Something Squirrely at the Market

       Last Wednesday's market was by far the hottest the market I have ever been a part of. You could see the slowness of everyone dripping in the heavy air. There were no babies, no dogs, just slow moving adults out to support the local farmers and artisans. I grew up in Nashville on Delvin Farms, I'm a Southern girl, I like my tea sweet and my okra fried, but it wasn't until this last heat wave that I truly understood why people say the South moves slowly. Well no wonder, it's because the air is a wall of heat we have to muddle through! Even my words were slow coming out. Someone would ask me a question and I could hear my brain trying to digest what was being said, so you could imagine how slow I was to respond when Pastor Weeks of the East Nashville Freewill Baptist Church came out and asked if my husband Brandon and I could help him remove a critter from the church nursery. Pastor Weeks is the reverend from whom we rent the market space. He is kind, gentle and I'm fairly certain a born and raised Southern himself with the thick accent to prove it. So when he asked if we could help him remove a critter from the nursery, I paused a minute to try to make sense of what he was asking while Brandon grabbed a bushel basket and said, "sure! Let's go!" What we found in the nursery was a scared squirrel who had apparently wanted to free himself of the debilitating heat himself. He was perched on the crib staring at us when we walked in. Brandon shut the door behind us and the three of us took our places in various corners of the room. I never knew a tiny squirrel could make three adults jump the way we did! I kept saying, "ooohh I'm a little scared of him! Brandon, get him!" When he hit the window trying to get out, it dawned on us to simply open it. That's another thing heat does to you- makes you lose common sense! I opened one window, Brandon opened the other and out the squirrel jumped, away from three jumpy adults, away from the cool air conditioning and back to his own world.  Things sure did squirrely there for a minute!
    Farmers markets are not only about shopping for your goods. They are a place for the community to gather, to make friends, share recipes, talk to the people who grow your food and help one another out- maybe even rescue one from a critter! That's the reason I enjoy our weekly farmers market. Not only do I get to socialize off the farm a bit, but there's always some new adventure, some new knowledge or experience! What do you enjoy about your weekly farmers market?
-Amy Delvin Tavalin