Friends,

HFM annual spring meeting took place Saturday March 27th at Kent Free Library. The board of directors passed along decisions which were then formally voted on by the general membership. A new board of directors was elected and opening date and fee structure were approved.  For more information click on the link for a Word document transcript of the meeting minutes.

Fritz Seefeldt.

2010 spring meeting minutes

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Friends,
Dave Ruller has always been supportive of our market here in Kent and I wanted to pass along his most recent “Kent 360″ blog update that features our proposed mural project. Artist Elaine Hullihen and I met with Dave this past week and discussed the public art project and how the city fits into the picture. There are still many details that will need to be sketched in as things progress, but I believe we’re quite a few brush strokes closer than two weeks ago. I appreciate the role that Dave plays in facilitating positive change in our diverse city and look forward toward more city/market interaction in the future.
Please feel free to comment and reply. This market is about all of you, the vendors, friends and members of our community.
Fritz Seefeldt.

Art Spark…

My mention of the Haymaker Farmer’s Market interest in an art mural on the columns beneath the Haymaker Bridge earlier in the week sparked a fair amount of interest from folks.  People seemed to feel that the Market was on to something good and they were letting me know that we (aka the City) needs to do more to promote public art projects like this since art runs deep in Kent’s DNA — both formally with the art education programs and professional galleries like the KSU Gallery and the McKay Bricker Gallery, and at the other end of the spectrum with a glom of  indie artists randomly found around town doing their own thing in unexpected places (like streetcorners or at the Professor’s Pub).

I tend to agree that the City needs to do whatever it can to advance the arts — both the formal and informal forms of creative expression.  I don’t make that statement to be politically correct or for some philanthropic agenda, rather if we’re serious about selling the Kent experience as an eclectic mix of characters, places and sensory stimuli then art has to be part of the community conversation and stake it’s claim at the alter of eccentric Kent.  The adjectives and descriptors of art — quirky, surprising, confusing, thought provoking, and even shocking — also happen to pop up when talking about many aspects of Kent so in that regard art resonates and even amplifies the Kent ethos (or milieu for the high brow artists among us.)

Our efforts to market the Kent lifestyle is not unique to us — it’s the core of a lot of city development efforts.  Those bold Texans in Austin have taken it so far as to proudly adopt the tag line “Keep Austin Wierd” in a national campaign to be the world headquarters of everything odd.  You can’t help but admire the lengths they’ve gone to realize their aspiration — the video of the 6?4? cowboy walking down the street in his raw hide boots and matching thong did me in but clearly they have no fear in embracing their unique sense of style.

Another ambitious city that has embraced the off-beat is Asheville North Carolina.  They’ve carved themselves a unique place in the mountains of North Carolina that is equal parts hippie and hill-billy – and it works really well.  Great art, great street scene, great restaurants and a surprising mix of people of all kinds of dispositions.

It turns out that Asheville is one of the sources of inspiration for the Kent art mural project that has been adopted by the Haymaker Farmer’s Market.  They’ve got their own infrastructure art thing going on.

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As market manager, part of my job is to facilitate improvements in our market location.  Last year we were able to provide leveling of the north lot through generous donations and your hard work,  gravel spreading,  brush trimming and the placement of 6 permanent benches along Franklin Avenue in front of our market.  Continuing in this vein, my friend Jeff Ingram of North Water Street Gallery and I along with artist  Elaine Hullihen of Kent,  met a few weeks ago and discussed the possibility of improving the appearance and ambiance of our market location.

Jeff, being well connected in Kent’s active arts and entertainment community contacted artist Elaine Hullihen, and asked if she would be interested in being involved in a mural project that  would include the columns and lintels of the Haymaker viaduct.  At our meeting,  Elaine presented some of her ideas in the form of a scale model of the bridge painted with her concept and several sketches of details of those murals.  I was very impressed with her talent, imagination and level of commitment not only to the project at hand, but also to our farmers’ market.  At her request, I made some small suggestions of additional elements that might be included such as musicians, bakers and most importantly our loyal customers.

Elaine Hullihen and Fritz Seefeldt meet at North Water Street Gallery.

After completing the final concept and organizing it into a package, it will be presented to the city manager Dave Ruller along with Kent city council.  Our ward council-person and board member Heidi Shaffer along with our city Service Director Gene Roberts  will be over seeing city communications.

I am coordinating the funding and logistics part of the project.  I am applying for an Ohio Arts Council funding grant and hope to have it completed in two weeks. We will also be seeking local funding through the city of Kent,  private businesses and organizations as well as individuals.

A project such as this will serve to improve the ambiance of our market site,  act as a reminder to the community of our market even during off season,  allow community participation through funding and actual painting of the mural, and act as a media and public attraction for our Kent downtown business district.  Please let us know what you think of this project and any ideas that may help to move us closer toward making it a reality.

All the best to everyone!

Fritz Seefeldt.

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Seasons best to everyone,

Fritz.

Bernie Chaykowski at Haymaker Holiday Market, 12 December 2009.

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2009 Haymaker Holiday Market flier.

Thanks to the hard work of our good friend Kelly Ferry, the 2009 Holiday Market fliers are edited and Jo Anne had them printed at Wordsmiths here in Kent.  We’ll be posting them around town on just about everything that doesn’t move quickly.  If you would like to run a few off as well, you can find a link at the bottom of this post or just let me know and I’ll send you the pdf file.  As you know, the market is less than a month away and the preparations are well under way.  Our site is secured for the events, the musicians have been chosen and I’ve been in touch with the farmers, bakers and candlestick makers. It looks like we’re going to have about 30 vendors on hand again this year and we’ve expanded our winter Music @ the Market to 6 performances!  We are looking forward to seeing everyone there and Jo Anne and I would like to wish everyone the happiest of holidays.

