11. Farmers' Market

For me, this is the quintessential image of Fayetteville--Farmers' Market on the Fayetteville Square. This would have been the first entry in my series of things to do in town had it not been for the simple fact that when I got this cockamamy idea to write a series we were in the dead of winter. Welcome to Fayetteville's Farmers' Market.



Farmers' Market is a coop of local farmers, craftsmen, artisans, and restauranteurs who gather on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings during the warmer months of the year to sell their goods. While the headline in the first photo says it's the Farmer's market, the folks who put it together seem to have the right idea (note the placement of the apostrophe--so much for the UA school paper).

Farmers' Market is organized around Fayetteville's central block, the site of the Old Post Office. In the above picture you can see the post office. Over the years various entrepreneurs have attempted to manage successful restaurants in the renovated post office but sadly, no one has been able to sustain the effort.

The post office is nicely landscaped. There's even a nice little stone pond but the water hadn't been turned on yet, so I didn't take a picture.



Here is Bill standing on the little brick walkway on the south side of the Square.



The picture below gives you a good idea of the setup. The vendors simply back up their SUVs or pickups to the sidewalk and set up shop.



You can find an assortment of things to buy besides flowers.



Need a wasabi mixing dish?



Or maybe a basket?



How about some honey or herbs?



Or art?



Or the must-have luffas before they become luffa sponges!

This is an eclectic mix of commodities but you must bear in mind that Fayetteville is funky. The woman with white hair below has the look of a funky Fayettevillian--a little bit of hillbilly mixed with a little bit of hippie.



Or take for example this gentleman below. He really wanted me to take a picture of his hand. I thought he was selling fishing lures, but oh no, those are seeds.



Clarke Buehling is a world-renowned banjoist; he's played in England and at Carnegie Hall. He and other musicians dot the Square. (My apologies for stopping the video so abruptly.)



Aside from fresh produce and an hour's worth of gentle entertainment, the real reason to come to the Square is to see and to be seen.



There are lots of touristy photo opportunities like this one.

The Square is really about people. You almost always see people you know. We did. Here are Tracy, Maggie, and Marty Slattery. Tracy's husband, Pat, is a colleague of Bill's; he was hard at work that Saturday.



Here, an adorable little girl dressed in a sunny Easter yellow outfit is making friends with a dog.



I, too, made friends with a dog. How about this Newfoundland? Isn't he adorable?



There are nearly as many dogs as there are people!



This dog was collecting money for the SPCA. He and a few of his friends are adoptable.

So now you've finally been to the Fayetteville Square. It's a lovely place to start your tour of my town.