Midtown Farmers Market Face-Lift

We attended a community meeting in Midtown Minneapolis last evening – fighting a driving snow storm to get there and back – and found it invigorating and far different than our low-key life in the country.
by Charlie Leck

4 April 2014
We attended a community gathering last night in the northeast corner of the Corcoran Neighborhood in Minneapolis. A block of property, right next to the Lake Street station of the Hiawatha Light Rail Line, is currently owned by the Minneapolis School Board. Hennepin County is seriously considering a purchase of this property and a redevelopment of it that involves significant cooperation with the residential and business interests of that neighborhood. The plan is only in its embryonic stage and there will be lots more of these conversations in order to bring a wide spectrum of varying interests and stake-holders together.

We were there because my wife has been a vendor at the Midtown Farmers Market, which sets up on that piece of property, ever since the market first opened. We don’t have much of a financial stake in the neighborhood, but we’ve developed an emotional attachment to a lot of the people there and we feel strongly about the market’s future. And, we like the work that the Corcoran Neighborhood Organization does in sponsoring this market and advocating for the health and welfare of the entire neighborhood.

It will be four or five years down the road before the changes and developments really impact the market and, by that time, my wife will likely be retiring from this rugged lamb production work she does. It may be just as well. Though the market will likely become a much more attractive place in a very busy and bustling location, there will be much less room for getting a pickup truck and a freezer trailer in place to offer the product we sell.

You can see some of this early thinking about the development of the site on the Midtown Farmers Market web site. I've also included a photo that graphically explains the change in size of the market. The entire development will certainly be a mixed use location that will feature housing for various incomes and ages, retail and office availability and a home for a neighborhood center for the county’s health and human services work.

The neighborhood residents in the current single family houses – to the south and immediate southwest – are worried about the increase of traffic and parking in the areas where they live. There is currently a significant Park & Ride site for users of the light rail line and that space will be gobbled up by the development. That adds more worries for home owners who don’t want curb-side parking to increase in their residential neighborhood. The chances for conversation about these matters were very limited last night because of the jam-packed agenda and one could sense that a number of special interests were given too little time for an expression of their concerns – including bicyclists, home-owners, environmentalists and sustainability advocates.

We came away feeling that this is a very exciting project! The farmers market will certainly change in character and I see it becoming much more like the current Mill City Farmers Market down alongside the Guthrie Theater – and that’s not a bad thing. We’ve made a lot of good friends at the Midtown Market and in the Corcoran neighborhood and we wish them nothing but great good luck on this very exhilarating time that lies ahead for them.

In the meantime, we look forward to the opening of the 2014 Midtown Farmers Market on Saturday, May 3rd and we’ll see you there.

It was some drive home last night in the heavy April snowstorm that rolled into the Twin Cities. We took between 10 and 11 inches of snow here on our farm.

Miscellaneous Thoughts
We enjoyed listening to the presentations of various interest groups last night and we learned quite a bit about how community organization and the nature of communities have changed over the years. We allow ourselves to get pretty isolated out here in the country and we have to catch up on some of the terminology we hear at a meeting like this – co-housing (I sat down this morning and did a bunch of reading to understand it), green-living, Leeds Housing, solar energy, water conservation in housing development and sustainability.

Various interests at the meeting last night (some of the stake-holders) have quite a job ahead of them. I’m talking about the Minneapolis School Board, the Hennepin County Commissioners, the Corcoran Neighborhood Organization and the City of Minneapolis. I hope the YWCA, which owns property just to the west, will also be very involved.

Hey!
There was a point in the meeting where I wanted to stand up and shout-out proudly that we installed a geo-thermal heating system in our home just this past autumn. We’re not complete hicks or country-bumpkins, you know!

_________________________

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Memoir: Sunday Morning

It’s Sunday (“Another Sunday,” I’m tempted to write; however, I don’t like to take Sundays so casually for granted.)
by Charlie Leck

A small pile of books sits on the corner of my desk to my right. On a shelf, in the bookcases also to my right, are, perhaps, two dozen uncategorized and assorted books. From the volumes in the biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson, to Eric Fromer’s book on the reconstruction of the union following the ugly war between the states, to Bill Bryson’s book on travels in Europe and then a biography of Henry Aaron, these books comprise my reading list. They share that list with a number of titles on my iPad reader: The Best American Short Stories; Little Crow; The Warmth of Other Suns.

Oh, how often have I written in praise of Sunday morning!
It’s Sunday morning. The massive New York Times sit on the kitchen counter, near where I’ll have a gluten-free English muffin just a little later – along with another cup of coffee (made from freshly ground beans from Sumatra).

