Sweet Smells of Success
Well before the 10 a.m. opening of downtown Long Beach’s weekly Farmers Market, shoppers follow their noses to the far corner of the Promenade, where Sho Mukai is setting up a makeshift flower stall.
Huge bundles of gladioli, tuber roses, gerbera daisies and tiger lilies surround the back of his truck, as Mukai unloads plastic container after container of brilliant colors and sweet smells.
“I never open before 10 a.m., never,” Mukai says, nodding vigorously. “No, the rules say open at 10, so that’s when I open,” he says as the line of people waiting to buy flowers grows longer.
By 10 a.m. every Friday, Mukai is doing brisk business. So are dozens of other Farmers Market vendors selling hundreds of different California-grown fruits and vegetables for North American, Asian and Latin American cuisines.
Across the street from Mukai, the revamped arts and crafts market--one of the few weekly crafts markets in Los Angeles and Orange counties--also is filling with shoppers. A Caribbean painter and an Egyptian printmaker join 28 others selling paintings, prints, quilts, hats, painted clothes, silver jewelry, baskets and other handmade crafts.
As the morning progresses, the line at Mukai’s stand grows longer, winding halfway down the street. Dozens of customers wait patiently, their arms laden with huge flower bundles, the scent wafting through the Promenade’s corridors mixing with the smell of German sausage and Thai and Mexican food being prepared at the nearby outdoor restaurants.
“I’ve waited an hour before, so now I try to come early,” says Eloise Garcia as she cradles a bunch of freesia, a small white flower with the scent of expensive perfume. Garcia comes from Riverside to buy flowers, usually in large quantities for parties or women’s club luncheons. Mukai’s flowers are half the price of those sold in stores, she says. “His are fresher and he has a better variety.”
From one stall to the next along the two blocks that make up the Long Beach Farmers Market, the same reason for coming is repeated over and over: cheaper, fresher, better variety. Fruits, vegetables and baked goods unavailable in most chains come straight from the farm to the market. There is homemade bread, cheremoyas, Chinese bitter melons, red, yellow, orange and blue watermelons, herb and lettuce gardens designed to grow inside, 20 different types of sprouts, mung beans, Asian apple pears and foot-long string beans.
An elementary schoolteacher hurries 30 first-graders across the street and into the arts and crafts market. “These are all city kids, they don’t know an endive from an asparagus. We bring them down here to teach them about fruits and vegetables,” she says over her shoulder.
There they find Keith Williams, T-shirt artist to the stars (Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall at least) creating painted clothes in bright colors.
Clutching her newly purchased flowers, Garcia stops to look at a hand-painted jumpsuit with matching tennis shoes for her 2-year-old niece. The price: $30.
“I’m doing my Christmas shopping early,” Garcia says, handing over the money. “This beats malls any day.”
The market opens at 10 a.m. every Friday and continues until 2 p.m. on the Promenade, located between Long Beach Boulevard and Pine Avenue in downtown Long Beach. The arts and craft market stays open until dusk. From noon to 2 p.m. on Friday, the Bill Barrett Blues Band plays at the outdoor amphitheater.
Free parking is available in the Long Beach Plaza parking structure north of the Promenade from 3rd to 6th streets. For general information, call 436-4259. For information on the arts and crafts market, call 798-2488.
