Imagine . . .

Back in the early 1950s, when I was very young in Holland, Michigan, a man known to us children only as "the huckster" would come down our street in summer peddling fresh vegetables and fruit. He drove an old pickup truck, with his produce displayed in the back. He arrived on my block in the afternoon--about the time the neighborhood women, housewives all, were starting to think about dinner--and stopped under the canopy of elms just beyond our house. He rang a bell to announce his arrival, but the signal that brought the women out, coin purses in hand, was the chorus of "Mom, the huckster's here!" coming from us kids playing on the street. (If huckster had a pejorative meaning back then, we were unaware of it.)

Every summer, here in Hudson, I think of the huckster and ponder how great it would be to have fresh vegetables delivered to my block every day. But these days, when there are few stay-at-home moms and cooking dinner at home is more likely to be for just one to two instead of four or more, CSAs, farmers' markets, and farm stands just beyond our borders are usually adequate to fill our needs . . . except when it's the middle of the week, you missed the four-hour window of the Saturday farmers' market, and you need spinach or rhubarb or eggs.

Enter the Upstreet Market, a midweek farmers' market getting ready to open soon in Seventh Street Park. A group of young farmers, bakers, craftspeople, chefs, and artisans are working together to create a second farmers' market in Hudson, which will happen on Wednesday evenings from 4 to 7 p.m. during the summer and early fall--a nice complement to our beloved and popular Hudson Farmers' Market for shop owners who find it hard to get to the market on Saturday morning and for everyone who, for whatever reason, needs a midweek infusion of fresh produce.

The Upstreet Market has an Indiegogo campaign, going on right now, to raise $3,000 to create an LLC, buy insurance, do some promotional marketing, and get some infrastructure. Thus far, $1,345 has been raised--45 percent of the goal--but there are only ten days left in the campaign. So if you would like to have an evening midweek farmers' market in the Public Square (a.k.a. Seventh Street Park), click here to learn more about the plans for the market and to give your support.

COPYRIGHT 2014 CAROLE OSTERINK