Cajun French: le boulanger (lu boo-lon-jā) – baker
Michigan is amazingly very rural. Because of this there are great number of farmers, or people who live on lots of land and raise large gardens. The makes for great Farmers Markets and our last market to shop in Delta County was Rapid River Farmers Market. The market is on Wednesday afternoon in downtown Rapid River. For a small community, the market offered a good variety of items along with entertainment.
Of course, we had to purchase bread. We are going to miss this baker when we move on to our next home. His dad was selling today and we enjoyed talking with him. He said he was not a baker, but he could sell the products…
We spoke with an older farmer about not only farming but also shopping at farmer markets. He told us to always shop at afternoon markets. The produce was picked that morning where a morning market the produce would be picked the day before. His belief was the fresher the better. That may be true, yet even the day before is better than the supermarket.
We stayed a while and chatted and listened to the young man playing the guitar. The entertainment was an added plus to the market. This market was held under a pavilion giving it all weather selling. As other markets in the UP and for that matter in the Northern US, this one is also seasonal. We are lucky in BRLA to have a 12 month growing season and therefore a 12 month Farmers Market with great veggies all year long. But, we were happy to have been able to shop the market and visit with locals in Rapid River MI.