A walk is a necessity, to keep these old (nearly 72 year old) legs working and usable. I’ll be tempted to forget about the exercise today so I can get on with the reading and, perhaps, watch also a little of the men’s Olympic gold-medal basketball game on TV today. My camera is the motivator. If I take my camera along on the walk there is always the chance I’ll come upon the wild turkeys or that the sun will splash just so through the leaves of the trees. Walks are more easily accomplished when I have my camera in hand.

Finally, there are photos to work on. I went into town yesterday to visit my wife at the farmers’ market where she sets up every Saturday. I met, finally, her friend and market helper, Ingrid, about whom she often talks so glowingly. What a genuine and nice girl.

     Ingrid, who helps my wife at the Midtown Farmers Market

I’d urge everyone to go to a farmers market near them a few times during the season, just to see the glorious colors and the peaceful, happy faces of the sellers who so joyfully present the work of their hands. I took market photos because I was so fascinated by it all. The farmers’ market movement is one of the really good things that has happened in our nation in the last two decades.

     The two fantastic young women who sell the most wonderful rolled butter
     just a few booths down from my wife's.

     Over the years, my wife's good customers have also become
      friends who she enjoys seeing again and again.

Sundays are special. I can’t explain it. They just are. People move more slowly on Sunday; they seem more satisfied with life – more generous – more accepting of what they are and of what other people are as well. Soon, the church bells will toll from way down in Saint Bonifacius (five miles away) and I’ll hear them up here in my tree-top library because the doors and windows are open on this cool morning.

Let this stand this morning as my confessionem (L. from confiteri).

“We should be confessing our complicity with the Powers, the ways we benefit from the injustices they structure to our advantage, and the racist and sexual stereotyping that we thoughtlessly perpetuate in our encounters with others. Instead, we tend to confess infractions of the rules the Powers themselves have established. – Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers

Confession, as Saint Augustine understood it, is our proclamation of faith – our statement about the power and graciousness of God and our thankful response to it.

“Grant me, Lord, to know and understand which is first, to call on Thee or to praise Thee? And, again, to know Thee or to call on Thee? For who can call on Thee, not knowing Thee?” – Saint Augustine, The Confessions of Saint Augustine.

     Entertainment at the market ranges from good to wonderful!

     A couple agrees to pose for me. I find the people at the
     market beautiful.

     Most of the visitors to the market just pass on by
     and we love to observe them.

     I want to stop some people to tell them how beautiful they
     look, but I would only frighten them!

     

     To walk around and see the colors is alone enough reason to go
     the farmers' market!

_________________________

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It's Spring?

Two Pony Gardens showed off its wonderful tomato plants!

It's Spring! It's Spring! That merry month of May!
by Charlie Leck

We get fooled by mother nature up here in Minnesota. Even if we've lived here for more than 45 years, we get fooled. April opened so beautifully. We had plenty of warm weather and none of the roaring winds we're used to as Old Man Winter moves out of our region. We started thinking it is time to get the plants outside and prepare the gardens for planting.

And then May arrived today, and with it came blustery and strong winds and chilly temperatures. I hope not too many folks put things outside yet.

The Midtown Farmers Market, in south Minneapolis, opened yesterday and we were there. Quite a few produce vendors had indicated they would be there. Only Twin Pony Farms, a neighbor of ours, showed up; and, as they always do, they came with wide smiles and friendly greetings. They're a popular vendor at the market and folks crowded around them to look at their beautiful plants.

And many of my wife's dear friends and customers showed up too, with messages about how much they had missed our lamb over the winter months. Many of them stocked up and bought all their freezers would hold. It's nice to observe how many of these folks have become more than customers in so many ways. We look so forward to seeing them in the spring, after the winter of separation. We also met a number of new people to the Corcoran neighborhood of Minneapolis. It was a friendly, enjoyable meeting and we know we'll see them again.

Farmers markets are more than just opportunities to sell products. Their gatherings create community and healthful, productive chatter. It's a chance for neighbors to converse about what's going right in the community and what needs changing. It's a chance to sit together over coffee and before the saxophonists who were there yesterday, or before whatever band or performer might be there on future Saturdays. The local grower movement is big all over America and it's one of the good things happening in the nation.

On this coming Thursday, the Excelsior Farmers Market opens (2 pm to 6 pm). We go to that one, too. It's very different than the urban market in the center of southside Minneapolis. It's a little stiff and folks don't relax like the city folks do. In Excelsior it's more a matter of buy and sell -- make your purchases and move on to other things.

It's May! It's May, the month of great dismay
When all the world is brimming with fun, wholesome or 'un'
It's mad! It's gay, a libelous display
These dreary vows that ev'ryone takes, ev'ryone breaks
Ev'ryone makes divine mistakes
The lusty month of May
[Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe, from Camelot]

Diane, one of our regular customers and friends stopped by to say hello
and to see how we did over the winter months. You can see the blustery
and unfriendly sky behind her.