Ithaca Farmers' Market

The week we arrived in Ithaca, the local Ithaca Times carried an article on the Silent movie era and its early days in Ithaca. It said ‘In 1913, Theodore Wharton came to Ithaca to shoot footage of typical college life, he liked the natural beauty of the town with its gorges and its lake and produced over 100 film titles from about 1914 to 1919. This is one of the few original silent film studios in the United States’. However, most people know Ithaca as the place in Upstate New York where Cornell University was founded in 1865 and which continues till today to be home to students from all over the world.

 
For a student at Cornell, the University campus is all they know when they leave school. There is no time for anything else. Some remember the quadrangle where their department is housed. Others only remember the library where they spent all the hours of all their days here. For a student, this is definitely the centre of the universe with nothing else beyond. But, if you do not come here as a student, it is nice to also experience the town. For instance, there is the Cayuga lake, there are the Taughannock Falls, there is Stewart park and there is the Ithaca Farmer’s Market!

The market is a co-operative with over 150 vendors who live within 30 miles of Ithaca. These vendors bring fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry as well as freshly baked goods, honey and sauces to the market at the Steamboat landing locatio (which we visited) every Saturday and Sunday. There is also the Dewitt Park location where the market takes place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There are artists and photographers who exhibit their work here. The Ithaca farmers’ market first opened in 1973 as a place for local food growers to sell their produce and for local artisans to market their crafts. Today, the location at the Steamboat landing is also a picnic place as people come here to shop, to listen to music and to just sit by the waterfront.

I am sharing here some photos from our weekend visit, when the weather was absolutely wonderful and we got a glimpse of the ‘shop+picnic’ scene in Ithaca.

There is a lot more about the Ithaca Farmers’ market at: http://www.ithacamarket.com/
 

Crafts Fair

It was a Sunday in July and there were many people shopping at this Crafts Fair in Bangalore. It was being called the ‘Crafts Bazaar’. This exhibition was organised by Poompuhar – the State Crafts Emporium for Tamil Nadu and was a ten-day event in the city. It had artisans from all over South India and also from the northern States such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and others displaying their crafts.

The Craft Fairs in India are usually exhibitions organised by the Government Crafts Emporia of the different States or the Handicrafts Development Corporations that take up the development, marketing and training for the artisans. If you are a supporter of Fair trade, these exhibitions are where you may want to shop for Indian crafts.

It being the Ashadamasam, a month where no wedding ceremonies can happen because it is not considered auspicious, the marriage halls or kalyana mandapams become easily available for other uses and it is the time when exhibitions – Crafts Bazaars and Book Bazaars happen all over the city. The Ashadamasam is said to be a month not considered appropriate for any social functions primarily because this was a crucial month in the Harvest cyle in the rice fields and men were expected to focus on their agricultural duties and nothing else.

I learnt that this Craft Fair is held in Bangalore twice a year. Poompuhar had rented the space and the arrangement with the artisans was that 20% of their sales proceedings would be given to Poompuhar. The craftsmen do not pay any rent for the days that the mela takes place here. This ensures that the risk factor for the craftsmen is minimal. He pays nothing if he has no sales. However, for any sale that happens, he gives the Development Corporation a percentage of his earnings.

It is also possible to buy these crafts at any time of the year at each of the individual showrooms which are now in almost every city in India. However, the showrooms are located in different parts of the city and a ‘Crafts Bazaar’ simply makes it possible to choose from a great variety from different states of India all in one place. It somehow reminds me of the concept of a ‘Food Court’ that seems to now occupy the top floor of every mall in Bangalore - a one-stop eatery where you find different stalls that sell Chinese Manchurian, a Subway sandwich, a Rajasthani thali or the Idli-Dosa – all under one roof.

Each state government showroom also has its own website and the crafts bazaars can now be reached from any part of the world. For the southern states of India, there is the Kerala Handicrafts Corporation with their showrooms called ‘Kairali’ over over the country (more info at: http://www.keralahandicrafts.in/) the ‘Poompuhar’ which is the Tamil Nadu Crafts Emporium (more info. at http://tamilnaduhandicrafts.com/), the Andhra Pradesh Handicrafts Emporia are called ‘Lepakshi’ (more info.at: http://www.lepakshihandicrafts.gov.in/) and the Karnataka Handicrafts are available at ‘Cauvery’ at (more info.at: http://cauverycrafts.com/)

Related posts:  
Crafts in Bazaars
Tibetans at the Cliff

Bazaar Tour 3 : Varkala, Kerala

This post is a part of the series on Bazaar Tours in India. For those travelling to Varkala, in Kerala, soaking in the experiences at the Cliff Bazaar overlooking the sea makes up a large part of one's stay at Varkala. You can walk along the cliff in the morning and lounge at a breakfast cafe, you can meander into its many craft shops in the afternoon and you can stroll there in the evening again and leave only after a sumptuous dinner.

