Last Saturday, I headed down to the farmers market with a rather large group of Rose Scholars, and I honestly wasn’t expecting much.  I’m from Boulder, Colorado, and our farmers market takes place on a nice little downtown street next to a park.  It’s fairly large, taking up the length of two blocks, and quite popular.  It’s…also not really particularly interesting.  I figured Boulder is definitely a farmers market kind of town, so I was under the impression that I’d seen pretty much everything a farmers market could offer.  I was entirely wrong.  In comparison, the Ithaca market is spectacular!  They had an atm, bathrooms, two live music acts, extensive parking, waterside seating, at least ten hot meal booths serving international cuisine, and an enormous indoor setup lit with festive strings of bulbs.  Additionally, I was there until 3pm and it was still open!  According to their website, they’re open 5 days a week and even have a winter market.

I actually wasn’t planning on buying anything except maybe a drink, since I only had few dollars in cash with me.  Then I realized they had an atm, and I ended up with a hot chocolate ($2), 4 apples ($6), an unreasonably large jar of honey ($8), and a little potted succulent ($6).

It’s certainly a bit more expensive than the grocery store, where you can buy apples for like 30 cents each, so I probably wouldn’t go there for bulk purchases for recipes or parties.  However, on the scale of 1 apple being 30 cents versus 1 apple being a dollar fifty, I don’t think it’d be too painful to head down to the farmers market for personal purchases and a non-dining-hall meal now and then.  It was definitely nice to know that I was benefiting local businesses, which of course also means that the goods weren’t shipped for hundreds of miles, using gas and emitting pollution.  However, it was also interesting to get to interact with people who were actually involved in producing the goods.  I generally shop with as little interaction as I can — self-checkout 100% of the time, online if possible — so this interaction is not something that is immediately comfortable for me, but I’m glad I have the chance to experience it.  Should I go back at a less busy time, I would love to be able to ask some of the vendors more about their products and how their businesses work.

I hovered and hesitated at least ten minutes before buying the plant.  Why?  Well there’s no self-checkout at a farmers market, and I’m an awkward person.  Like, what if this was a weird plant to buy?  I don’t know anything about plants, what if I said something dumb?  Which woman was I even supposed to talk to?  It was actually supposed to be $8, but when I finally went to buy it, I realized to myself out loud that I only had six ones and would need to break a larger bill.  “Six?” said the woman, “I can do six!  I need ones, give me that!”  So I got my plant for 25% off.  She then told me how much to water it, that it grows best with a lot of sunlight, and that she’d picked the pot because it matched the little red edges on the leaves.  She also said that they do custom arrangements and will put plants on hold for you if you want to come back another day.  It’s absolutely a more flexible, more personal, and more friendly interaction than going to your average supermarket.

Of course later as my little plant and I were trotting down the street back home, I thought to myself, A plant!  You’ve bought another freaking plant!  Why have you bought a plant?  You’ve killed the last three succulents you owned!  Do you even know how hard it is to kill succulents?  It’s supposed to be basically impossible!  I felt like Darla taking home a doomed fish.  In any case, it lives on my windowsill now, and maybe fourth time is the charm?  If not, I suppose I can always buy another the next time I go back — and I do plan to go back.