Love your mother by going to Gardner’s Market

Celebrate Mother’s Day at the Cache Valley Gardeners’ Market with Love Your Mother Day (Earth, that is!) on Saturday, May 10. Opening day of the Market’s 2008 season will be loaded with many educational hands-on demonstrations and activities with an Earth Day theme. Play with water bugs at the USU Water Quality Extension booth; watch a backflow demonstration with Logan City Water and Wastewater Department; and play games and learn about bike safety with Aggie Blue Bikes. Also receive information from Utah Conservation Corps, Great Basin Earth Institute, Cache Valley Climate Project and USU Water Conservation Department. Despite the cold spring, our local gardeners have been busy: a variety of local produce will be available on opening day, including spinach, lettuce, parsley, cilantro, rhubarb, and shallots. Potted perennials, heirloom tomato plants, and flower starts will also be for sale. While celebrating Mother Earth, don’t forget that Sunday is Mother’s Day. Children can make a free lavender sachet for mom. Pick up hand-made jewelry, hanging flower baskets, massage gift certificates, wreaths and more. Enjoy locally made pesto, bread, cheese, pie and lemonade while listening to the music of Leaping Lulu. This five-member, eleven-instrument band offers a unique blend of Celtic and Traditional music that is sure to inspire.

Clarissa Packer, age 10, one of the Market’s junior vendors is suffering a serious illness and is thus unable to harvest and sell lettuce as she has done for the past several seasons. It’s an illness Clarissa does not expect to recover from. To honor her, a table will be set up near the east entrance of the Market. On that table will be a variety of plants and seeds, free to any children who will plant a little “Clarissa’s Garden” at their own house. Donations will be welcome to help her family defray her medical costs. But Clarissa will be honored most just to know that she has inspired other children to plant and care for a little garden of their own, a “Clarissa’s Garden” of plants donated by fellow gardeners from the Market and by nurseries in the valley. The Gardeners’ Market is Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Pioneer Park, located at 200 East and 100 South in downtown Logan. Anyone interested in vending, entertaining, or volunteering for the Cache Valley Gardeners’ Market should refer to the website (www.gardenersmarket.org), call the Market phone at 755-3950, or visit the Information Booth at the east end of the Gardeners’ Market. The Cache Valley Gardeners’ Market is a non-profit organization and is run entirely by volunteers, so community involvement is always welcomed and appreciated.