You gotta love the general public...mostly for their uniqueness and originality. (If you can't laugh at their antics, you'd be in the slammer for hurting one of them, I swear.)
Take the farmer's market.
Last year I made a list of humorous and unforeseen incidents that still, to this day, keep me laughing hysterically. (It could become a farmer-comedy-routine at the next sustainable agriculture symposium,)
Take the farmer in the tent next to me that walked up to me last fall and loudly proclaimed, "I hope you can tell me what's causing my nuts to shrivel up this year!"
What can you say to that? Keeping eye contact was hard enough...
Then there was the sweet gal that ate my 2-day old display of hardened ciabatta bread...oven hardened for hours and dried for days to stand up to my lovely display of tomatoes, basil and olive oil. She walked away saying, "Delicious!", before I could open my mouth and find the words to tell her it was not for sampling. The older gentleman behind her took the last piece and as he bit into it, turned and left with a very puzzled look on his face. The artisan baker next to me couldn't stop laughing for weeks.
One of my favorite antics came from Chester...an adorable, very well-behaved and beautifully trained dog that has become my "good omen" ever since he christened my table on the very first day I was at this market. He lifted his leg on my tablecloth (the one with the most delightful Italian words and pictures of fruit and olives in all the right colors for my farm theme) and he shamelessly "marked his territory'. Apparently, I'm his forever.
So, last Saturday, at the first market of the year, it was a beautiful 73-75 or so degree day, full sun and a record turnout...what could possibly happen to add to my list of bad, badly behaved market goers?
{I shouldn't be surprised, but every time it happens I sit here shaking my head, No Not again!}
A professional gardener, who has become a friend (and brings me delicious homemade breakfast bars on occasion) apparently couldn't take it any longer and came up to my table to say, "No one knows how to market anything", and started rearranging my table to demonstrate the fact.
(Hello...Did she know I was standing right there?) She meant well, and actually, I did take her "suggestions" constructively and rearranged it myself the following week. Quite an improvement I'd say but her delivery...oh my, her delivery could use a bit of...shall we say, tweaking?
{Still, bring on the breakfast bars, my friend!}
My favorite thing that happened was a quirky little comment that Chester's master made to his lovely wife when I told her, "Watch out for the big balls hanging on the tent!", as she dodged her way to the table to say hello through my display of decorative grapevine spheres.
"I just said that to her earlier this morning..." was all he said. She turned beet red.
It will be a great year...produce, anyone?