Make the most of it -- the Farmers Market of Bluffton to stay open year-round

Good news was in the air Thursday at the Farmers Market of Bluffton.

It blended in the breeze with the aroma of boiled peanuts, gumbo from "We Island" of St. Helena Island, homemade ox tail stew and all the Gullah fixings from St. John's Baptist Church in Bluffton, the "coffee with a conscience" (and a Facebook page) roasted by the Ogeechee River Coffee Co. of Statesboro, Ga., and the smooth sounds of blues man Bill DuPont of Hilton Head Island.

This warm afternoon was supposed to be the last weekly installment of the market's first season in old town Bluffton -- with a portion of Calhoun Street closed and as many as 36 vendors set up in the street and the adjacent Carson Cottages.

The good news was that the market will continue through the winter on a limited basis. It will be open on the first and third Thursdays from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Dec. 3 through March 4. Calhoun Street won't be closed off, and the number of vendors will be limited. On March 11, the new season will open with weekly gatherings of what has evolved into quite a show.

Thursday's show included a performance by a rock band of Hilton Head 13-year-olds called Cross Island Bridge.

But the real show is among the vendors.

Mary Connor of Three Sisters Farm in Pinckney Colony was brandishing odd-shaped white sweet potatoes and heirloom red okra.

"Farmer Joe" King from Clark & Sons Organics in Portal, Ga., sings to customers.

Kurt and Cassie Larsen from Little Creek Plantation in Brunson tell this story: "Originally our plan was to move to South Carolina and make our living doing artist blacksmithing and jewelry design. Then came the sheep to mow the lawn, followed by the pigs to till the garden and the rest is history."

Joe McDomick and York Glover of the Clemson Extension Service were selling apples, squash, collard greens and shrimp from Bradley's Seafood on St. Helena. McDomick helped start the county's first farmers market 20 years ago and now manages the Ridgeland Wholesale Auction Market to help farmers move produce in bulk.

"We need buyers," he said. "We need wholesale buyers for good, fresh, local products."

Donald D. Stevenson of Ridgeland offered more than beets at $3 a bunch and sugar cane for $1 a stalk. The 75-year-old retired teacher has good advice if you slow down to listen.

"Don't let anyone be nicer to you than you are to them," he said.

And then he offers up the motto from his alma mater, Marion County Training School, Class of 1953: "Life is what you make it."

May all the farmers markets grow like kudzu.