By Kyra Wagner
For the Homer News
This winter during the Alaska Farmers Market Organizers conference held here in Homer, our keynote speaker was Kathy Zeman from Minnesota. She is a rock star farmers market vendor and promoter who prides herself on her high quality, organic goat’s milk products. We all wanted her to move to Alaska.
And then she met Susan Houlihan of Alpenglow Skin Care. Susan uses organic oils and butters in her products, a leap in quality that even Kathy had not yet made in her own soaps. It was so cool to see someone who was there to inspire us being inspired by one of us.
It’s a good reminder that we are so lucky here. We have such a super-duper, incredible, high quality, uber-talented, absolutely stunning and inspiring line-up of vendors at the Homer Farmers Market that no amount of extreme adjectives could ever do them justice.
It may sound like I’m exaggerating a bit, but I’m not.
Susan is one of many who take pride and care in the products that they bring to the Market, but that pride and care also pays back.
Susan remembers selling at the Market, overwhelmed, setting up her tent while caring for her newborn daughter. Now she has raised her two children at the Market and she knows the other vendors well, but back then it was a heart-warming surprise to have other vendors come over and help her with set-up.
Whether plants or soaps or jellies or art or crafts, each vendor takes pride in what they do, presenting for us all the products of their devotion and attention.
And somehow that magnifies into a place of sharing community that automatically produces quality relationships.
So I am pretty excited to see the first Market this Saturday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. out on Ocean Drive. You will see Susan at the entrance, Marsha with her jams and jellies to her right, and now you will be able to cut through to the back row by the info tent and go straight for the veggies.
This year Wednesday Markets are starting immediately so you can visit all of our amazing and dedicated Market vendors twice a week.
Kyra Wagner is the coordinator of Sustainable Homer and the Homer Farmers Market’s biggest fan.
