‘Olympia’s little secret’ farmers market kicks off its spring season
Support and love for the arts runs deep in Olympia. A prime example is Marion Pollmann, whose table at the Olympia Farmers Market on Friday morning was covered in handmade clay and mosaic garden art.
Pollmann has been a vendor at the market for 12 years. She began doing clay art 25 years ago after taking a class at The Painted Plate, a do-it-yourself ceramics studio in downtown Olympia.
Now Pollman has a studio in Boston Harbor and uses clay specifically made for her work so it will last for decades outdoors.
Pollmann said she typically sets up at the market on Saturday and Sunday but was in attendance with more than 50 other vendors for the first day of the “high season” on Friday. She said having so many vendors there was a good way to get the momentum of the season going.
“It’s been really good; we have a really amazing community,” Pollmann said. “We feel really well supported.”
The market opened at 10 a.m. Friday for the first day of its extended schedule, with a performance from dance and percussion group Samba Olywa. The group invites people to join them when they perform, and market-goers did just that. Laura Cattuti said patrons flowed in with the dance group like a parade.
Cattuti and her husband, Joe, own Ginger Street Studio, where Joe is a self-taught glass blower. He started blowing glass in 2006 and has had work on display at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma.
Cattuti said Joe uses a technique called fuming, using pure silver and turning it into a gas. He starts with clear glass and the fuming process turns it into a vibrant see-through green that leans amber in the sun and blue in the shade.
Cattuti said she is excited for the summer season to start and had lots of people she hadn’t seen in a long time stop by their stand. She said they’re trying to get back into the routine of attending the market since COVID-19 mandates and restrictions have lessened.
“We’ll do it slow, so we don’t become exhausted,” she said. “This year we’re playing it by ear.”
Cattuti said the community has been very dedicated to attending the market and supporting local vendors. She said as long as she and Joe have been in Olympia, people have talked about meeting at the market.
“Everybody knew about it,” she said. “We’re trying to ramp ‘meet me at the market’ back up.”
Building up the community
The market is open year round, but the schedule is expanded from Saturdays only to Thursday through Sunday from April to October. Though the season slows down in the winter, Cattuti said people are always out looking for local produce and handmade gifts.
Pollmann said having the market open year round has been really good for her business. She said it allows for repeat customers, which leads to stronger community building.
“It’s so important for our community, especially during COVID,” Pollmann said. “People feel like they can come out and shop, and I think being an outdoor market with a permanent structure makes it easy for us to do it all year round. People like consistency.”
Marian Parker, who lives in Lacey, said she was ready to get down to the market on its first day of its extended schedule. She and Karen Hamilton go to the market a couple times a month and said they’ve never had a complaint about anything they’ve bought.
Hamilton said she was surprised when she first came to the market. Hamilton is from upstate New York and now lives in Lacey, and she said she’d never been to a market like Olympia’s. According to its website, the market is one of the only vendor-owned and operated farmers markets in the state and has been open since 1975.
“It’s quite large and established,” she said. “It’s a gathering place, or an anchor for the community. It’s Olympia’s little secret.”
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