ANOTHER FARMERS MARKET

For anyone who savors produce fresh from the garden or orchard, there can't be too many farmers markets. For more than a dozen years, there has been an active market each Thursday afternoon during growing season at the Plaza Galleria parking lot. Now there will be another market each Saturday at the Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse parking lot.

As regular customers at the Plaza Galleria market know, most of the choice vegetables, fruits and baked goods are sold out quickly, leaving latecomers to buy what's left or wait another week.

There is something about a farmers market that links many of us to the gardens most of us grew up with. There is still plenty of gardening done all around Cape Girardeau, but it's not like the days when virtually every household relied on gardens and orchards to fill dozens upon dozens of Mason quart jars with delicacies to be eaten throughout the year, not just when the garden was loaded with goodies.

As long as there are farmers and gardeners out there who are willing to harvest their crops and haul them in to town, there will be ready buyers waiting for the sweetest sweet corn or the snappiest snap beans.

Does anyone ever remember to thank those growers for their hard work? Just in case: Thanks. And pass the tomatoes.