Ocean Pines Farmers Market encourages customers to ‘come, shop and leave’

(April 27, 2020) The Ocean Pines Farmers & Artisans Market is looking much different this spring. Gone, for now, are the chef cooking demos, the children’s activities and many popular market attractions like the alpacas, adoptable kittens and miniature pony.   

Instead this season, shoppers are arriving with their protective facemasks, with some also wearing gloves to gather their market essentials.  

Farmers Markets were designed as essential businesses and allowed to remain open under Gov. Larry Hogan’s March 23 executive order. 

“We have been working from the guidelines set forth by the Maryland Department of Agriculture and the Maryland State Health Department to provide our merchants and shoppers with a safe shopping environment,” Market Manager David Bean said.   

Market volunteers are checking the number of shoppers in the marketplace and, if needed, are holding arriving customers in a social-distancing waiting line until the market crowd reduces to a suitable level. 

The market has also rearranged its merchants, spreading market stands around the White Horse Park marketplace to accommodate space for everyone to social distance. 

“Please come, shop and leave,” Lenore Brady, assistant market manager, said. “We are asking everyone to refrain from gathering to socialize. Those days will return but, for now, we need to keep it to an essential shopping visit.” 

Despite all the changes, offerings found at the market continue to grow. Locally grown asparagus is now being cut, and tender spring greens are available.   

“We expect to have the first locally grown strawberries by the end of May for our customers,” David Joseph of D. J. David & Company said. 

Joy Galicinao, the owner of Essentials by Joy, is offering a line of antibacterial products. 

“With store shelves empty of these products, I’m making them available to my Ocean Pines customers,” she said.   

Other vendors are temporarily changing gears, such as Charlie’s Treats, where many pet owners at the market shop for all-natural homemade dog treats. 

“We make popular pet bandanas and sell them throughout the year. With the need for facemasks, we’re now sewing those and making them available to our Ocean Pines customers,” Casey Lemmons, owner of Charlie’s Treats, said.  

The facemasks are available at the market through Stag Run Farm, as Lemmons is not currently operating her stand. 

The Ocean Pines Farmers & Artisans Market is open every Saturday, year-round, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at White Horse Park in Ocean Pines. For more information, visit www.oceanpines.org/web/pages/farmers-artisans-market.