On a lazy Sunday morning, food and art provide a chance to break away Text, Design by Sandra Gaul Editing, Photos by David Ragsdale Team 2 A lone guitarist wails out tunes as shoppers in shorts, tees, and sundresses desultorily wander from tent to tent surveying the offerings on a warm Missouri Sunday morning. While local fruits and vegetables provide a rainbow of colors to survey, a food truck, the Biscuit Wagon, tempts the taste buds with the smell of bacon frying.
Teaching a kid to fish
The Missouri Department of Conservation promotes its Discover Nature fishing program in the middle of the parking lot where the Columbia Farmers’ Market and Artisans’ Fair is held. “We offer four lessons of two hours each for kids,” explains Mariah Morrison, angler education assistant. “The first lesson, we teach them the basics for about an hour. Then they fish in the pond at Bass Pro for an hour.” The pond contains mostly bluegills and hybrid sunfish, which are released after being landed. “If they come for all four lessons, they get a $25 gift card to help them buy some fishing equipment of their own,” said Morrison. According to Morrison, there’s been a decline in local angling, “...so we’re trying to attract young people to the sport. I think there’s just too much else to do, so they don’t think of going fishing,” said Morrison. “We’re hoping this program will revive their interest.” Discover Nature’s next lesson is Saturday, July 26, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at Bass Pro.”
Longing for the days of yore
A few feet away, a man in a white tunic with a coat of arms reigns. Swords and helmets and shields advertise his wares and the upcoming Central Missouri Renaissance Festival. An imposing figure, Stephen Eickhorst of Oakheart Armory, describes what to expect at the festival. “Of course, there will be vendors offering period-ware -- things like jewelry, garments, and weapons. There will also be steel fighters, men in knight’s armor who will fight with steel swords, an actual knight from Germany showing just what knights had to wear, and various demonstrations,” said Eickhorst. The fun encompasses everything from a Scottish caber toss, in which participants attempt to flip 7-foot logs, to a trebuchet flinging watermelons from a combination slingshot-catapult device to rides for children like a horse on a wooden rail and a merry-go-round. The Festival will be Sept. 13 and 14 at Boster Castle Fairgrounds in Kingdom City, Missouri. For more information, check out their website www.CentralMORenFest.org
Eat your colors
The busiest tent at the market displays, a variety of tomatoes, peppers, blackberries, peaches, chiles, and other produce, most of which is grown locally. “Some of this we grow, but much of it we buy from the Amish and Mennonites in the area,” Amanda Robertson, the vendor, said. Of course, the usual Roma tomatoes are present, but so are darker-colored ones with names like Black Sea Man. “The deeper colored tomatoes are more acidic and have a more robust flavor,” Robertson said. As for the green tomatoes, does anyone really want them? “Oh, sure. At first, hardly anyone buys them, but then someone will come along and buy the whole batch. They like to fry them or put them on pizza,” said Robertson. A puppy attracts the attention of lots of shoppers at Robertson’s stand. “My husband found him on the side of the road. So sad, but at least he has a good home now,” Robertson said.
Nature’s accessories
One tent over, bouquets of sunflowers, daisies and rose- lisianthus elicit admiration and a few customers. While they admire the flowers, the sun glints off nature’s jewelry -- sparkly quartz, polished stones and petrified wood, which has been refined to highlight its contrasting tones. Jennifer and David Townsend have hiked all over to gather these treasures, which David works into handmade jewelry pieces. The rarest piece looks quite ordinary, but comes from a Missouri lead mine. “Those lead mines are now closed and so no longer available to be explored,” said Jennifer as she reverently held the stone. A hunk of steel-like crystals from China called stibnite looks as if it were inspired by the Transformer movies. Or perhaps the stibnite inspired the movies? Perhaps the oddest curiosity in the booth is a small coin purse made out of a Cane toad, a large toad native to Central and South America, which is considered an invasive species in Florida. “I got that at an art fair in Florida. There’s a guy who hunts them down there and then turns them into these purses,” David said. “I’ll sell it to you for $15.”
A Sunday outing For Jessica Schlosser and her 7month-old daughter Audrey, the market is a nice, laid-back outing. “This is our first time here this summer. I usually come more often, but the summer has been busy,” as she glances at her daughter reaching for her pacifier. “Usually we come to get produce, but I like window shopping through the other vendors’ booths as well,” said Schlosser. Not only does Schlosser enjoy shopping opportunities, she loves the made-to-order options provided on
site. “I was really glad to see the Biscuit Truck. I like everything they make,” said Schlosser.
~~~~~~~~ Yes, there’s a little something for almost everyone at the Columbia Farmers and Artisans Market at 126 N. 10th Street. It runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays. It’s a good place to find food, uniquely local art, information and conversation.