The Winter Market Cure For The Blues

This column originally appeared on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010

There was still about two feet of snow in the front yards along West Chestnut Street in West Chester, and the temperature was in the mid-30s, but Saturday morning a group of about 50 people showed up at a parking lot bordering North Church Street and thought of spring.

More to the point, the people who arrived to partake in the West Chester Growers Market's third Winter Market came not only to cheer themselves partially out of the winter doldrums the snowstorms and cold weather have put them in, but also to stock up on items they've been missing since the last Saturday in November, when the market vendors folded their tents — literally and figuratively — at the end of the market's May to December season.

There were decent-sized lines at the Big Sky Bread Co.'s tables, and a healthy crowd checking out the new Horseradish and Cheddar spread at Lizzie's Kitchen. (Healthy in the sense that the folks were large and ruddy-faced; I'm not entirely certain what effect large servings of Horseradish and Cheddar spread would have on Chester County's recently designated "healthiest county in Pennsylvania" designation.) A more-than-smattering bunch of folks were waiting patiently to pick up their pre-orders of grass-fed beef, chicken and lamb from Lindenhof Farms, and Ellen's soap stand was drawing in customers wanting to pick up a discount on her holiday spice soaps. The older guys at Oak Shade Farm's homemade cheese stand looked like they were doing a typically brisk business.

As stated previously, there was still snow on the ground and the air was chilly, but the conversation and rhythms of the market could have taken place in July or August.

"Does that blackberry jam have seeds in it?" a woman inquired at Lizzie's Kitchen. The long lines moved slowly but surely and no one seemed out of sorts if the person two spots ahead decided they had to jump back and grab a plate of dinner rolls as well as what was already in his bag. People you had forgotten you knew bumped into you and caught up with the news, and adults remarked a lot about how much the kids had grown. If it weren't for the down jackets, hats and scarves, you'd think that Labor Day was just around the corner.

The truth be told, this was not the third Winter Market at the WCGM. The first Winter Market was scheduled for Dec. 19, but if you remember, we got a little snow that weekend, a trifling 20-plus inches, and traffic was a little slow that Saturday. But you had to figure that people were waiting to come out of their snow-imposed shells. More than one person could be heard complaining about snow-shoveling woes, and the bright sun was on everyone's lips as a way of shaking off the cold.

As for me, I had a fine time reconnecting with the various growers' stands and discovering new ones I'd overlooked in the past. I hadn't been to Jeff Porter's Chile Spot stand before, but my friend Jamie recommended it since he used to work with Jeff. An amateur chili sauce creator, Jeff was only happy to unload a tall bottle of Chipotle Finishing Sauce, which his young assistant packed up for me very nicely. Jeff in his real life is a business executive of some kind, I believe, but his chili stand is just the sort of local production that makes the growers market what it is. (I also picked up my order at Lindenhof's stand, which should last me until the next Winter Market in March. Or not, depending how many uses I can find for the lamb sausage.)

I've read a lot about the move to locally grown food products and how environmentally beneficial they are. You cut down on transportation and thus on fuel usage; you get a more diverse set of offerings and thus are exposed to better foods; you support the economy in your community instead of some multinational agri-conglomorate run by alien robots and thus keep down the possibility of outerspace domination, or whatever. I understand all those concepts, but frankly it's the sense of community that I get wandering between the stalls while I'm there that brings me back. It's nice to see folks pretty much thinking along the same lines as you do, picking up some interesting eats, and enjoying the sunshine. That's what keeps me coming back.

That and, frankly, the prospect of more Horseradish and Cheddar spread.