Well, hello, neighbor -- nice to see you! It's only been a couple of weeks since the last Market, but, yes, it does feel like aaaaaaaggggggeeeees. How are you doing? Got fun plans for Thanksgiving? We'll be hanging with family and friends and, to prep, we plan on getting more than a few goodies from the Market this week.

Who's Up?

This week we'll be busting the borders again by opening up the third aisle to all the vendors, regardless of their biweekly assignments, who can make it. Bring plenty of shopping bags for this one! Weekly: Bonnie's Wondergardens, Freeland Market, Fruitwood Farms, Green Zebra Farm, Kia's Cakes, MyHouse Cookies, Rebecca's Dumplings, Wilsons Curiously Good Foods. Biweekly: Amazing Acres Goat Dairy, Creative Shepherd Farm, Mediterra, Mitchell & Mitchell Wines, MoJo's Pop Co., Paradocx Vineyards, Rafiki Shoppe, Relishing Grannies, Taste of Puebla. Soaps: Essential Herbalist, Kiss My Soul Naturals, Spotted Hill Farm.

Kiss My Soul will be bringing scrubs (Peppermint "Kiss My Sole" Salt Foot Scrub, Apple Pie Brown Sugar Scrub and Lemon Meringue Sugar Scrub), body butter bars (Turkish Mocha Cocoa Butter and Lavender Vanilla Shea Butter), and lots of new candles and soaps, including Pumpkin Spice soap made with real pumpkin purée. John Wilson of Wilsons Curiously Good Food will have his once-a year shrimp bisque for sale as well!

Be sure to check to see if your favorite vendor has holiday-worthy goods. What we know right now is that Mitchell & Mitchell is bringing wine baskets and Mediterra will be offering combo sets of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and more. More surprises for sure on Saturday!

Mug Shots

Holiday gift alert! Need a daily reminder of our wonderful community market with your morning tea or coffee? The epically talented and generous ceramicist Deanna Haldeman of Deramics Clay Studio has donated 16 handmade mugs that say "Lansdowne Farmers Market" for us to sell as a fundraiser. The price is $30 or two for $50 and all proceeds will support our LFM. Shop early for the best selection.

Housekeeping

We'll be collecting canned goods and nonperishable foods for the local food bank this week. Needed are healthy and sustaining commercially packaged foods (rice, pasta, sauce, dried milk, coffee, tuna, peanut butter, etc.) or cash donations so the food bank can shop for what's needed. Please bring your items in a bag or a box to the Market Manager tent and we'll thank you with a Market Buck, which is good at Winter Markets, too, by the way.

Upcoming Events

Saturday is also Harry Potter Day at the Lansdowne Public Library, 10 am to noon! Be sorted into your North American Wizarding School House, search for Fantastic Beasts, make your own wand, taste Butterbeer and get your pic in the Daily Prophet photo booth! All ages are welcome; children MUST be accompanied by an adult. The address is 55 S. Lansdowne Ave, at the intersection with Nyack Avenue.

"We are Family" is the theme of Saturday's Rhyme, Rhythm and Reason at the Regency Cafe series organized by the Mad Poets Society, starting at 2 pm and featuring poet Ray Greenblatt and musician Antonio Nicosia. Stop on by to enjoy the performances; if the spirit moves you, step up to the mic and share your own poetry or songs about family or the concept of cultures coming together.

The annual Bit of the Arts holiday art sale, sponsored by the LEDC, is running Friday, November 25 (6 to 9 pm) and Saturday the 26th (10 am to 5 pm). This free-admission event at the grand old Twentieth Century Club has live music, food, and more than 30 vendors selling pottery, photography, paper arts, painting, jewelry, printmaking, fiber arts and more.

Saturday, November 26 is the date for two Lansdowne Business and Professional Association-sponsored events. Start by shopping local in one of Lansdowne's six business districts to celebrate Small Business Saturday. It's the community-centric version of Black Friday, except it supports the people who work and live in your neighborhood. That same night, the LBPA's annual tree lighting celebration kicks off at 6:30 in Veterans Memorial Park at the entrance to the municipal parking lot across from the Lansdowne Theater. Enjoy holiday music by Steve E Love Sound, a dance performance by Destined to Dance, and Santa's arrival on a Lansdowne fire truck. They'll also collect unwrapped toys to donate to Toys for Tots as well as non-perishable food to restock the local food pantry at the First Presbyterian Church of Lansdowne.

Lansdowne Folk Club has two great concerts coming up. Tonight (November 17), it's Grammy Award winner Mollie O'Brien with special guest The Robert Bobby Duo at Lansdowne First Presbyterian Church. Then, on December 8, come hear singer/songwriter Christine Havrilla and special guest Sasha Greendyk at Twentieth Century Club. For advance tickets, reservations or information, call (484) 466-6213, visit FolkClub.org, or email [email protected].

Winter Markets

While this time of year is exciting with the change in weather and the coming of the winter holidays and all that stuff, it also means that the weekly anchor in our routine -- the Lansdowne Farmers Market -- won't be around every week until next year right before Memorial Day. To tide us over, we are continuing the decidedly casual tradition of a Winter Market on the third Saturday of the month as follows: December 17, January 21, February 18, March 18, and April 15. Vendors drive up and put out their wares; it's that simple. To give you (and the vendors) just a little more time to get ready in the morning, we now have the sleepyhead-friendly hours of 10 am to noon, which is great because getting up early on a dark, cold Saturday morning is really hard, no matter how badly we need to restock our pantry.