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Market opens to a bonanza

Hundreds turn out for a festive welcome to St. Petersburg’s open-air shopping for another season.

By MELANIE AVE
Published October 7, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG — It was opening day of the Saturday Morning Market,the sun shined, music played, and Karen Krymski gushed.

As she peered from underneath her white vendor tent Saturday afternoon, hundreds of

shoppers walked past, carrying fresh flowers, sipping smoothies, and, more important, sporting smiles.

The smell of popcorn and coffee wafted through the air.

“It’s like Christmas,” said Krymski, owner of the Jeweled Cat, just after securing the sale of a $44.94 Cookie Lee necklace to a St. Petersburg teacher. “People are very excited to have us back. They can’t get enough.

“This is probably the best opening day I can remember.”
Merchants like Krymski, a four-year veteran, hailed the market’s fifth annual opening day as the best ever.

The Central Avenue market, which offers food, plants, produce, baked goods and crafts, runs October through May.
More than halfway through the morning, market manager David Cellon dropped into a foldout chair and puffed a cigarette.

“Oh, man,” he said. “We’ve been slammed.”

He guessed about 4,000 people sampled the new season — about the twice the average number of customers.

Many of the more than 10,000 men, women and children who participated in the nearby Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure at Vinoy Park passed through, either coming or going to the fundraiser walk/run to fight breast cancer.
Mary Double, 58, of Orlando and Martha Laesser, 53, of St. Petersburg bought honey and eyeballed Malaysian orchids.

“If I could spend all day eating and trying things,” Laesser said, “I’d be here from dawn to dusk.”

Organizers say the market is the largest outdoor farmers market in the Southeast. After some earlier struggles, the market is now a city staple, attracting young families, outdoorsy types and elderly shoppers.

The market began in 2002, organized by several residents who wanted to add to the city’s culture. In October 2002, it had eight vendors. It now operates with a group of 200 vendors, some of them rotating, who pay a $35 a week. Ninety vendors set up booths weekly.

Lisa Glenn, 44, owner of Abike Natural Products, was accepted as a part-time vendor in March. She wants more than anything to become a full-time seller.

“Everybody tries to get in this market,” she said. “It’s a tough one to get in, this one and Sarasota.”

The season opener kicked off with a two-block-long parade and a welcome by Mayor Rick Baker.

Many people said they come to the market for the atmosphere and the people watching and the fresh goods.
Market regulars and St. Petersburg residents Crystal Desrochers, 32, and Lulu Laird, 40, rode their bikes to the market and dined on omelettes and wraps from the Uhuru Breakfast Oasis.

“We come to walk around,” said Desrochers, a mail service manager. “We always eat. It’s nice because it’s all local businesses. It’s nice for the community.”

Malcolm Butler, 41, sipped a pink smoothie as his son and a friend danced in front of a live band, playing guitars and bongos.

“When we saw it in the newspaper, we knew we had to be here,” said Butler, a professor. “It’s a good environment. Family friendly.

“I got some beef jerky in my pocket. I sampled some barbecue sauce. Popcorn. Turkey leg. I can only sample so much at a time.”

As a line of people waited to buy fresh tomatoes, lettuce and bananas from Bob and Daughter Produce, owner Connie Lehmer surveyed her empty tables.

Pineapples. Gone. Asparagus. Gone. Romaine lettuce. Gone.

One of the original vendors, Lehmer said no opening day has been better than Saturday’s.

“We expected it to be busy,” she said, “but not this busy.”

Melanie Ave can be reached at (727) 893-8813 or mave@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 7, 2006, 22:30:47]