Greene Street Market

Have you heard of the Greene Street Market? It was started last year by the Church of the Nativity Episcopal and takes place May thru October on Thursday afternoons from 4:00 - 8:00 p.m. in the vacant lot across the street from the church. (Whew, that was a long sentence.) My next-door neighbor mentioned it to me last year while it taking place, but for whatever reason, I never took the time to check it out. I had seen a few signs up around downtown advertising the return of the Greene Street Market (it is, after all, May) and last Thursday, I made my first stop by the Greene Street Market.

I didn't think I had a lot of time to peruse because my plans were to go home and mow the lawn (I didn't know my dad had already completed that task); not to mention the fact that it was day one of the Memorial Day weekend heat wave and I wasn't much up on sweating in my work clothes. Those would be my dressy work clothes, not my working in the yard work clothes - just to clarify. I arrived downtown around 5:00 and was surprised by how many cars were parked close to the market. I honestly didn't know what kind of crowd to expect and was surprised to see so many people milling about. I found a spot a block or so away and hauled it up the hill to the market. I was actually kind of overwhelmed by the number of people and all the various items being displayed. I think the vast amount of people made perusing kind of difficult; plus I was kind of in a hurry because I thought I had to mow the lawn. I had some vegetables on m weekly grocery list and wanted to go ahead and purchase those. I think it's important to support local farmers and would rather spend my money locally when I can and so I picked up some squash and zucchini which was on my list.

I walked around a little more and looked at some of the booths. I had read online that Fred Bread had a booth and I wanted to find that booth to pick up some jalapeno bread or some other fun kind, but, alas, I could not find their booth. I probably walked right by it. There were a lot of stands selling vegetables and fruits and quite a few selling fresh eggs and meat as well, including beef, chicken and lamb. There were also vendors selling flowers, canned foods and frozen drinks and popsicles which looked exceptionally refreshing on that hot afternoon. There were also booths that were selling home-baked goods and it made me think that Erika and I should set up a booth and sell some of our delicious treats. Finally, there were booths with sandwiches and other hot foods which smelled so good it made my stomach growl. I didn't get anything though since I thought all that yard mowing was ahead of me.

As for entertainment, there was live music in the form of some fiddling folks and I wouldn't be surprised if a few people ended up dancing a jog after the sun went down. for the 10 or 15 minutes I was there, I really enjoyed my time at the Greene Street Market. I hope to go back many more times and even partake of some of that good smelling food. The next time I go I plan to go around 7:00 or so because hopefully by then the sun will have gone down some and it won't be as hot (that's wishful thinking on my part).

If you're looking for something fun to do on a Thursday night, stop by the Greene Street Market and see what the local farmers and other vendors have for sale. You may find a hidden treasure or two.

Here's a link to the official web site if you want to take a closer look.