This is our booth at the Yarmouth Farmers Community Market in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Our booth is called Sticks, Stones, and the Backwoods Baker. I sell my rock art, mostly pep-talks, specialty cupcakes and breads, and my partner, Mike, bakes specialty breads and makes wood-related art.
I could talk about rocks all day, so a blog seems like a natural thing! I'm excited. Where to begin?
I'll begin at the market.
We've been a vendor at the market for a little over a year. Yarmouth is a small town of about 7000 people. Market goers consist of locals and tourists, mostly American, coming from Bar Harbor, Maine, on The Cat (a high-speed catamaran ferry). We joined the market because we were new to the community (and province), and we were looking for social fulfillment. For me I was fulfilling a dream! I FINALLY had a place I could unload some of my rocks that I'd picked up over the last 10 years with the sole purpose of sharing them with others who thought they were as beautiful as I did!
Here at my table I have a vase Full of pretty rocks that I offer people as they walk by, "Hey, would you like a pretty rock?" Sometimes they smile and keep walking, with a look that says, did she just ask me if I wanted a Rock?! And other times, people are like, Oh, yes I would!
I have pocket rocks to offer people too. "Go ahead, take one!" I pour them out to display them all. "Oooooh! Feel this one!" as I plop it in their hand. I tell them how every time I put my hand in my pocket I feel my pocket rock, and I can feel a smile all over me. It feels like I'm carrying around a friend in my pocket!
My pep-talk-on-a-rock is our most popular product on the table! People are drawn to them. Groups form. They clog the isle while they read them all and we share stories —sometimes about rocks and sometimes about what the pep-talk means to them, or the people they want to give them to. I've had people cry at our booth. Sometimes it's me!
I have regulars, people I consider friends now, who stop to talk rocks, bring me rocks, buy rocks —it's awesome!
To say it's socially fulfilling is an understatement.
My favourite market story is this:
For a while we had an empty booth across the isle. Our vendor neighbour threw a table cloth on it and displayed some of her Yarmouth specific products. The sign lady added some signs. The wood guy added some wood-working, and I took a bowl of rocks over. People would stop at the table and whoever's stuff people would stop at, or product people seemed to be looking at, we'd run over to the table and start a chat. I was busy!
The wood guy comes over and says to the other vendors, "All these beautiful handmade things over there and all people want to talk about are rocks!"
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love the rocks and the lovely lady who presents them
I envision you walking along a rocky beach — you walk slowly so the sound of rocks crunching beneath your feet does not drown out the voices of rocks. They vie for your attention — the stories they want to tell are many and varied. You slow down as one rock’s voice becomes clearer than the rest. Down you bend, listening intently. Yes, this is a story worth sharing.