The rain last weekend didn’t keep the vendors from showing up with their amazing diversity of veggies and wares. As I watched them huddled in their coats and layers, I couldn’t help but wonder what it is that motivates a person to dedicate their lives to a profession like farming.

Sometimes it is passed down through the generations. When I asked Dan and Luba at the Luba’s Garden booth how long they had been vending at the Market, they said they came on the scene around 2007, but Luba’s parents were at the Market before that. As Russian Old Believers, they are connected to a long history of growing food. I recall telling a young woman from one of the Russian Old Believer villages about a grant for a community garden years ago and she just laughed. “Who would work in a community garden when everyone has one at home,” she asked.

Dan is the prompt sort, and from the beginning he recalls getting set up early at each Market, and then sitting on his tailgate and bugging Emily from Twitter Creek Gardens as she set up in the booth next to him.

Emily recalls showing up in 2005 to her first Market with a tiny table and three potted herbs. Emily has had a different path than Dan and Luba. She worked with Calypso Farm and Education Center in Ester before moving to Homer and was inspired to create the same kind of diverse and abundant micro farm that would serve the community.

She didn’t have land at first, but the Cutlers had space she could use to get started in those first years here.

Now Twitter Creek Gardens is well-known as one of our most productive local farms. Emily has created a culture of food and soil appreciation that serves not only the Market, but restaurants, CSA customers and the Alaska Food Hub online marketplace.

If you want to get inspired, check out her webpage, Instagram page, or YouTube channel.

And come on down to the Market this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. or Wednesday from 2-5 p.m. and support our dedicated growers.

Kyra Wagner is the board president for the Homer Farmer’s Market.