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 “What an absolutely wonderful day!” enthused Mrs. Pauline “Pete” Sharpley, of Dahlgren, her bright eyes shining blue as the perfect, cloudless sky on Saturday morning. “It feels just like an old time country fair here today!” Her sentiments were echoed to vendors and presenters by hundreds of visitors to the King George Farmers Market Community Appreciation Day. It was a party hosted by the farmers for the whole county and, it seemed, pretty much everybody in town turned out to celebrate!
We kicked off our festivities at 10 a.m. by singing “Happy Birthday” to the Market, which is two months old now! The beautiful sheet cake baked by Carol Wheeler of Wheeler’s Fresh Goods boasted the “Virginia Grown” cornucopia logo and the words “King George Farmers Market 2009.” (By the way, 20 beautiful “Virginia Grown” reusable shopping bags were given away in our Grand Prize Drawing.) Half yellow cake, half chocolate, the cake was big enough to feed 100 people and it did just that. Many thanks to Carol for such a lovely and delicious piece of art!
The rest of the morning simply overflowed with fun, entertaining, and interesting things to see and do. We all danced along to the happy music of the Marenje Marimba Ensemble, a group largely composed of children aged 8-13, who brought the sounds of Zimbabwe to King George for a day. We were “Wow-ed!” by Signora Bella, 18th Century Slack Rope Walker and her amazing skills singing, dancing and playing musical instruments on the rope. It is far more difficult than she makes it look, as many in the crowd found out when she invited them to give it a try! About 35 festival comers were lucky winners in our Basket Walk. The baskets were all provided by our local farmers. What a wide range of goodies they held: several dozens of free eggs from our Egg Co-op, all beef hot dogs, daffodil bulbs, Chinese herbal medicine patches and healing oil for aches and injuries, fresh baked breads and cookies, beautiful flower bouquets, herb bunches fresh and dried, Gluten-free Buckwheat chocolate chip cookies, new red potatoes, yellow squash, zucchinis, cucumbers, a discount coupon (with cocktail sauce) for seafood, sour cherry jam… the bounty just went on and on! How blessed we are to have such richness to share and celebrate—all locally grown right here in King George!
There were so many things to see and do, I hardly know where to begin to tell you. My own personal “Wow!” moment came when I looked up and saw the amazing ladder stretching 30? 40? 50? feet up in the sky from the KG Fire Department Co. 1 truck. KG Fire and Rescue had an ambulance for us to visit, too, as well as little blue firefighters’ hats for the kids.
The Sheriff’s Department did safety fingerprinting for kids, KG Parks and Recreation had information on summer camps and programs, Smoot Library was signing kids up for the summer reading program, and giving out great scratch and sniff bookmarks. Visitors watched Julie Moore of Dirty Bird Pottery making fantastic tiny pitchers and pots on her wheel, Mark Cawthon re-caning antique chair bottoms, and Suzanne Pryor of Natural Therapy demonstrating the Chinese arts of acupressure and massage therapy. We thank each of these three presenters for donating gifts to our Grand Prize Drawing.
Children delightedly played with bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and a parachute with Shannon Lewis from KG Family YMCA, they pedaled little tractors around, thanks to Mr. Stan Mitchell and the FFA (Future Farmers of America) club of KGHS. The three big tractors brought by Mr. Mitchell, Larry Carr, and James Mullen were a hit with young and old alike!
As folks wandered the festival, they could pick up an Earth friendly tattoo at the Sierra Club booth, chat with Ranger Nina and other Friends of Caledon, visit with farmers and get pencils, shopping bags and other “Save Our Food” information from the Farm Bureau, see real honey bees brought in a contained hive by beekeeper Mike Church, watch wool being spun by hand and on a wheel by costumed members of Heritage Arts 4-H Club, hosted by George Washington’s Birthplace in Westmoreland Co., visit the Extension Service for advice on ailing plants and information about composting and pick up how to packets for getting started eating gluten-free from Shirley Braden of the King George Gluten Intolerance Group. Aubrey Mitchell churned real butter under the shade of the Ruritan Club’s tent, and I am sad to say the Ruritan’s Bar B Q ran out long before I had a chance to get myself some lunch! All in all, it was a picture perfect day to remember and we of the KG Farmers Market thank everyone who helped orchestrate such a fine event! We look forward to many, many more celebrations at our Market.
DeLaura Padovan
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