82-Lancastar Farming, Saturday, March 29,1986
Lancaster farmer's market
bustles with Easter activity
BY SALLY BAIR
Staff Correspondent
LANCASTER - The arrival of
Easter means increased activity at
Lancaster County’s farmers’
markets. There’s lots of fresh
flowers, special candy and the
enticing array of vegetables which
mark the beginning of spring.
The stand operated by Amos M.
Barr provides the usual spring
vegetables, along with pussy
willows, bunched in a wide variety
of sizes. Some of the branches are
so tall it seems the entire tree must
have been trimmed. Even with the
Easter holiday arriving early,
there was no need to force these
furry plants, and the demand on
the Tuesday before Easter was
brisk.
Another special feature of Barr’s
stand was the traditional Easter
egg, already hard cooked and
painted. Jeanette Barr, who
operates the stand with her
husband, said there is a demand
for the painted eggs, and she
usually enlists the aid of one of her
grandchildren to help create the
special effects. The Barrs sell only
brown eggs, so the brown shells
add a different dimension to many
market goers.
Jeanette works at Central
Market while her husband usually
stands at Meadowbrook. For
Many market stands offer fresh flowers, which are not only
beautiful, but fragrant as well. Fresh and potted flowers do
equally well during the week before Easter weekend, and
there was shortage of varieties to choose from.
Jeanette Barr waits on a customer who is thinking ahead to
Easter dinner. This stand belongs to Jeanette’s daughter and
offers a wide variety of produce.
lifelong vocation, beginning when
she was a young child and attended
with her grandparents. Her
parents also stood on market as
well as selling vegetables on the
street, so when she married Amos
it was a continuation of a family
tradition on both sides. Although
her family was always at Southern
and Central Markets, her
husband’s parents stood at the
Arcade Market which has since
become a parking garage.
On their 100-acre farm near New
Providence, the Barrs also raise
steers and chickens and a lot of
acreage is in com and hay to feed
the livestock. But a large portion of
the land handles vegetables which
are the mainstay of their market
stand. They have strawberries and
raspberries and about 10 acres of
peach and apple orchards, in
addition to the usual garden
vegetables. Jeanette has two acres
of flowers just for drying, and
these flowers are neatly bunched
for sale.
At Easter, Jeanette says,
“Flowers go before food. But on
Friday they’ll look for fresh
vegetables.” Some people will
search out her brown eggs, just
because they are not readily
available in supermarkets.
Jeanette says she always en
joyed coming to market as a child,
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Ready-to-hide Easter eggs are one feature of the Barrs' market stand the week before
Easter. Jeanette says she hard cooks about six dozen eggs and paints them with help
from a granddaughter. Senior citizens, especially, seem happy to have the colored eggs.
from a job that is also a lot of work. %gpfpp ~
“I like seeing the different people, “
and associating with different
people.”
As the mother of ten children,
Jeanette brought all the
youngsters to market over the
years. She says, “When they were
babies I used to lay them in banana
boxes. When they got a little bigger
I couldn’t bring them because they
would get lost.”
The hard work is the worst part,
but even that is just a way of life
for Jeanette. She said it is
discouraging sometimes in the
winter to go through all the work
and then have low attendance at
market because of weather.
When asked how early she gets
up on market days,- Jeanette
replies, “Not as early as I should.”
She actually rises between 5:30
a.m. and 6 a.m. and is at market by
eight for setting up. Although she
acknowledges that there are some
earlier visitors, she feels most
people don’t come to market until
later in the morning. And, she
adds, “After one it dies down.”
The hard work is actually all
done prior to market day. Jeanette
says, “Most work is done a day
ahead.” In the summer when they
have most of their own products, it
requires picking the vegetables,
washing many of them, bunching
them, and then storing them in the
walk-in refrigerator to keep them
in peak condition for market.
Of course, once they arrive in
Lancaster, all the produce must be
transported from the truck to their
stand locations. They are actually
at two stands, one owned by their
daughter Caroline Pannell. Their
son, Amos M. Barr, Jr., also
operates a neighboring market
stand, so the family tradition is
strong.
Displaying the produce is im
portant to entice buyers to con
sider what you’re offering.
Now is the time when stand
holders like the Barrs must be
looking to summer, and they are
busy preparing soil and putting in
the first .of the crops. Jeanette
says, “We try to get things in as
early as the ground is fit.” She
H&mesfpad
Pussy willows are also featured at the Barrs’ stand. From
tiny bunches to tall branches, the furry symbols of spring
have a lot of appeal to marketgoers.
lamented that the day hadn’t been
long enough to plant peas this
week, but they hope to complete
that job before the end of the week.
She adds, “In April we get a lot of
showers, so we have to plant
between showers.”
While Jeanette has many
regular customers whom she
enjoys seeing, she says that for the
most part, customers now look for
the best price, not for their favorite
standholder. In the years she has
been coming to market she ob
serves that fewer older customers
can get to market because of
c foies
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V
transportation difficulties or being
in nursing homes. And Jeanette
points out, “Those who live in the
suburbs don’t have gardens, but
the younger people like to go to the
supermarket because they think
it’s a hassle to shop at market. We
do see a different customer.”
Summer is Jeanette’s favorite
time of the year, because there is
lots to offer from the garden.
This weekend was a big one for
the Barr’s, but their work goes on
at home, preparing for even bigger
market days as fresh produce is
ready.
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