To market we go
Power to the People's Open Market
By Kekoa Catherine Enomoto
for 25 years of serving
the community
Star-BulletinA quarter-century of farm-to-table freshness -- isle vegetables and fruits straight from soil to shopper. That is the silver anniversary gift of the People's Open Market.
The 22 Oahu markets nourish spirits as well as bodies, for there's person-to-person interaction over items ranging from eggs and fish, to fresh baked pastries and imported Filipino packaged foods.
And, there's value upon value because prices are set at 35 percent below the average retail cost for most produce items.
For more than two decades, shoppers have bustled to neighborhood parks, toting paper and plastic bags under their arms, rolling small grocery carts out of their garages.
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Carissa Wittig, 2, guards sunflowers purchased
at $3.50 for three.
People comb through tabletops of produce, sniff pungent scallions and buy raw goobers in anticipation of succulent, slightly salty boiled peanuts.Shoppers discuss in English, Ilocano and other Asian languages; share recipes for exotic veggies and fruits; and pack off bouquets of pink and red gingers, orange proteas and gold sunflowers.
"I'm one of the originals who was there on the very first day at Banyan Court Mall on Nov. 17, 1973," says Linda Flojo (pronounced FLO-ho) of Linda's Fresh Produce. She remembers the birth of the People's Open Market as readily as her three children's birthdays.
"We opened at 6:30 a.m.," she recalls. "Then, because the demand was so great, we opened earlier so there would be more time. We open at 6:15 a.m. now."
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Fresh-caught Hawaii-Kai akule is a bargain
at the Troy Enterprises stand at the Kailua market.
For Flojo, the People's Open Market program marked the end of three years of house-to-house produce peddling and the start of selling from her white van six days weekly, at 17 sites. Going from site to site, she picks up produce at farms from Kahuku to Waimanalo and places in between.This day she plies pineapples, tomatoes and other fresh produce at the Kailua People's Open Market. She's just purchased for resale two boxes of husked coconuts from Windward coconut picker Richard Boneza.
"It's interesting, continuous, wonderful," she says of the lively marketplace. "I have been in it for 25 years -- but I'm not that old," the 51-year-old Philippines native smiles. She wears gray jersey pants, rubber slippers and a "Paramount Pictures" denim jacket over a blue Snoopy apron.
Has the recession affected sales?
"Not really, because everyone has to eat. Before people would buy everything and then waste. Now they buy just what they need; this is really good for people," she says.
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
"I intended not to be a farmer's wife," admits Ruby Yamashiro,
left. "I'm a farmer's daughter so I know how hard they work."
A shopper approaches, bearing an avocado bought the week before that she says is hard and inedible. Flojo takes a paring knife, peels away the hard purple shell and tastes the flawless interior flesh. The reassured shopper re-bags her avocado, anxious to transform it into guacamole."You press down at the stem end," Flojo explains. "If the avocado gives, then it's ready to eat. She adds: "That's why I enjoy this work. People help me, and I help them."
Flojo is one of two vendors left from the 13 who pioneered the People's Open Market -- a legacy of former Mayor Frank Fasi. Ruby Yamashiro is the other remaining pioneer.
"My grandkids love these Blue Lake beans," Yamashiro says to a gray-haired man with a "Stefani loves Grandma" canvas tote.
"I picked them years and years ago," he says enthusiastically.
"Where?" she asks, fingering the crisp green pods.
"South of Portland," he says. "They're my favorite, I love it."
On the market
Biggest: Kaumualii is the largest People's Open Market at 8:15 a.m. Saturday, with 44 vendors and more than 3,000 shoppers.
At the Kalihi venue, buyers start staging at midnight for farmer Donald Nakama's Kipapa papayas. "They go by a number system," says Nakama, a 24-year vendor. "Somebody comes at 12 o'clock and there are already people waiting. I have one guy who hands out the numbers on a first-come-first-served basis. Some go sit in their cars, some socialize and stick around all night," he chuckles.
Yamashiro is a trim 67-year-old grandmother dressed in cutoff-length denim shorts, sleeveless pullover with matching denim collar and floral-print belt and cap.
Her husband Harry -- with a red and black baseball cap reading, "I drive people nuts" -- oversees papayas at 69 cents a pound and apple bananas at 80 cents a pound. He grows the latter on the family's 5-1/2-acre Kaneohe farm.
The Yamashiro Farm white van wears a sign, "We give fast service ... no matter how long it takes." Ruby Yamashiro's modus operandi is to hold a running conversation with consumers who stream up.
"I teach them how to pick vegetables," she says. "I don't care how busy I am. They all know I'm fussy.
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Linda Flojo bags sequa at her vendor station. Before the
People's Open Market, Flojo used to sell produce
house-to-house.
"I intended not to be a farmer's wife," she admits. "I'm a farmer's daughter, so I know how hard they work. My husband wasn't one, he turned into one. He had a service station before."The Yamashiros' L-shaped line of tables offers vine-ripened Molokai tomatoes for 79 cents a pound; "Red Rose" new potatoes in 1-1/2-pound bags for $1; araimo at $1.50 a pound; Chinese snow peas at $2.60 a pound; and gobo for $2.80 a pound.
"Eat a lotta vegetables -- and exercise," counsels Ruby Yamashiro, who rises at 3:30 a.m. daily to work out with barbells and leg weights for an hour. She also does 200 stomach crunches.
"I'm getting my vendor friends to do it," she says. "I got my customers to do it."
The Yamashiros set up and break down their L-shaped tables at three markets daily, five days a week. Their ritual for the past 25 years is part of a vital isle subculture pulsing with produce, people, action, barter.
"To get up every day -- what a pleasure and a joy it is!" says the matriarch of the People's Open Market."
Daily schedule: People's Open Market
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
