Crisp white tents mushroomed Monday morning on
Old Causeway Drive. Visible from the crest of the Heide Trask drawbridge
Wrightsville’s first open air market attracted traffickers to a handful of
cheerful vendors: the herbalist, the spice man, the flower lady, the farm
family, visionaries all, harkening back to that bygone era when the delivery
of fresh vegetables and eggs hawked door-to-door were a summertime staple.
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Shoppers check out vendors’ displays at
the first Wrightsville Beach Farmers’ Market on Monday, June 22, on
Old Causeway Drive. ~ Allison Breiner |
That flavor of the past has come rushing back to the
present now that fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, cut flowers, herbs, free
range eggs, poultry and pork—all farm raised within a few miles of
Wrightsville Beach—will make their weekly appearance, pleasing
health-conscious consumers and the locavore crowd, each Monday morning at 8
a.m.
Between seven and 10 merchants, with room to
grow, will offer their wares plus the promise of such regional delicacies as
pickled okra, Tower 7’s house-made salsa and the harvest from an organic
community garden located on Wrightsville Avenue.
It has been a long journey, three years
exactly, since the subject was first introduced to the board of aldermen and
in spite of some last-minute glitches between the board and a volunteer
market manager that surfaced at a special meeting last week over financial
responsibilities and legal liabilities the wrinkles have been ironed out of
the first town-sponsored farmers’ market.
Pending the duration of the growing season,
the market will remain open through September.