A Festive Twist To Farmers’ Market

 In Sandy Hook

By Kendra Bobowick

Despite the colder weather, the Sandy Hook Farmers’ Market concluded its season with a Holiday Fair held inside St John’s Church on December 1. Mary Fellows, Little Green Barn owner, noted the bustling activity in the church hall.

She said, “We [had] a full house of vendors and it gives us a chance to talk about the market for 2007.”

The fair is also a festive social time for the vendors who had spent the prior months outdoors selling their organic products and produce.

“It’s nice to get together,” she said.

That afternoon saw shoppers enjoying scented soaps from Bittersweet Ridge in Roxbury, and local resident Liz Gilbert’s “taste of goodness” products from her Gilbert’s Gourmet Goodies that are organic, gluten-free foods, Seascrolls messages in a bottle crafted by JoAnn Hornak of Sandy Hook, and products sold by Leesa Sklover-Filgate, PhD.

Still more handwoven or handspun items filled tables, including young resident Cleo Conk’s own line of jewelry using woven patterns and beads. The aroma of Dean Haines’s Bee Kissed Kettle Corn greeted visitors and led the way down the basement steps.

Making the day more festive was the anticipated tree lighting planned for that evening.

Ms Fellows explained that the fair is always in conjunction with the Sandy Hook Tree Lighting that saw crowds begin to gather at dusk. Drivers passing between the church and store on the corner of Washington Avenue since the weekend will see the vertical rows of lights illuminating one prominent tree set back from the road. (See related story.)