Ballard Farmer's Market...the most fun I've had all week!

 

It is not at all rare for me to be found in Old Ballard on Sunday morning, because the most marvelous Farmer's Market takes place there every week year round.  Booths of all kinds... vegetables, fresh salmon, amazing cheese,  local honey, flowers, crafts, street musicians, happy wanderers and their happy pooches, most shoppers with a string bag or a backpack to take home the wonderful finds.  Dinner on Sunday night will be fresh and probably exciting, bursting with just picked Northwest flavors and organic goodness, if

you shop here Sunday morning.  And there is very little doubt that you will want to come home with a treasure or two... I brought back a whole salmon (fresh sockeye at $8 pound! wow!), a lovely purple-y bouquet, and a fiddle-head maple wooden paddle for cooking, hand carved on Vashon Island.  As well as a

 

Yew wood medallion for my son...who promptly put it over his head and wore it around his neck.  (Yew wood is known for various anti-cancer properties, and in ancient times was said to promote long life and protection from evil spirits...makes sense!)

There is so much that it is impossible to focus on everything in any given day or visit, but I found wonderful treasures and met three creative craftspeople whose work I plan to follow.   All three informed me they live in the stone age and don't have websites, but I took some photos and will follow up with visits to their studios for a more in-depth visit.

 Dean Robertson of Forest Life Creations is a wood artist that does amazing things with the natural substance.  He is at present working hard to introduce monkey puzzle tree wood (parts of it are translucent, jewelers are using it with diamonds!), and I learned a lot about it.  I found his earrings and jewelry the result of a remarkably creative mind.   Suzanne Hays of Michael Baehr Jewelry creates remarkable collage ornaments that I immediately coveted, whether as icons or jewelry I'm not sure, I suppose the highest and best use is as both at once!  Kyote Beth Jones, with studios on Vashon Island, offers remarkable stained glass.  I know that next time I go back to Ballard Sunday Market my eye will be caught by a new plethora of exciting worlds of art, craft, wonderful food, and inspiration.