Market Value

A reminder from Ed Holahan that the Viroqua Farmers Market is still open every Saturday morning at Main Street Public Market.

This morning’s Farmers Market was awash in the swirl of autumn wind and Main Street shoppers, a mix of local easy goers and visiting schedule keepers, the mix that makes Viroqua as constant and as changeable as it is. The town is in between here and there for folks on the road and as stable as a home can be for the few thousand souls who abide here.

There are Mennonite mothers and sisters, Ruth and Loretta and Rosanna and all, selling baked wonders, the so-large cookies and the mounded muffins surrounded by delectable pies and bordered by breads which truly are the staff of life. Happy women, almost preternaturally so, they glow, causing the rest of us at least to glimmer. Thank you to the mothers and sisters of that persuasion. This city boy never knew that ladies could shine so with smiles that melt the morning chill, hugging my shivering shoulders from a distance. From five feet away their embrace is as sweet as the rest of us achieve in our closest family squeeze.

This morning brought the first taste of colder days, the shorter days and longer nights, the days when physical labor feels good because it’s the work that keeps you warm. Standing still and conversing are deceptively cooling practices. You feel good for a while because you are engaged with your peers and then, about ten minutes into the chat, the cold is on your back and in your knees. It’s work that gets the blood moving again. If you’re outside in the morning chill there is no substitute for moving, lifting, pulling and hoisting. I will be splitting wood soon and that will get me through the day as if it were 80 degrees again and I’m cutting flowers. But this being the first day of the chill I stood still and I forgot. I talked and I froze, go figure.

There are good souls here, good souls all around. This market is alive because the people who populate it want to do well and they want everyone else to do well too. We know that there is a market large enough to support all of us and that the notion of good food at a good price will sustain the purveyors in the tough times and the lush. Supermarkets are stuck with selling mundane fare and worse than mundane fare at rock bottom prices. A lot of their food is barely food, cheap but barely food. It’s a model they know and one they can make money at. It’s a model too many of us accept. Cheap food does not equal good food. Take any other commodity you can think of and tell me if cheap equals good. Go ahead, I dare you. Cheap tools, cheap homes, cheap siding, cheap cars or cheap shoes; none of them is worth what is charged for them. It’s junk. It’s the same with food. Buy good, get good, my friend Chef Tom says. He’s right.

People bring their best to the market. They bring what their hard work and long hours have created. From baskets to buffalo, pot holders to potions each grower and artisan and crafter brings the best that they can bring. You can tell when people are proud of what they make. You can see it in their faces and hear it in their voices. You don’t get this feeling from a Carney Barker and there’s something about a used car lot that does not inspire the confidence you feel at our market. There’s a difference between telling your customers about your goods and ‘selling’ another sucker on your scam.

I have surprised myself at the market with my interactions with fellow vendors and our customers. I have always fancied myself as a bit of a loner, a step apart from the crowd but on Saturday mornings since May this other guy has show up in my place. This other guy really enjoys talking to folks; he looks forward to seeing his ‘regulars’. There is a young girlwho is newly enthused about cooking. She will stop at our stand and study, deliberate careful study, item by item all the while thinking about what she will make tonight. This week, after seven minutes pondering the variables she spent her budget of $10.00 on tomatoes, chili peppers, onions and herbs. There are other ten year olds who at the same moment were spending their ten bucks on vapid texts and lip gloss. Give me the young cook any time.

Our first client every week, Harry, is a tall son of the Sixties, no stranger to the life alternative, who relies on us for Nasturtiums (a peppery edible flower) Kale and Blueberries, when we have them. He is possessed of a far away smile and a laid back way of speaking that belies his quick wit. He likes to play word games with me and I like it when he does. Imagine that, Nasturtiums and word play at eight AM. Piggly Wiggly we are not.

There is a vendor across from us named Brian with a radiant smile and warm “good morning” greeting. He has shown us the ropes on everything from weights and measures to food coupons. He has bailed us out when we have forgotten the basics like bags, change and water. He has consoled us on the slow days and congratulated us after the profitable ones. And here’s the kicker; he sells a lot of the same produce that we sell. Our best friend and mentor is also our competition.

Having spent my business life in places where competitors were shunned and conspired against I find this new model infinitely preferable. There IS enough to go around and amity trumps enmity all day long.

That’s the way it is at our Market. And after all these years of “Free Market” debate and increased “Market Share” and letting the “Markets” decide I am thoroughly enjoying learning a new meaning for the words “Market Value”.

Ed Holahan Bio: I was born in New York City in October of 1949. I am writing this sitting in Northern California in October of 2011. In between those dates a lot has happened, almost all of it really good.

My life has involved, in no particular order, playing the accordion, playing third base, organizing students, marrying twice; this time forever, goldsmithing, cab driving, selling model trains, keynote speaking, inventing toys and games, filming animation, writing true facts, writing made up facts, selling expensive men’s clothing (two days), farming, running creativity workshops and doing radio shows. That is a partial list. For the complete Opus d’Ed you’ll have to wait for the DVD which is due out any time now.

I live here because this place is beautiful and because you, the residents hereof, are beautiful too. So beautiful in fact that I spend a good part of every day with a silly grin on my face wondering how in holy blazes I got so lucky.

I hope in time to have each and every one of you as our guest on the Radio. Please watch your mail and your Social Pages for the invitation.