Authentic Greek cookies and organic peanut butter dog biscuits. Lisa Lindsey-Davis acknowledges her two products have nothing to with each other ? with one exception.
“They are both near and dear to my heart,” she said.
Lindsey-Davis was one of hundreds to peddle and purchase oversized sunflowers, juicy strawberries and crunchy sugar snap peas at the annual Towson Farmers Market, which kicked off its 28th season Thursday on Allegheny Avenue.
Some vendors said they?ve sold fresh produce and flowers since the market began, but this year?s five-month market marked the debut of several novice farmers, including Carroll County?s Robert Audia. A former insurance salesman, Audia said he planted his two-acre farm of potatoes and flowers in Hampstead after he recently got laid off.
The farm beats an office, he said, and markets beat the grocery store.
“This is the best way to sell your stuff ? go to the customers instead of having them come to you,” Audia said.
Towson business officials, many who participated last week in a study to improve pedestrian access to the county?s government seat, said the event also promotes local shops. Starting next month, they hope to keep the stretch of Allegheny Avenue just off the Towson traffic circle closed into the evening and offer live music, beer and wine vendors and specials at stores and restaurants.
Details are in the works, said Todd Huff, president of the Towson Chamber of Commerce.
“We?ve been wanting to do this for a couple years now,” Huff said. “We?re trying to get people to come out longer. Come out and spend money in Towson.”
But for Blaine Taylor, a Towson resident without a car, the draw of the farmers market is not spending lots of money. Perusing the stalls Thursday with friend Nicholas Petite, he said he can fill four grocery bags for $10.
“It?s fresher, it?s fuller, it?s more,” Taylor said.
