Waiting for the Koloa Farmer’s Market to open. Gentlemen, start your wallets!

UPDATE: Holy COW, these people are cutthroats! The farmers and gardeners line up at the far end of the access drive behind the baseball field, and display their wares off the back of trucks and on card tables set up by their cars. Some take the time to package and price their veggies and flowers, but the real draw are the gorgeous flowers – especially the ones that have already been arranged. That’s where the serious savings is to be had, because local florist shops charge premium prices for local flowers, as most are shipped to the mainland.

I overheard several ladies discussing that they were heading straight for the flower sellers, because they had out of town or Mainland guests coming and needed arrangements ASAP. This funky gentleman and his gentledog allowed “early boarding” for older people and pregnant women to walk down to the stalls, but NOT BUY anything until the whistle was sounded. Then the rest of us, we ravenous herd of shoppers, were escorted down to await the whistle.

Wham!! We picked out a few veggies and a small hand of ginger for cooking tonight with whatever entree we decide on – sweet corn, green beens, and so on. It was like a scrimmage, especially at a couple of hot points where the best, most artfully arranged flowers were on display.

A fight nearly broke out at the orchid truck. A Southern lady next to me said sharply “No! Excuse me, that one is mine, ma’am. I’m just getting my money out, thank you.” The other shopper stepped back, took a breath, and decided it wasn’t worth it.

Whew!! Who knew shopping was this close to being a contact sport… over flowers?

We had been told to arrive early, but we made a couple of stops looking for a particular kind of hat for David and corrective-lens snorkel mask for me (I broke my contacts), and we’d gotten turned around. When we did get there, we were relieved to see that it was still 20 minutes before start time… so we found a spot in the already crowded lot and joined the group of about 50 people waiting at the starting line. It was a bunch of snowbirds and Mainland elders, mostly, and there were some people who were at the concert the night before so we chatted with them as we waited.

After making our few purchases – $1 for a small hand of fresh ginger (more of an oversized thumb), $2 for fresh green beans, and $4 for the sweet corn, the heat and the intensity got to us and we retreated for the car. More and more people were arriving as we and other early shoppers were leaving, but we got out of their quickly enough to avoid the rush. We were shocked to see how many more cars were parked along the road – that place was THE spot to be on Kauai, apparently.

After dropping the veggies off, we went to Joe’s on the Green for breakfast, which was excellent. Nice day.

Ginny

I can has iPhone?

Via: Flickr
Title: Starting Line
By: GinnyRED57
Originally uploaded: 16 Feb ’09, 3.49pm CST PST