final market was uncomfortably cold for many, most of the vendors and customers agreed that the weather on market days had been very good in 2010.

    Susan Gavin was at the market perusing the aisles. Gavin said she is a regular marketer, having missed only one or two markets all year.

    ?I shop for fresh fruits, vegetables and also jewelry,? she said.

    Gavin said she keeps an eye out for gluten-free products.

      ?I?ve seen a couple gluten-free products here,? she said. ?There are some beautiful baked goods on display, even if I can?t eat them.?

    Gavin said she comes for the crowd and to help local vendors. 

    ?For such a small area, I think we have quite a few vendors,? she remarked.

    Jim Sanders set up a table full of bracelets and other trinkets his wife Shao Zhen Kong made. Sanders said his wife is normally the one to sell them at the market, but because she is in China now, it was his turn to play the salesman.

    ?I?ve come here with my wife before, but this is the first year we?ve done this,? said Sanders. ?It?s the first year my wife has been in the United States.?

    Sanders has studied Chinese for 30 years, and enrolled in a Chinese language school in the Army. At Thursday?s market, he spoke Chinese with a customer who was interested in his wife?s bracelets.

    Sandy Lovetinsky is another market regular who was there selling baked goods. Lovetinsky makes a cookie that is full of oatmeal, chocolate chips and peanut butter. She puts samples of the cookies out to try, which she said ?reels in? the customers. She said the market went well this year and that rain was hardly a factor at all.

    ?I sold quite a few baked goods this year,? she said. ?I didn?t sell out every week, but I came pretty close. I think the crowds were pretty good this year, too.?

    Lovetinsky said baking is her favorite hobby and that she can?t wait to start the 2011 Farmers Market.

    Lovetinsky?s mother, Dorothy Krebs, was at the market selling her homemade apple butter.

    ?I?ve made apple butter for four or five years,? said Krebs. ?I got the recipe from my sister?s family. It?s an Amish recipe.?

       Wanda Goddard, who brings numerous vegetables to the market, said the year wasn?t all bad. She had her best crop of jalapeños in 20 years, which is about how long she has come to the market.

    ?Our main vegetables are tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers and jalapeños,? she said. ?I?ve sold four boxes of jalapeños tonight. I can?t eat them myself. They?re too hot for me.?

    Goddard said she has multiple gardens that she draws from on her property and her sister?s property. She said tomatoes are her No. 1 seller.

    ?My husband and I have been married 50 years, and we?ve always grown tomatoes,? she said. ?The tomatoes we had in the sand didn?t get drowned out like the others, and we had some late ones that did really well.?

    Lisa Martin was there with her 11-year-old daughter Brittany. Lisa brings several pies to the market, and her daughter has begun to lend her talents in the kitchen, as well.

    ?I bake cookies and sometimes other stuff at home like cake,? said Brittany. ?My mother taught me how to do it.?

Brittany had her own cookies on sale at Thursday?s market. She said the hardest thing about making cookies is that she has to wrap them individually.

    When Brittany was asked if she wanted a booth of her own someday, she said that, for the moment, she is content to have a spot at her mother?s table.

For the full article, see our Oct. 29 print edition.