A revamped, community-sponsored Queen Anne Farmers Market opened Thursday afternoon at the corner of Queen Anne and Crockett, replacing an earlier enterprise that had become mired in politics and recrimination. Julie Whitehorn, its chair, and Patty Spahr, its director, assembled a cast of local farmers and food vendors (Skillet, Sorrentino's, Secret Stash) despite hefty obstacles (street use, parking, health inspections, etc.). The grand opening included a ribbon-cutting by Mayor Nickels (who pointed out that he had reduced the fee for street use by farmers markets by executive order) and an appearance by food writer Matthew Amster-Burton (aka Mamster), author of Hungry Monkey (about the culinary education of his five-year-old daughter, Iris).
Very much the in-thing, these farmers markets. Dogs of all sizes, on leashes and mostly muzzled, competing for right of passage with baby strollers and their pushers, resulting in amiable, well-fed gridlock. Smores (from Skillet) and strawberries (from Hayton Farms) to all!
Er, except that Hayton was selling strawberries at $4, while Metropolitan Market, across the street, was selling them at $3. We mentally chalked it up to the surcharge of political correctness, of "Eating the Right Thing," until we tasted the fruit, warm from the sun; they were, in fact, the sweetest, lushest strawberries we've ever eaten.
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