By MADDY VITALE
Sun or clouds, it doesn’t matter when the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce Farmers & Crafters Market is in full swing.
On Wednesday, huge, shiny red Jersey Toms filled farm stand tables, peppers from red, to yellow to green, were fresh and ready for the taking. The weekly Farmers Market, which opened in June, is from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesdays through Sept. 13 on the Ocean City Tabernacle grounds at Sixth Street and Asbury Avenue.
Shoppers filled bags with everything from fresh vegetables to cheeses, nuts and other goodies. There was also an assortment of crafts to browse featuring household goods to handmade clothing and jewelry.
The Steel and Brunsting families, from York, Pa., and Redding, Pa., make the popular market a staple when they head down to Ocean City for their weeklong summer vacation each year.
But the family got a few stares. Especially since Ann Steel pushed a baby stroller filled with an assortment of fresh mozzarella cheeses, shortbread cookies, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, nuts, tomatoes and well, no baby.
It was her granddaughter’s stroller.
“We left the baby at home and brought the stroller,” said Liz Brunsting, Steel’s daughter, said jokingly.
Of course, there was an adult at home with the baby and two other Brunsting children. The families thought a stroller was an easy way to pack in as many treats as possible at the popular market.
And the children wouldn’t mind staying home for too long once they saw what their parents and grandparents were returning with, Steel said.
“The grandkids will be picking at the berries all day,” Steel said with a chuckle.
Like many families who stopped by the market Wednesday, it is an annual treat for tourists and residents.
“The market is a great event and a longstanding tradition for our family,” Steel said. I’m 66 and I came as a kid.”
Nicole Levitz, of Jersey City, and her daughter, Emilia, 8, stopped by the crafts section of the market. They already completed a healthy shopping spree by 11:30 p.m., which included pretzels and other treats to nibble and some fresh fruits and veggies.
“Emilia wanted a little dress,” Levitz said with a smile.
The little girl waited while Marc, the artist who created the dresses and shirts and other apparel for sale at his vendor booth, Dye It Up, showed a few pieces, until Emilia found the one she liked.
“We come every summer for a week in August. We always come here,” Levitz noted of the trip to the Farmers Market.
When asked what Emilia’s favorite part of her stay in the resort was, she pointed out that she liked shopping and the market but there was a lot more to Ocean City she enjoyed.
“I like everything!” she exclaimed. “I like the beaches and the Boardwalk.”
Shoppers browsed the vendor tables.
They stopped to try on handmade pieces on the crafts side and taste test some free samples of confections and other delights available on the food side of the market.
Kathy Land and her daughter, Elizabeth, vacation at their relative’s home in Ocean City each summer.
The two, who live outside of Philadelphia, noted that this was the first time they ever went to the Farmers Market.
But it won’t be their last.
“This is a true Farmers Market. They have everything,” Kathy Land said. “I can’t believe we have never come.”
She was ecstatic about her purchase of Italian eggplants.
“I usually bring it down from Pennsylvania,” she added. “I found out they sell them here.”
Elizabeth was busy looking at the fresh peaches and jams at the Pleasant Valley Farm table.
“I’m definitely thinking about raspberry jam and a jar of fresh honey,” Elizabeth said.
