“It’s so much like the days of yore, when the marketplace was a place for people to meet and greet.”
That’s how food commentator Nancy Leson described Tacoma’s Broadway farmers market, after she’d spent a couple hours there with KNKX’s Dick Stein on a recent Thursday morning. It’s one of four around the city.
Nancy’s description is perfect. The Broadway market is full, but not crowded. The people selling things like produce, homemade cheese and wild mushrooms are friendly and ready to answer questions. And if you’ve heard Dick and Nancy, you know they had lots of questions.
As I recorded, Nancy learned what ground cherries are, and some good ways to eat them. Dick learned that the meat in a Philly cheese steak sandwich is chopped up. And they learned that the Broadway market is one that participates in the Fresh Bucks program that boosts the buying power of those who use EBT cards.
The feel of the market is one of community. Singers perform, families stroll and office workers pause their schedules for a lunch of South African cuisine. The idea of all kinds of people meeting on the common ground of the marketplace to chat, barter, buy and sell — that sense of togetherness is what we seek to highlight in our Connects reporting project.
Take a listen to this special edition of Food for Thought. You can find previous episodes here. Learn more about the other farmers markets in Tacoma: Eastside, Point Ruston and Proctor.
And look back at all of our Connects reporting on this page.