If Varkala were to have a daily tabloid – a newspaper for only its Cliff Bazaar visitors, what would it say to its readers? "The Varkala of Tourist Times" would need to carry news about the beach – the groups that conducted yoga that day, the fishermen and the catch of the day! It would be nice to sit at a Café, buy the Cliff daily and read about the happenings of the day. Who baked the best bread? Which restaurant bought the best catch from what fishermen? How many people attended the Kathakali dance performance – a daily event on the cliff during the “season”. Who won the beach volleyball match? The real estate market in Varkala Cliff zone. The Kashmiri takeover on the Tibetan market and so on.

For this newspaper to be viable, it would need to carry advertisements. So, there would be half-page and full-page ads from restaurants, from Arts emporia and from Massage Centers. That brings us to the question : What does an advertisment do and what does signage do?

Advertisements today are in our newspapers, our magazines, our televisions and on our hoardings. Signage takes two forms or rather two locations. It is immediately next to where the commodity or service is, asserting its presence and it is sometimes and often at an important junction elsewhere, with an arrow leading us to its actual place of existence. The shops at the Bazaar would then begin to offer discounts. The newspaper would carry ads announcing festival discounts and season discounts. It would be an unusual and exciting daily - a newspaper of the town, of the tourists and of the bazaar.

I came back from Varkala and what came back with me were memories of the lovely moments with Puppu, a Tibetan woman at the Cliff Bazaar, at whose shop I had spent a part of my afternoon. You can read here about the Tibetan market at Varkala

Other Varkala posts :
Signage in Cliff Bazaar
Once upon a time, there were no signs
Signages at Varkala, Signages anywhere
To the Cliff
and
Cafe Italiano & the Badam tree

Other Bazaar tours in India :
Bazaar Tour 1 : Dadar Flower Market, Mumbai
Bazaar Tour 2 : Antique market, Mumbai
Bazaar Tour 4 : Gandhi Bazaar, Bangalore

the Tibetans at the Cliff

Varkala has a large tibetan market within its Cliff Bazaar. One passes by ‘Tibetan Buddha Arts’ – the shop where Dorjee and Puppu sell their crafts. You retrace your steps and look again at the bead necklaces and the embroidered textiles. You need to go into the shop. As you step in, you hear some music. Now, you need to continue to look at the crafts or pretend to because you want to listen to the music longer. It is the music of “Lama Chopa” – a buddhist Tantric celebration… The music goes on and on and Puppu continues to smile at you every time you look towards her. It must be a nice people, who listen to music such as this. A people for whom living in India means living closer to the Dalai Lama.

You look at her once again and ask about the music, and also about the beautiful beadwork that she strings together with her own hands. The Tibetan woman speaks of her business in Varkala. She and her husband came here six years ago from Tibet. There were not as many shops then and the rents were not so high. Today, they pay Rs.85,000 as rent and Rs.12,000 for electricity for the six month period. The municipality demands Rs.5,000 for being a part of the bazaar. It totals to almost one lakh and that works out to Rs.17,000 per month. Earnings must come also from this six month period since that is “season time”. From mid-november to mid-may is when tourists come to Varkala. The rest of the year, few shops in the Bazaar function. Most of the shops close down.

Dorjee and Puppu go away to Delhi to purchase crafts for the next season, and to Darjeeling to pick up their children who go to boarding school there and then to Ladakh. They come back again next year, with most of their earnings spent. Tibetan Buddha Arts sells bead necklaces, bracelets, earrings, singing bowls, tibetan incense for meditation, cloth handbags and metal crafts.

Other Varkala posts :
Bazaar Tour 3 - Varkala
Signage in Cliff Bazaar
Once upon a time, there were no signs
Signages at Varkala, Signages anywhere
To the Cliff
and
Cafe Italiano & the Badam tree

'To the cliff'

‘To the cliff’ and ‘To the beach’ are signs so common. You know this must be the most important part of Varkala. It is also where the Bazaar is. You move in the direction of the sea. The cliff runs along the coastline, along the beach. Varkala, in Kerala, is probably one of the only ‘On the Cliff Bazaars’ in India, facing the sea. There are cafes, restaurants and the many colours of the indian textiles that the foreigners fill their moments with. The restaurant tables have cane chairs that face only in one direction, towards the waters.

The many craft shops that the bazaar has, are interspersed with ayurvedic treatment centres too. And, there are the several “German Bakery” boards everywhere as you walk along the cliff. They sell wholewheat bread and croissants and cinnamon rolls. There are the “internet cafes” and the “STD booth”. There’s the sign that says ‘Oriental Food Court’ or ‘Foods of the Orient – Specialities of Thailand’. There are one or two places that serve Kerala meals. Varkala has the sun, the sand and the sea. It also has the cliff, the tourists and the bazaar.

Other Varkala posts :
Bazaar Tour 3 : Varkala
The Tibtetans at the Cliff
Signage in Cliff Bazaar
Once upon a time, there were no signs
Signages at Varkala, Signages anywhere
and
Cafe Italiano & the Badam tree