joyful face.

through a sea of people during high tide at the market, there was the most lovely vision: buckets and buckets of sunny yellow sunflowers sitting beside this woman with this angelic face and kind, joyful spirit, dressed in her pretty yellow blouse. her name is lovie, it's true. she and her son alex, grow these flowers in red creek, sodus, new york. in 1968 they left mississippi and headed north, landing in the area with $7 to their name. they opted to work on a farm picking apples to get on their feet, alex's father then worked at duffy-motts and secured a va loan to purchase land in red creek just a year later. they have been farming and selling their goods at the rochester public market since 1969.

their stand is located in the main shed, 98a. they offer all different types of legumes throughout the season - butter, lima, cranberry & italian pole beans; butter and crowder peas; edamame. beautiful flowers and pussy willows. we had to have the flowers that day, $5 a bunch, yielding two vases full! and yet worth so much more. i walked to the end of the shed but the camera on my wrist was tugging at me to head back to capture more photos.

mark your calendars for sunday, september 18th for the 7th annual artists row art fair, 10 to 4 - more information to follow soon.