This was my first Saturday back in Hawaii Kai in a long time. I was next to Homemade Jams of Hawaii and spent 4 hours becoming best friends with the man who started this as a hobby and kept it a secret from everyone he worked with at the construction company he owned.
Something I've learned in the past year or so that I've been doing the markets is that it's actually a little hard to find a lot of farmers at these things. Although markets want to give customers a variety of options for their produce, it's not beneficial for the farmers if a ton of them are selling the same things. It's almost exactly like the grocery stores where a farmer can't get an in with them because that store has been working with a farmer with the same product already.
I find farmer's markets to be more like a small and local business market, which I find pretty important and worthy of support. Plenty of food vendors (fewer than I would hope though preference local ingredients, but I can respect the preference for low cost for these new and small businesses), jewelry, art, specialty foods and drinks like these jams, sauces, kava, teas, etc. It's inspired me in a whole different way and opened me up to a whole different group of people, these entrepreneurial types, accidental and purposeful. People like Homemade Jams man whose hobby turned into a career have found themselves making a living in a way they did not plan or anticipate. It just reminds me how many surprises there still are in life no matter what your age is, where you are, what you've planned, and what you think you know.
As much as I see the disadvantages of categorizing people and putting them in boxes, I learn a lot about the human condition when I recognize the distinct qualities that certain types of people share and when I compare myself to these people and these qualities. To the opposite effect though it's great to disprove myself as well. I think I could never be as brilliant, or driven, or independent, or confident as all these successful small business people but maybe it's not that they're a different kind of person, they just act on qualities and opportunities that others don't. Farmer's Markets!!! So inspiring!!!