Ester Community Market!

Or maybe it's the Ester Farmers' Market, or the Ester Village Farmers' & Craft Market, or just the Ester Market. Whatever it is, it's coming to a community park near you, very soon!

The Ester Market rides again

Yep, we're bringing it back. Monique Musick is once again the chief organizer, but we are without a market manager (Nannette can't do it this time around). We've got a survey for market vendors (what day of the week, start dates, how many times a month, that sort of thing). I updated the website.

I plan to take my humongous numbers of tomato sprouts and offer them for sale at the opening day. I've gone rather overboard in this area, given the limited area in the house that is sunny, cat-free (relatively), warm at night, and okay to get muddy and composty and all that. I also have plans for some flower seeds.

Photographic proof to follow in future posts.

The Editor Is In

My suspicion is that it's the cartoonist's knees here, because MY knees certainly aren't that knobbly. This logo is gracing Ester Republic shopping bags (55% hemp, 45% natural cotton, only $10 each--cheap!). Jamie Smith did the logo for me.

Cool, huh?

Addendum: Oh, right (see comments). Ahem. Well, basically one gets the bag from the publisher, since she always carries 'em around with her. But that, of course, means you have to catch her. And we aren't reduced to using the outhouse yet this winter (knock on wood), so that's a little difficult. Lessee, I've got a high per-bag cost, so I can't sell them through local retailers like Gulliver's, so I can either mail them to you (outrageous shipping cost of $3 flat for slow boat or $6 for priority), or try and meet up with you somewhere. Contact Ye Olde Bag Lady at editor@esterrepublic.com to make arrangements. My day job is on the UAF campus, so that might be a convenient rendezvous...

Eat local week

Cracked up when I saw Alaska Grown's farmer "ad": "Local farmer seeks tasty relationship."



The farmer in their ad looks a heck of a lot like a miner to me, but the idea is pretty dang cool. There is a concerted effort across the state to get people to eat locally. It's great. Alaska Grown doesn't list the Ester market on their farmers market page, though.

Park it at the market

The Ester farmer's market was pretty good. We had eleven vendors this time, two more than last month. Calypso Farm finally made it! I forgot my camera, so have no cool photos to show you. We were at the park and it was a good thing we did it there because we wouldn't have had enough room up at the village square for all the tents and tables. It was a beautiful blue day, but the clouds rolled in so we ended up packing up a little early, 7:30ish.

Ester market today

Yep, the third Third Thursday is upon us, and the August Ester Village Farmers and Craft Market. We've had two so far, one in June and one in July. They've been fun, and last time we had live music, too. Here's some photos from the previous ones.



In June, Tobias (ye olde Badde Whyte Dogge) became cover dog for The Ester Republic with this classic canine pose (photo taken by Amy Cameron).

The market was pretty small to start, but we did better than expected and it was a nice sunny day. We set up on the lawn off the village square. Kate Billington and I shared a tent; I sold books and papers and plant starts and library t-shirts, and she sold spices and plant starts and library t-shirts. We did pretty good.



In July, we had several new vendors (twice as many, in fact). This was Jessica and Sammi's table (photo taken by Monique Musick).

And of course, we had greenery, from Matt Springer and Rosie Creek Farm, and other food items (honey, spices, etc.). I spent too much...



This is Amy and her kids near the Rosie Creek Farm stand (photo by Monique).