Social stew brews at market
■ Saturday Market attracts a
mixed crowd with rare wares,
mouth-watering food and
warm atmosphere
By Kristina Johnson
Oregon Daily Emerald
Stale donuts. TV. A trip to the
mall.
In towns across America, these
are the trademarks of Saturday. Not
in Eugene.
Starting at sunrise each Saturday
from April through November,
artists, cooks, musicians and farm
ers stream into Eugene’s park at
Eighth Avenue and Oak Street to
carefully arrange their handmade
toys, beads and basil for Saturday
Market, the oldest continually op
erating outdoor market in the Unit
ed States.
“It's a market and a festival com
bined,” said Beth Little, a former
vendor who now manages the mar
ket.
Saturday Market was conceived
30 years ago, when local potter
Lotte Streisinger visited a Peruvian
plaza market and decided that Eu
gene could use something similar.
In May 1970, a handful of local
artists and farmers gathered togeth
er and braved the rain to sell their
wares in an alley off Oak Street.
Since then, the market has
grown out of the alley and into its
current location, which better ac
commodates the 300 vendors who
set up shop every Saturday.
Though Saturday Market now
serves as a model for markets in
Portland, Bend, Hood River and
Ashland, it has maintained its orig
inal mission of providing a celebra
tion for the Eugene community
and a venue for local artisans.
Crafts at the market can only be
sold by their maker or a family
member.
“We’re not a flea market, an an
tique show or an import market,”
said Little. “We stand by the idea
that the maker is the seller.”
Vendor Kimberly Godsey said
her entire family helps create the
Native American crafts she sells at
her market booth.
“When we gather sage for
smudge sticks, we do it as a fami
ly,” she said, while spinning wool
on a wooden spindle. “My boys
help put the rocks in the rattles,
and my 14-year-old watches the
booth when I need a break. I’m a
stay-at-home mom, and this puts
groceries on the table.”
Michelle Gay, also a stay-at
home mom, is wrapping up her
first season selling at the market.
“I was going to have to go back to
work to make extra money,” she
said.
Azle Malinao-Alvarez Emerald
Visitors to the Saturday Market in downtown Eugene will find crafts, such as those
above, handmade jewelry and a plethora of other goodies.
Instead, she and her husband, a
welder, decided to try their hands
at selling garden art. Gay designs
and cuts the metal for their sculp
tures and garden gates. Her hus
band welds the pieces and watches
the kids on Saturday while she
works the booth.
“For a first-time product maker,
this is a great opportunity to see if
your products are going to sell,"
said Gay. “It’s an incredible feeling
when people buy something you
made.”
Gay said she was apprehensive
about joining the market at first.
“I was a little nervous because
Saturday Market has this image of
being just hippies,” she said. “But
there are schoolteachers selling
Turn to Market, page 18D
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