Wimberley Market Day

Wimberley's open-air market, held on the first Saturday of every month, sprawls over lord-only-knows-how many acres of grounds, an organically grown tangle of paved walkways among a grove of trees on the outskirts of town. My daughter and I decided to venture up this last Saturday from our San Antonio home, in spite of rain which threatened for most of the morning, and saw us driving home, very slowly and carefully in the middle of a downpour. Up in Wimberley, though, everyone just broke out the umbrellas and the plastic slickers, and carried on - after all, it was the first Market Day in months where it wasn't boiling-hot, so cooler temps were welcome - and after all, everyone agreed that we did need rain. Maybe just not right at that very minute!

Vender booths run the gamut of all-but-open-air, roofed with a couple of tarps, or maybe some odd pieces of galvanized tin, all the way up to more or less permanent structures like large and ornate garden sheds, with level floors and even going to the extent of glass windows. Market Day in Wimberley started in 1964, when local vendors set up to do business off the tailgates of their trucks in the town square. The local Lions Club runs it now, with great efficiency - and Market Day still retains a lot of makeshift charm, as well as purveying anything under the sun ... and shade. Crafts, antiques, junk, food to eat on the spot and food to take home, art, garden ornaments and plants, children's toys and home decorating elements, just about anything you can imagine can be found along the winding paths of the Market Day's grounds.

Although, once you have spotted the perfect thing, it might be best to purchase it right away - first, because you might not be able to find your way back to it again, once you wander down a couple of twisty walkways and around the next corner, and secondly, even if you do - that vendor might or might not be there on the next Market Day. I was searching for a vendor that I remembered from previous visits, who would come with a grist-mill mounted on a trailer, with a little gas generator to run it, and sell fresh-milled cornmeal and wheat-flour. Cornbread made from that cornmeal was to die for - alas, the vendor hasn't been seen for months. There was also an artist, who made water-fountains, which appeared at first glance to be made of bouquets of flowers and greenery - tall plants like iris, mixed with cattail rushes and water-lilies, but were actually formed of thin sheet-metal, painted very realistically. Didn't find him, either, but found practically everything else, and Turquoise Magpie's Gemstones, a booth selling beads and trinkets. Well, I needed to make some little beaded toggle so that I don't keep loosing my cellphone at the bottom of my purse....

Other stuff we drooled over included ornamental garden mushrooms, by Zulie ...(Zulie's Mushrooms, booth GC6 ) -

Scrumptious pickles and jams, from RayAnnVentures

Green curry sauce from Nong at Thai Gourmet, in Dripping Springs

Fashion and interior decorating items at Villa Fabula and more collectibles and antiques at Look Again, in Booth 231: blue pottery for me and glassware for Blondie.

And even though shoppers are not permitted to bring in dogs - one of the vendors had her four-footed pal, Seymour the Adventure Dog, all ten pounds or so of him.

 

There was even stuff for guys ....