Fritz.

Holiday09

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Hot from the oven!

The baking part is on the second floor at the back of the building which was formerly a church and then a gymnasium for the Nelson schools before they joined with Garretsville.  Rafael gave my dad and I as well as another couple,  a full tour of his enterprise with the sounds of Pink Floyd echoing through the ancient building and the delicious smell of his breads baking in the oven.

The last 2 loaves!

The acoustics are amazing as you might imagine, it was a church after all, would really be a great place for a concert.  By the time we left after saying our goodbyes and snapping a few pictures , all of the bread our friend had baked for the day had been sold and was on its way to appreciative families. Jo Anne is sitting at the dining room table now and says that I need to be sure to tell everyone that Rafael’s  pumpkin bread is VERY good!!! Finally she brought me a piece too and I agree, very, very good indeed!!  It would make a nice trip for you and your family and I’m sure Rafael will enjoy showing you his new bakery.

All the best to everyone!

Fritz.

Map to Rafael’s bakery.

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Andrea Bussinger plays at Haymaker Holiday Market 13 December 2008.

Friends,

There will be two winter markets this coming December thanks to the generosity of our friends over at Williams, Welser and Kratcoski LLC at 11 South River Street in downtown Kent!  We have formal approval for both the 12th and 19th opening at 9:00 am and running until 2:00 pm.  The events will be held in the garage  area behind the law offices.

Last year, we had close to 30 vendors for both events as well as  live music during the markets, making it a perfect social destination before the holidays.

I hope to have a flier available for you to hand out  to your customers  for our last two markets of our summer season.  If you’re interested in taking part in these two special indoor events, let me know and I’ll start the sign up process.

Thanks,

Fritz.

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Colors of late summer by Bernie Chaykowski, 19 September 2009, Haymaker Farmers' Market

The crickets are singing a slightly different pitch, the skies are becoming that special deep shade of blue and the days are just a bit cooler with a sharp bite of cold in the mornings and evenings.  I hate to say it, but fall is upon us.  Some people say that its their favorite time of year, others find the relentless shortening of day light hours to be particularly stressful. Regardless how we cope with the change of the season as individuals, the market is truly a spectacularly colorful place in the fall!  The orange of the pumpkins, the deep shades of burgundy and umber of the mums and the varied colors of the fully ripened peppers and eggplants lend a kaleidoscope appearance to the wide variety of produce on Haymaker tables these last few weeks of our season.

This past Saturday, musician extraordinaire, Hal Walker entertained us with his eclectic variety of folk music. The soft spoken Hal has been entertaining the good folks of Kent for quite few years now and I always look forward to hearing him play and visiting with him as well.  Next week, the Malyuk sisters will return with hammered dulcimer and fiddle music.  The Music @ the Market series has been a lot of fun this summer, I hope you’ve enjoyed it as well.

Hal Walker performs at Haymaker 19 September 2009.

Summer’s best to everyone and  a long crisp “Indian Summer” to come!

Fritz.

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Lisa and Heather Malyuk to play at Music @ the Market this Saturday, 8/8/2009

Lisa & Heather Malyuk are reaching a new generation of listeners with their interpretation of old-time, Celtic, and world folk music. Lisa plays hammered dulcimer and banjo-uke and Heather plays fiddle and guitar. The pair will perform from 10 am to 12 noon as part of the Kent, Music @ the Market series. All live performances are free and open to the public every Saturday throughout the summer and fall.
Haymaker Farmers’ Market is located on Franklin Ave. at Summit Street in downtown Kent. Hours: 9am-1pm.

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People were walking from cars parked all over the downtown area for the opportunity to shop at Haymaker. My 88 year old father found a parking spot north of the Pufferbelly and walked the 3 blocks to see us.  He said that he was glad he had brought his cane along, because the walk was a lot more than he had planned.  I spoke with customers who had parked on Water Street and walked the distance.  As vendors, I think its important to try to park our vehicles at the rear of the market lots so that our customers have better access to street front parking.  If there isn’t enough room in the north lot, there are usually extra places along the fence at the rear of the south lot.  The market lot actually narrows from the south going north.   As the season progresses it seems we have reached our peak capacity in terms of vendors. I never thought I would see the day when it was necessary for me to turn away people from selling, but this has been my unfortunate duty for the last several weeks. My phone and the market email box have been busy places with lots of people wanting to join our market family.

Yesterday brought a few glitches during set up in the morning. I apologize for any bruised feelings.  Its my intent to preserve the integrity of the market by mixing types of vendors as well as allowing people to set up where their customers have come to expect them.  This isn’t always possible, especially when there are late arrivals, and folks setting up for the first time in the season.  I am doing my best to make things happen smoothly and with as little stress as possible. It was necessary for me to set up some vendors along the grass strip between the street and the market lot.  I’m afraid that this is something we may be doing more of in the future, but I would like to confine the double row idea to the wider parts of the market. Under the Haymaker bridge is one area that will easily accomodate this sort of arrangement.  I need your input on this as well as any concerns you may have. I still have not assigned spaces in the north lot, but will begin this process next Saturday.

I’m still working on the market benches, but have stalled at two because of a lack of free time. If anyone would like to pitch in, we could probably have them finished in a short time. Feel free to give me a call at 330-678-5748, or just respond to this posting.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you,

all the best for the week ahead,

Fritz.

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