Farmers' Market Offers Taste of Fall

A near cloudless morning hosts the West Tisbury Farmers' Market of the Saturday, drawing a crowd of shoppers, children and dogs that was bustling yet moderate, compared with the mosh pit the market becomes in the midsummer months.

Two lines of tents, tables, booths and trucks spanned roughly the length of Grange Hall, selling flowers, fruits, vegetables, greens, shrubs, baby trees, baked goods, jams, mustards, sauces, salsa, honey, oils, soaps, tea, lemonade and juice.

The market lies sandwiched in between the Grange Hall and the playground which was packed with children and a few weary adults, enjoying market snacks and the shade.

The marketplace also served as a meeting ground for canines and despite a sign reading "dogs must be kept on a short leash," some had enough slack to wrestle other dogs and a few even ran free with the owners holding the leashes in their hands.

"We don't have a market like this," said Pete Abrams, who was shopping with her husband, Richard. The Pittsburgh couple were picking up some items for the big dinner they were preparing that night for their children, who were coming to the Island from Toronto, San Francisco and Paris.

Mrs. Abrams cradled a football-sized bag of strawberries under her arm while Mr. Abrams held a bag full of jams he had purchased from the Charlotte's Garden's booth. They were probably enough, he said, to last him through the winter.

B.Z. Riger-Hull made the jam Mr. Abrams was bringing back to Pittsburgh with fruit, fruit juice, sugar and pectin in the industrial kitchen attached to her house.

Because there is such a demand for her jams, which include flavors like plum raspberry and jalapeño cherry, Ms. Riger-Hull orders frozen fruit that has been picked to freeze. Each batch yields around three cases, or 36 jars of jam.

Jam has been offered by Charlotte's Gardens since 1986, and every couple of years Ms. Riger-Hull tries out a new product by testing it first on friends and then customers. Aside from various flowers and oils which have always been available, more recent products include honey dijon and raspberry teriyaki sauce, introduced last season.

One thing to remember about the market: Supplies are limited and subject to change with the weather. By 10 a.m., one stand was already out of flowers.

Not the best place for those with lively allergies, the market is not only held on the Grange Hall lawn, but also surrounds shoppers with flowers, probably the most prominent item for sale.

Pat Wollam of Louisville, Ky., was also visiting the market for the first time with his wife and two small children.

"We like it," he said. "They love it," he added, gesturing with his head towards his daughter on his back and his son leaning on his leg.

Returning after missing a season because he was on sabbatical, microfarmer Jack Reed was cutting young wheatgrass from a shallow, plastic bed with a pair of scissors and then grinding the clippings into juice with a hand-cranked juicer.

"It's liquid oxygen, basically," said the barefoot, bearded Mr. Reed of the earthy-tasting, pea soup-colored liquid he was serving in paper cups. "I've given it to people who were allergic to wheat and they can drink it."

The difference, Mr. Reed explained, is in the freshness. Wheatgrass juice cannot be bottled because 20 minutes after being clipped and ground, the enzymes of the plant begin to die and the taste turns sour. Flower and wheat you buy at the grocery store have been packaged long enough for all of the enzymes to die and are nowhere near as healthy, he said, as the juice Mr. Reed has been offering to marketers for the past six years.

"I believe in it," he said.

For four dollars, customers at Saturday's market could fill up a paper bag with sunflowers, buckwheat, broccoli, peas, radishes, watercress and alfalfa sprouts. Sprouts can be eaten raw or used for seasoning.

With roots reaching well into the 1940s, the farmers' market came to a near end during World War II, which brought the rationing of sugar and gasoline. It was not until 1974 when the market was jump-started at the Agricultural Hall. Eleven families of vendors were scheduled to sell produce and flowers from nine to noon, the market's hours today. Susan B. Whiting, one of the main organizers of the resurrection, sent out 50 invitations to people she thought might be interested in coming to the event. By 10:30 Saturday morning, vendors closed down because no one had anything left to sell; the market has been running strong ever since.

Mr. Reed and his wheatgrass juice, like Khen Tran and her famous Vietnamese egg rolls, have loyal customers and draw new ones every weekend, as crowds grow larger through the vacation season.

"In the summer it becomes a meeting place," said Kathy Lobb, who was selling shrubs and small trees out of the back of a pickup truck. Mrs. Lobb and her husband, Norman, both work full-time, starting the shrubs in their home garden, and keep prices at $20 and lower to encourage people to do their own landscaping.

"It was a hobby that evolved," Mrs. Lobb said.