Reload Lexington

Maybe it's time to take a little break from Zeek, the alleged worldwide Ponzi/pyramid affair that somehow reached daylight when it climbed up and out of the Lexington refuse pile a few weeks ago and started breathing the same air that all the rest of us do.

I love this place. Best use ever of an old, once-forgotten building.

Maybe it's time to reflect on something good and decent about Lexington, if only for a moment. Just in case we've forgotten that about ourselves.

I'm talking about the Lexington Farmers' Market, which has become something of a looked-forward-to social event available to us all every Saturday morning, and to a lesser extent, Wednesday mornings, from May until October.

The thing has been in serious operation for about five or six years at the old (but beautifully renovated) Lexington freight depot on Salisbury Street. The place primarily offers fresh, in season vegetables, but also an assortment of bakery items, honey, blueberries, mushrooms, grass-fed and hormone-free cuts of meat, garden plants, and every now and then, scented soaps, painted pottery and uncommonly creative jewelry. Not bad when you consider these are the very items that not only help to sustain us, but humanize us, too. They help to give us balance and ballast as we make our way. All for reasonable prices.

The selection of fresh produce is nearly endless.

Aside from the neat stuff you can buy, there's also the anticipation of who you might see there. Yes, you'll likely bump into a neighbor or two. But you might also rub a shoulder with an acquaintance you haven't seen for a while, or even a classmate you haven't seen in years. Or perhaps an elected official — sometimes you can bend his ear while he's thumping a cantaloupe for ripeness.

Sometimes, you have to put conversations on hold as the 10:07 rumbles down the tracks less than a watermelon seed spit away. Boys and men wistfully eye the diesels as they rhythmically clack by. Women mostly keep shopping. It's like magic. All of it.

This probably isn't a great time to talk about the market. I mean, it's near the end of the season. Most of the seasonal produce is gone. I actually meant to blog about the market about a month or so ago but a few other things got in the way — like the heavy, distracting odor of Zeek.

On the other hand, maybe this is a great time to talk about the market after all: it's here where you can find fresh vegetables, fresh baked goods, fresh air. Ahh, yes. Fresh air.