Saturday Strings, Coffee, and Musings

Muddy river runs muddy ‘n’ wild…
(Fare Thee Well-Marcus Mumford, Oscar Isaac)

So…for all of you new to us, the market family, you know that I am your market manager, well one of your market managers. Your other manager has become manager status after years and years of insisting that he was a market assistant.

But, I am who you get, here, in this market weblog, and who you know as the local bread baker, owner of Cosmic Charlie Baking and Bread. I am also the Hippie part of, Hippie and the Farmer, and you have known me around different towns, Urbana, Springfield, Yellow Springs, not just for my breads, but also for my little clothing pop ups, featuring my vibrant taste in all things eclectic, hippie, vintage, mod…I’ve had shop fronts, and I’ve had spaces at farmers’ markets, I’ve been featured in area bistros and cafes and coffeehouses with my breads, and you used to know me by my beloved yellow VW bug, Sugaree, and now my red Audi, Begonia…and, you also can tell by my car names, and my bread business name that I am an old school Dead head, Grateful Dead, and I name all of my bread customers, Bread Heads.

I’ve been baking for 10 years, it started as a hobby, my business started as a fluke, and it took off to wild craziness, and I was on the road, constantly, packing up my faithful little bug, with colorful crates, and loaves of breads, with colorful tapestries, and Grateful Dead music, and traveled, most every day or evening, to farmers’ markets.

I was the manager of the Mechanicsburg market for years, and have been your market manager, here, for almost as long as it’s been in existence.

My breads are vegan, unless you get one of my rustic gourmet varieties that will offer cheeses, and such, but my doughs, well they rise, in vegan goodness.

I have a love of music, my heart melts at string bands, and I have lived a very fun and colorful life. One that has taken me from the West End of my growing up, off to college in the south, and then I lived coast to coast as a flight attendant of the 80s.

I’m happiest in all things of nonconformity, and my business models are simply what I feel in my heart, and what I feel to be right.

I’ve been helped, my whole life, by some very lovely people…and, I’m not going to lie, I do get by with a little help from my friends. In business, I jump in, think later, and it’s always served me well.

This market is a labor of love that has grown, grown, grown, and it makes me so excited to watch it’s growth of late, to have been lucky enough to have our local paper write stories of us, to be noticed by the news station, and last year, to have been the subject of a two part NPR interview via WYSO.

So, another introduction of one of your vendors, your manager…and her quirky ways, and always sparkling spirit.

The song, today? It’s a beautiful string set that is perfect with my morning coffee (another fact about me…I run on coffee, wine and water) and if you pull this song up, turn it up, you will also be carried away by it’s beauty. Much like I am carried away by the beauty of all of you…

It’s Saturday, the market is open, and I see the love pouring in…

XOXO,
Cosmic Pam