The Vancouver Farmers Market started its season with a downpour.
Morning rain sheeted onto the market in downtown Vancouver so thoroughly that staff members had to change into dry clothes before noon.
“This was exceptionally wet,” said Erin Timmerman, director of operations with the market. “But the vendors just powered through it. They shake off whatever’s wet.”
“Rain or shine, we’ll be here,” said Jordan Boldt, the market’s executive director.
So began the 28th season of the Vancouver Farmers Market Saturday. The market is staged every weekend along Sixth Street and Esther Street through the end of October. A companion market runs from June through August near the Columbia Tech Center.
With some gray skies above, many attendees seemed to see the bad weather coming. They wore rubber rain boots and jackets and toted umbrellas while surveying the tents of food and crafts.
“These people, I call them frogs. They come out in the rain. And ducks!” said Nonda Telio, a native of Greece who sells jarred honey from his Battle Ground bee farm, Salmon Creek Farm.
But that didn’t mean people would give the rain a warm welcome. Many said they were frustrated by a season that saw heavy rainfall and bouts of snow and ice.
“We’ve had a lot of rainy days,” this year, said Barbara Pappan, 76, of Vancouver. “I’ve lived here all my life so I’m used to it, but I am tired of it.”
Kim Harless, a 29-year-old Vancouver resident, went so far as to say that she “never hated a winter more than this year.”
When a sliver of blue skies opened in the middle of the day, Harless leapt at the chance to get to the market with her mother and son.
“I saw the rain had stopped and it was like, let’s go now while we can,” she said.
Sales for the vendors seemed to be fine, though. Many said they were used to the market’s start overlapping with the winter weather. Michael Sullivan, whose family owns N&M Herb Nursery, said the rain had bogged down its flower wholesaling business.
But, at the market, he estimated 30 regular customers arrived ready to buy.
“Surprisingly, people still came out. They’re all glad we came out,” he said.
A representative from the National Weather Service said Saturday that Oct. 1 through March 17 was the fifth wettest stretch of those dates on record. Meteorologist Clinton Rockey said it had rained in Vancouver 117 out of those 169 days.
“That’s why people are going crazy,” Rockey said. “We should get out there and play in the yard, but we can’t yet, it’s too dang sloppy.”
