Southport Magazine

I’ll admit it. Before the pandemic I thought farmers markets were just places hipsters went to virtue signal to each other by spending too much money on produce and handicrafts. Then the world went nuts, being indoors with other humans was seen as dangerous, supply chains broke, and we all sheltered in place for “two weeks” that kept stretching further and further out. 

By early summer, it had become clear that gathering outdoors was much less of a problem than indoors, and the Town of Oak Island decided to open its weekly Monday farmers market. It was something to do and someplace that might have the fruits and veggies that may or not be in grocery stores each week, so I went to one. The town staff had painted arrows on the ground to facilitate one-way traffic. Do you remember the one-way aisles everywhere? The most random and weird “health precaution” ever. The people at the farmers market sort of kind of tried to pay a little lip service to the arrows, but mostly just wandered from booth to booth trying to not breathe on anyone else. It was perfectly logical and I started to second-guess my idea of farmers market shoppers. Maybe these were my people? 

And then there were the vendors. Oak Island, though it’s grown, is still a small town, and when you’ve lived in a small town for several decades, you know a lot of your neighbors. So many of these vendors were friends and neighbors that I began to feel bad for the years I’d not shopped the market. The vendors who came from out of town were also super friendly and now I have gotten to know many of them as well. It was a mini community, and though I’m not a joiner by nature, it was a feeling of community that I desperately needed at that time. 

I’ve kept up the habit of my Monday morning market run. It’s a terrific way to start the week and I haven’t missed many. In time, Southport’s market returned as well, and I stroll through there on Wednesdays when I go to check my post office box. It’s different from Oak Island’s, but shares enough of the same vendors that the community feeling sticks. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that the market is set up in the shade of Franklin Square Park. When you think about, how lucky are we that our two local markets give you a choice between sea breezes right off the ocean and the shady live oak trails? For contrast, my first farmers market experience was with my cousin in Baltimore and it was situated under an expressway on-ramp. We are blessed. 

As I write this, today was the first Oak Island Farmers market of the season and of course I went. I caught up with friends, had a photographer show me the latest photo of his pug that we’d featured in our Pet Issue back in January, browsed produce, and asked our local pirate (yes, the Oak Island farmers market features our local pirate and his Black Sails Adventure Company) about getting in touch with someone for a feature story. It was a great hour out in the sun and sea breezes. 

Johnny Robertson had his Coastal Art and Photography tent set up and had a huge smile while he chatted with shoppers. I asked him to describe what it was like to be a vendor at the market. “The best thing about the Oak Island market is the camaraderie among the vendors and the responsiveness of the shoppers,” he said. “They really have it organized, there’s a good traffic flow.” Even without arrows painted on the ground anymore!

Steve and Pam Lewis of Bald Head Coffee are regulars of both the Oak Island and Southport markets. Steve said the Southport market has already been good for business. “It’s been amazing,” he said. “The city trimmed up and now there’s more room for shoppers to walk.”

“We love it because it’s local and we’re local,” he said. Me too Steve.