SEQUIM — Scarlet strawberries are meeting dark chocolate.
And the house tomato plants stand proud alongside the tall cat — yes, for felines — grass.
This is the new Wednesday version of the Sequim Open Aire Market, where manager Lisa Bridge has pulled together flavors and foliage for just about every appetite.
“This midweek market is especially for your culinary delights,” Bridge said earlier this month as the Wednesday vendors made their debut.
The market, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the northeast corner of Sequim Avenue and Washington Street, presented eight vendors last Wednesday, and “I’m happy to announce the mobile wood-fired pizza vendor” — Viaggio Pizza — “will now be attending,” Bridge added this week.
Miniature version
The midweek event is a miniature edition of the Sequim Open Aire Market, which brings two or three dozen farmers and artisans to Cedar Street just west of Sequim Avenue from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.
The Wednesday business is beginning to pick up, said Jim Queen of the Sequim-based Chocolate Serenade.
He drew cyclist Terry Boyer of Sequim to his booth with sugar-free dark chocolate — and then enticed other passers-by with strawberries from Nash’s Organic Produce, swirled in his grandmother’s recipe for chocolate ganache.
Nash’s booth, loaded with vegetables and cut flowers, plus Clark Farm’s grass-fed beef and Rainshadow Roasting Co. coffee were also on the scene.
At the Sequim Prairie Star table, farmer Virginia Vadset showed off her cherry tomato house plants, grown in natural worm castings. They thrive indoors, Vadset promised, so one can enjoy tomatoes practically year-round.
Natural plant food
Vadset also sells bottles of worm tea concentrate, a naturally rich plant food made by earthworms, as well as cat grass, a species of green grass that’s nutritious for and easily digestible by felines.
The market will reappear each Wednesday through the summer and into fall, Bridge said.
And after the Saturday market ends its season on Cedar Street on Oct. 23, she hopes to set up a fall-to-winter market Saturdays at Sequim Avenue and Washington Street.
To find out more about either of the Sequim Open Aire Markets, phone Bridge at 360-460-2668 or e-mail manager@sequimmarket.com.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
