Ok, as far as I can tell, they didn’t sell fat pigs at the York Central Market, but I did take the kids there this morning. My friend Satoko, who is an artist/mom & shares her amazing creations over on her blog Sunshine Smile, goes to Central Market every week. I’ve been curious since we moved here, but since the market’s in the middle of downtown with only street parking, I’ve been hesitant to drive down there, try to parallel park the mini-van & juggle the kids and the double stroller in the middle of the street.
Well, today the cupboards were bare (how many nursery rhyme references will fit in one blog post?) so I decided to suck it up and lug everything down there since I was going to have to go grocery shopping one way or another. Lucky for me, I found a spot right in front of the market where two meters in a row were open, so the parking wasn’t too big of an issue. Yeah!
It was your general farmer’s market with a few vendors selling other stuff, like antique furniture, candy, & candles. I think next time we need to try a different time, because at 9:30 less than half the booths were open & those that were looked thoroughly picked through. They open at 6am and stay open through early afternoon. I am thinking that the farmers get there early, so if you want produce early is better, but some of the other booths were just starting to open as we were leaving around 10.
The furniture dealer had a really awesome old, long, narrow suitcase-looking thing that I am assuming is a gun case. It would have been the perfect piece for our downstairs mantle. I was envisioning the apothecary jars I made last week grouped on top of it. Plus it was only $17. I waited for about 10 minutes, but the vendor was nowhere to be found & the kids were getting antsy, so I passed it up. Still kicking myself over that one.
The kids & I shared a huge soft pretzel & lemonade and we bought some produce from two very sweet elderly ladies who reminded me of the women who used to collect my Mommom’s newspapers & sell eggs.
There was also a really cool free book exchange shelf where you could drop off a book & take one from the shelf. I didn’t know about the shelf, so I didn’t bring a book to exchange, but guess what was staring at me on that shelf? A book called Play Therapy! How could I pass that up given Nicholas’ issues & the fact that I am paying a play therapist every week? Ok, I confess, I took it. I promise to bring two books with me next time to make up for the transgression.
Overall, it was a cute way to spend a cloudy Tuesday morning and we’ll go back. I do wish it was a little larger, though, or that there were more vendors. It sort of paled in comparison to the farmer’s markets that we had in Tampa or that I’ve gone to with my aunt who lives in rural VA, but I guess that’s what I get for comparing it to markets in the south. Like I said, it was cute and it’s a good way to support local farmers. Plus, I want my kids to have a good understanding of where food comes from, hence the home gardens & last week’s trip to Barefoot Farm to pick our own strawberries. Sheesh, there’s a lot I didn’t realize I was going to have to think about as a parent. As long as my kids don’t wind up like those kids on Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution show who couldn’t identify a single vegetable, we’ll be ok.
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