By Timothy Major
For The New Era
A full cloud cover, mid-50s temperatures, and a cool breeze did not discourage a full dozen vendors Saturday, May 3, from setting up shop in the parking lot across the street from the Sweet Home Public Library.
Originally the brainchild of former city manager Kelcey Young, the Sweet Home Community Market began its third season early Saturday morning with vendors erecting tents, tables, and displays for the five-hour weekly market.
Among the vendors present, who offered woodworking crafts, crocheted handiwork, 3-D printing, and more, was a booth with wire-wrapped stones.
Vendor Hannah Meisenheimer’s stall featured wire-wrapped stones, of which she had a quantity on display; she was particularly enthused with her newest offering; a resin product which, when solidified, preserves the paw-prints or other remains of a favorite pet.
According to her, other businesses also offer this service, but often charge hundreds of dollars to perform it.
She “really wants to make it affordable and available for people,” as losing a much-loved pet can be very traumatic. She desires to provide this service not so much as a way to earn money, but rather as an opportunity to provide keepsakes for folks at an affordable price ($15); this will “bring solace and joy to them”, and she is excited to have begun learning and offering this form of art.
This is the third season Meisenheimer has been constantly present at the Sweet Home Community Market, along with a couple other original vendors, and her offering of wire-wrapped rocks is quite intriguing.
“I love it when somebody brings me a rock or something to wrap,” she said, noting that Sweet Home and the surrounding area have a wealth of different kinds of rocks.
Depending on the intricacy of any particular wire wrap project, each can take from half an hour for the simpler pieces to four hours for more complicated ones. Self-taught, and mostly working with raw un-coated copper, which she said provides extra health benefits, she is upbeat about the coming market season, and glad to be a part of it.
Pam’s Sew Shop, formerly known as “Retro Style Aprons,” operated by Pam Goodall, is another vendor who has been present for the last two seasons and is looking forward to this one as well. She stated that she thought the last two years had been “pretty good,” and although the season-opening market was turning out to be a bit slow, she had hopes for more traffic as the market continues.
Goodall has been sewing for 59 years; her craft and expertise was evident in the display of 1950s- to 1970s-style aprons, dresses, and children’s aprons and clothes she had available for sale May 3.
She was also particularly pleased with some men’s barbeque aprons she has recently completed, which are made of leather. Another item she offers is her “kitchen essentials” tote bag, which she enjoys making. Each tote bag comes with an apron and two hot pads, as “you always need hot pads”.
A few booths over stood the vendor Jina Marie Gibbons, serving large stuffed cookies, who was the only one offering food on May 3, although she mentioned that another vendor is expected to sell sourdough bread.
Gibbons’ six- to seven-ounce cookies are all hand-made; the process of making stuffed cookies, as she explained, is different if one is using a jam filling or a chocolate or marshmallow filling. For something like a jam or apple pie filling, she first freezes it in little rounds before using her specially-formulated stuffed cookie dough to wrap the frozen rounds and cook them. Marshmallows or chocolate chips are a little simpler; she makes a patty out of the dough, places the appropriate stuffing in the middle, then crimps the edges as if one was making a turnover.
Two of her favorite cookies she had for sale May 3 were the “Gimme S’more,” which is a large cookie stuffed with a giant marshmallow, chocolate chips, and teddy grahams, and the “Husky Paws,” a similar-sized cookie filled with Reese’s Pieces, chocolate chips, and more. She had more than ten different kinds of stuffed cookies available, each was well-labeled and good-sized.
This will be her second season at the market, and she said it seemed like there was a good turn out for the first market and was encouraged by the fact there were twelve vendors present, since last year there only averaged eight to ten each week. In addition to baking stuffed cookies, which is a venture she has taken on more recently, she also offers custom cake orders and more.
Although patron traffic was light throughout the initial market, it was relatively constant during the day. Groups of people chatted among booths, observed goods for sale, and appeared to be generally supportive of the market. And as the day continued, the cloud cover did break up, allowing the sun to provide a bit of warmth.
– Timothy Major is himself a vendor at the Saturday market, along with his wife Annalise and daughter Elizabeth, who operate a booth selling vegetable starts, herb plants, and eggs.
For more information about the Sweet Home Community Market and what it offers, check it out next Saturday between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. For information on participating as a vendor, visit www.sweethomeor.gov/community/page/2025-community-market-vendor-applications-open-now and fill out an application.