Changes at the Roanoke Farmers' Market

Saturday June 23, we headed down to the Roanoke Farmers' Market to look for a bird feeder to replace the one destroyed by some local raccoons.

Unfortunately the little hardware store on the market was out of our favorite feeder.

We ended up in one of our standard visits to the market where we wander from stall to stall searching for the best produce.

The most noticeable change in the market would be the new blue and white awnings.

I have written about the market a number of times, including a morning visit in 2005, a spring trip searching for tomatoes, and a fall harvest post where you can see the old awnings which were yellow and white.

I even have an earlier market web album which you can compare to the web photo album that I did of our market visit on June 23, 2007.

Lots of things change at the market, but some stay the same.  Julia was still on her corner selling irises.  Most of our favorite vendors were still there with the exception of Garden Mountain Farms. 

The good news is that another vendor, Sandy River, had replaced them and was selling tasty pork and chicken products that I can grill.

There was music on the market sponsored by Ukrops, and there was another group playing on the corner by the hardware store.

We got bread from On the Rise Bakery along with green beans, cantaloupe, corn, new potatoes, and flowers.  We got our items from a variety of the vendors.

The Roanoke Market is a treasure and unique in many respects.  I hope it continues to grow and prosper.

I wish we could find something like the Market down on the Southern Outer Banks, but the vegetable growing season starts and ends early down there, and we just do not have enough people to sustain a market like Roanoke's.