Farmers markets and tag sales, yay
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[/media-credit]New Englanders are hardy people.
I love the way no one around here “spazzes out” about the weather.
Even in the middle of winter blizzards, New Englanders pull on their boots, slip into their warm jackets and gloves and venture out into the freezing snow and ice.
Naturally, everyone yearns for warmer weather because New England winters feel like they are going to last forever.
When spring finally shows major signs of arriving, it’s cause for major celebration.
Two harbingers of the new season for me are the blessed beginning, once again, of tag sales by the dozen and the opening of farmers markets.
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Both are the cause for great joy around here.
“Taggies” or “yardies” are a bargain lover’s version of paradise on earth. There may be terrific treasures to be found. One just never really knows.
Some people pay a lot of money for things and then sell them at dirt dog cheap prices.
Admittedly, if you went room to room in our house, probably 98 percent of all furniture and accessories have come from taggies, estate sales or thrift shops.
Yet, it doesn’t look shabby. I have an eagle’s eye for good deals and quality items.
Plus, anything purchased at a taggie gets a hot, sudsy water and bleach bath as soon as it comes through the front door.
Looking through the classified ads for tag sales is an exercise of pure delight. Usually, there is a marker in my right hand and any potentially awesome tag sale gets immediately circled in red.
Oh, I just adore the joy of the hunt! Either with a friend or on the lonesome road alone, going to tag sales fills my heart with sheer excitement mixed with anticipation and happiness.
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I’ve found great gifts for others at tag sales, too. Sometimes, I’ll buy a perfect item for someone I love and then change my mind about giving it. It results in a tiny twinge of momentary guilt, but when I see the item and it makes me smile, the guilt disappears.
The other harbinger of this glorious season is farmers market shopping. Oh, how I absolutely love driving my car into a parking lot near a market.
Seeing the beige, blue or white awnings over the booths from a distance makes my heart beat fast.
What will it be on any given farmers market day? Shall I bring home some sweet lettuce to make a crunchy salad? Buy some eggs that were perhaps picked up in the chicken coop that morning?
Surprise my hubs with a loaf of freshly baked bread? Or how about buying some brilliantly bright red geraniums for the front window boxes?
Last Saturday, the new Downtown Pittsfield Farmers Market opened for the first time and the Lanesborough Farmers Market, too. It was enough to make me bound out of bed on a Saturday morning like a jack-in-the-box.
The markets were really fun to peruse. People came to both in droves.
Couples walked hand-in-hand, mothers pushed baby strollers and silver-haired people joined in the bargain hunt.
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I almost bought those eye-popping red geraniums for the front sidewalk pots and window boxes.
A sister of mine, however, who is a great gardener, cautioned that I should wait until the end of May.
Sure enough, we’ve had a couple of really chilly nights that would have put the freeze on tender young plants. I’m glad I used self-constraint and refrained from buying them.
In a couple of weeks, though, there will be no stopping me from filling the trunk of the car with geraniums.
Soon it will be Friday again, time to whip the red marker out of the kitchen drawer and start circling taggie offerings. Plus, I’ll add herbs to the farmers market “want” list.
Isn’t spring in The Berkshires wonderful?
Posted by Susan M. Wicker Guerrero
on June 6, 2013. Filed under Columns,From the Heart,Opinion.
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