Arya-Lyn MacDougall spins a hula hoop on her elbow at her mother’s hula hoop booth on the opening day of Market on Main. Behind, mother Carrie-Lyn MacDougall, takes a pause from her own hooping. (Richard McGuire photo)
Market on Main kicked off a new season on Saturday with a mix of vendors selling crafts, produce and craft spirits.
“We’ve got a good turnout for the first day of the season,” said Janis St. Louis, president of Market on Main, referring to the number of vendors.
There have been several changes this year, the main ones being that the Wednesday afternoon markets have been dropped and the Saturday markets will close an hour earlier.
New Saturday times will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The change eliminates the hour from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. when vendors sat in the hot sun and visitors tended to drop off.
“We decided we would try to focus on what works best and Saturdays work best for us,” said St. Louis.
Some Wednesday markets, especially early in the season, drew few vendors and sparse crowds last year.
It was a sunny morning on Saturday as local musician Roland Berg sang old favourites and played guitar.
St. Louis said live music has been booked for all market days this season. Some days there will be one performer, while other days two performers will share different timeslots.
There will be some new performers, along with some old favourites.
Rusty Copeland, a popular performer at previous years’ markets, who has since moved to Kelowna, will play Market on Main several times this season, said St. Louis.
Among the vendors Saturday was Carrie-Lyn MacDougall, spinning a couple of hula-hoops around her head. Her magenta hair matched her clothes.
She sells hoops and teaches people to use them and she extols their benefits for inexpensive exercise.
“It tightens your core muscles,” she said. “It massages your internal organs, so it massages your stomach fat that’s the hardest fat on the body… It increases your spinal strength and flexibility … and improves digestion.”
New to the area, MacDougall said the market helps her to get her name out.
Wayne Jasper, of Tumbleweed Distillery, was pouring tastes of the craft spirits made by the distillery.
“Our most popular has been gin,” Jasper said. “It’s been really a wonderful gin, a London dry style, but flavoured with a lot of botanicals.”
The Apple Pie Moonshine, Maple Moonshine, Cherry Moonshine and whiskeys and vodka are also popular he said.
For Jasper, the market provides an opportunity to get out into the community and reach people who may not drive by the distillery on Lakeshore Drive.
It is a farmers’ market, even if the beginning of May is too early for this year’s crop. But Chris Wolfe, of Flip-Flop Farms from Cawston, was selling last season’s apples, fresh from cold storage.
He was also selling young plants for people who wanted to try farming in their own gardens.
Wolfe said he’ll be selling fresh fruit at the market as the season goes on – apples, pears, apricots, peaches, cherries and ground crops such as heirloom potatoes, beets, carrots, radishes and other produce.
Market on Main runs every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Town Square, the park next to town hall, from now until the end of September.
Watch the video of this story.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
