Hello farmers' market shoppers! Your regularly scheduled market blogger was away this week, so I've been elected as her temporary stand in. (Although, 'elected' may be the wrong word....I am related to her after all!) :)
I'm heading into my fourth year as an employee of the White Rock Farmers' Market, and if you've stopped by the coffee/information tent during the day, you'll have seen me. I'm the one helping you out with your first dosing of caffeine for the day, and I thought I could give you a brief peek of what goes on behind the scenes of a Sunday market.
That all said, without further ado, I bring you:
A Day in the Life at the White Rock Farmers' Market
5:00 am
The alarm goes off.
5:20 am
I actually listen to the alarm, and get up to start the day.
6:15 am
Leave Abbotsford about now for the drive to White Rock. The sun is shining!
7:00 am Arrival. Work begins! Tents, tables, coffee making apparatus, and all other sorts of supplies are hauled out of storage from where we left them the week before. Most of our things are stored in Rubbermaid bins for easy hauling. Milk, cream, bottled water, and juice are stored in the cooler. Vendors start arriving at this point to set up their spaces.7:15 am
Market staff start asking me if coffee is ready yet. I tell them: Yes it is, if they want it in the form of dried grounds. Someone rushes off to arrange for the water.
7:30 am Still busy setting up the coffee tent. We get power to the machines and the water jugs filled. See photographic evidence that tired people get a little bit silly when a camera is involved. Clouds roll in.
7:45 am Coffee machines are heated up. I start the first batches of coffee. 
8:00 am The first coffee is ready to go by this point, and has been drunk. I start making more to fill up the carafes.8:30 am Find out that our coffee shipment for this week has been sent to Calgary instead of White Rock. Will not have bags of coffee to be sold today....and may not even have enough coffee ground to make it to 1:00 pm.
9:00 am Official opening time for the market. Vendors are set up, vehicles moved out, customers start to arrive to find their purchases. Today, we have some lovely jazz music provided by Duolocity.
10:00 am The market is in full swing by this point, and our two coffee makers are pumping out coffee as fast as we can make it. 
10:20 am It rains. Since we live in BC, customers come prepared. Umbrellas magically appear. The market goes on whether its rain or shine, and luckily for us today, the rain only lasts for an hour or so.11:30 am Realize we are running out of water. Can't have coffee without it! Run off to fill up the jugs.
11:30 am to 1:00 pm Another Sunday passes by in a blur of customers old and new, sales and purchases, and many many pots of coffee. Cream and milk are refilled, spills are wiped up, more sugar put out, cups and lids restocked, questions answered, spills are wiped up, explain that our coffee shipment is in Calgary so we unfortunately don't have bags to sell this week, spend some talking with customers, more cream is purchased, more spills are wiped up.
1:00 pm Closing time for us, although the few customers who are still shopping are more than welcome! We begin to take down everything and pack it back into bins and take it off to storage. Vendors begin to pack up. The once lively market space becomes a slightly uncoordinated attempt at everyone getting vehicles and products in and out of a space too small to contain them all at the same time.
2:00 pm All finished. It takes a lot of work from market staff and vendors to make the day run smoothly! And now its time for me to head home and rest after a long day. And time to look ahead to doing it all again next week. And....the sun has reappeared to make for a lovely drive home!
See you all again next weekend!
Your Coffee Captain & Girl Behind the Camera,
Meredith
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