A sure sign of spring, with summer to come, is the opening of Portland’s Deering Oaks outdoor farmers market. It’s a sigh of relief that the glories of Maine summer weather are in the wings. Still, at this time of year the park is barely greening up, with the trees struggling to leaf out and the grass panting to become a rich green.
The sign “No” refers to more parking restrictions at the park; the remains of a big oak; the lineup of vendors on one side of the road and cut flowers like daffs trickle in for now
But you’ll notice some changes. According to market participants, the city mandated that the line up of vendors must be configured to one side of the road. In fact the city wanted to push the market deeper into the park. But vendors convinced the city otherwise, and the infinite wisdom of city officials fortunately didn’t prevail.
Since vendors are restricted to set up shop on one side of the road, the markets stretches farther down the road
The reason was that officials felt that the grassy areas were getting ruined by the one-day-a-week trampling of farmers setting up shop, and plans for next year are to pave the road that runs through that area of the park with cobblestones (a pretty swell plan at great expense, one imagines).
Oh, well, for now the same vendors as last year are still there. I didn’t notice, however, any new farmers in the lineup. And the same arcane rules that mandate that products for sale must come from the soil as Maine grown foodstuffs is still intractable. That leaves out baked goods, especially those wicked rice crispy squares or custard pies, and such are verboten according to the city’s charter on farmers’ markets. Those same rules apply to the sale of seafood–a staple at markets elsewhere from York to Bangor and farther north.
Potted spring plantings
For variety, you need to go to other towns and cities for diversity of items sold. That leaves the Portland marketplace giving abundance instead of variety. My favorites include the Brunswick, Crystal Springs, Cumberland, Camden, Belfast and Damariscotta markets where variety and quality of stuff is superb.
For now, there’s plenty of potted plants and cut flowers like daffodils. As for produce it’s still storage crops from last year, with carrots, onions and potatoes aplenty. Greenhouse radishes, spinach, arugula and mixed lettuce leaves are plentiful, too. I asked Austin Chadd of Green Spark Farm in Cape Elizabeth that if he’s offering bags of mixed lettuce leaves why aren’t there whole heads of lettuce available? The leaves are grown indoors in rows and packaged in bags as mixed leaves. Whole heads will start to appear in another month.
Storage crops are plentiful now
Fiddleheads and asparagus are in the wings, though according to Jan Goranson of Goranson Farm, she predicts a banner year for those exquisite stalks. And rhubarb is coming soon, too—spring vegetables that are harbingers of spring crops in Maine.
