Stale donuts. TV. A trip to the mall.
In towns across America, these are the trademarks of Saturday. Not in Eugene.
Starting at sunrise each Saturday from April through November, artists, cooks, musicians and farmers stream into Eugene’s park at Eighth Avenue and Oak Street to carefully arrange their handmade toys, beads and basil for Saturday Market, the oldest continually operating outdoor market in the United States.
“It’s a market and a festival combined,” said Beth Little, a former vendor who now manages the market.
Saturday Market was conceived 30 years ago, when local potter Lotte Streisinger visited a Peruvian plaza market and decided that Eugene could use something similar. In May 1970, a handful of local artists and farmers gathered together and braved the rain to sell their wares in an alley off Oak Street.
Since then, the market has grown out of the alley and into its current location, which better accommodates the 300 vendors who set up shop every Saturday. Though Saturday Market now serves as a model for markets in Portland, Bend, Hood River and Ashland, it has maintained its original mission of providing a celebration for the Eugene community and a venue for local artisans. Crafts at the market can only be sold by their maker or a family member.
“We’re not a flea market, an antique show or an import market,” said Little. “We stand by the idea that the maker is the seller.”
Vendor Kimberly Godsey said her entire family helps create the Native American crafts she sells at her market booth.
“When we gather sage for smudge sticks, we do it as a family,” she said, while spinning wool on a wooden spindle. “My boys help put the rocks in the rattles, and my 14-year-old watches the booth when I need a break. I’m a stay-at-home mom, and this puts groceries on the table.”
Michelle Gay, also a stay-at-home mom, is wrapping up her first season selling at the market.
“I was going to have to go back to work to make extra money,” she said.
Instead, she and her husband, a welder, decided to try their hands at selling garden art. Gay designs and cuts the metal for their sculptures and garden gates. Her husband welds the pieces and watches the kids on Saturday while she works the booth.
“For a first-time product maker, this is a great opportunity to see if your products are going to sell,” said Gay. “It’s an incredible feeling when people buy something you made.”
Gay said she was apprehensive about joining the market at first.
“I was a little nervous because Saturday Market has this image of being just hippies,” she said. “But there are schoolteachers selling here, your average Joe. It’s a melting pot.”
This inclusiveness is the stamp of the market, according to Little.
“Everyone is welcome at the market, whether you come to sell or buy. … You can sell your wares with no regard to class or wealth,” she said.
Many local companies started in booths at the Saturday Market, including the $10 million Burley Design Co-op, which makes bike trailers, as well as Surata Soy Foods, Toby’s Tofu and Jody Coyote jewelry. Market staff estimate that more than $2.5 million worth of locally made goods are sold at the market each year. But with 24 food booths and live music from local performers, the Saturday Market is as much a social event as a shopping opportunity.
Rhonda Griffiths, a University graduate student, said she comes to buy vegetables at the Farmer’s Market, but enjoys people watching, too.
“It’s fun — there are lots of things going on,” she said.
Stephanie Stotelmeyer, a Southern Californian who was shopping for jewelry at the market, said she doesn’t think anything like Saturday Market exists where she lives.
“The Orange Street Fair is sort of like this, but it only happens once a year,” she said. “And it’s more like a Grateful Dead concert here, as opposed to the yuppie crowd at the Orange fair.”
Those Deadhead years weren’t exactly the best of times.
“It was different [30 years ago],” Little said. “We have good economic times now, so the vendors are more mature.”
She said the City Council this year formally recognized the Saturday Market’s contribution to the city.
“We funnel money back into the community,” she said.
Market board member Judy Vanderpool said in the 12 years since she joined the market, she’s noticed positive changes.
“It’s gotten bigger and cleaner,” she said. “Our security is better now, and we have better publicity.”
Vanderpool, who knits sweaters, scarves and rugs for her booth, said she and her husband joined the market after retiring years ago.
“I enjoy the social aspect of it. I do it because I want to. I have the time on my hands,” she said. “And my husband says it keeps me out of the bars.”