Strawberries, spaghetti art featured on Saturday

There’s a reason it was Strawberry Day at the Ironton Farmers Market on Saturday. Volunteers with Ironton In Bloom steadily handed out free strawberries that were on top of biscuits and smothered in whipped cream to recognize National Strawberry Shortcake Day.

“(The crowd has) been steady,” Sam Heighton, market manager, said. “We thought with it being Railroad Days over in Russell (Ky.) the crowd would be down but so far it’s looking really good.”

The Ohio University Southern Art Collaborative “Arts at the Market” event originally scheduled for Friday and every other Friday thereafter was postponed and instead took place on Saturday. Children and adults created art using cooked spaghetti noodles dipped in paint.

“There was some confusion about (Friday) and some work schedules people didn’t factor in,” Kenna Kelley, art club president, said. “We are going to just change it to every other Saturday.”

Art club vice president Sarah Simmons said the next “Arts at the Market” event would feature painting with bubbles.

Ironton In Bloom will continue highlighting fruits and vegetables the second Saturday of each month for the duration of the Market’s season. For July’s American-fest IIB members will serve hotdogs and watermelon. August’s event will feature corn, September tomatoes and apples in October.

Homegrown local produce was more prevalent on Saturday and is a trend one vendor said will continue as the season progresses.

“Pretty soon I will have corn, beefsteak tomatoes, green beans and cucumber squash,” Van Daniels said. “I don’t bring anything here to sell if it’s not homegrown. If I’m selling it here it came out of my garden.”

The Farmers Market opens at 7 a.m. every Friday and Saturday on Second Street through October.