Locavores

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It sounds like it should be a word in Spanish: Perdón, señor. ¿Dónde están los locavores? But no. The neologism is defined on the banner. People assume that most or all of the food in Soulard Farmers Market is locally grown. However, I've read that the majority comes from the area's wholesale food distributors and could be grown anywhere. It's just cheaper here because of the low overhead operation.

Richard and Chrissie

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It's fun to wander around places like Soulard Farmers Market and strike up conversations with people. There are so many interesting personalities and stories. A big DSLR is a good icebreaker. Richard and Chrissie are vendors in the market. After chatting for a while, Richard and I thought we'd met before. He checks the blog and my Flickr stuff from time to time. He's seen our firm's TV commercials. (If you want a laugh watch this.)

So many people are afraid of walking up to strangers and starting a conversation. That's a shame. It really helps to be taught how to do it (Bobbi Lane, who I've mentioned before, taught me) but once you pick it up it's so easy and such a pleasure.

Once again, I got home from work pretty late last night. If I didn't get around to leaving a note on my friends' blogs it was due to the old ball and chain. Some wit observed that the law is a jealous mistress.

Looks Cute, Tastes Awful

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? ? ?

No, I never heard of them either. Was it a joke? The sign sat outside the pet shop in Soulard Farmers Market (est. 1779) on a busy Saturday. So I looked it up. The Web is the repository of all knowledge. (Notice I didn't say wisdom.)

There is actually a small genus, eight species, of fire bellied toads, tiny little critters. When approached by a potential predator, they puff themselves up to display all this yellow-orange-red mottled skin. This is supposedly a signal about how bad they would taste if actually consumed. I'm not sure why you would want one around the house. Maybe some people think it's cute.

It's Hot

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We've had a pretty miserable summer. I know, there are lots of places that are worse but we like to complain about it anyway. In this picture, a produce vendor at Soulard Farmers Market needs towel to soak it up.

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Native

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Soulard Farmers Market has some vendors of things other than food. This man was selling Native American jewelry. Damn, he was a good model. Click the link in the left sidebar to my Flickr page to see a couple of other pictures of him. For some reason we got talking about the Lone Ranger, that racist Western adventure that ruled my childhood. The name Tonto, the LR's Indian companion, means fool or stupid in Spanish. Tonto always addressed the LR as kimo sabe. I thought it was a corruption of the Spanish que mas sabe, or "that knows more" in English. My subject (I didn't get his name - hope he emails me) said it was simply an Apache term for pale face.

This is why I went to that lighting workshop recently. We were in shade inside the market. Sunlight was coming in from the left and I had a flash mounted on the camera with a Lumiquest Pocket Bouncer at TTL -1 2/3. Wish I could hit it this well all the time.

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Potato Juggler

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There have been food vendors at the site of Soulard Farmers Market continuously since 1779. It's a busy, off-beat and inexpensive place to shop food (one vendor sells roasted alligator on a stick). There was a small craft fair at the market yesterday (more about that soon). I took some pictures there and among the vendors' stalls. This young man was playing with the merchandise. I certainly couldn't do it.

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