News and Updates
Everyone Needs to Visit Eastern Market At Least Once
By Gina Joseph for The Oakland Press
If you visit Eastern Market for the first time there is a good chance you will meet Eric Smith of Carlton, Michigan, one of the growers who gets a big kick out of people who are visiting the market for the first time.
He can be found sitting on a stool in the middle of a market shed -- pointing greenhorn market-goers to some of the shops and stops they might want to see.
“You’re going to love it,” he said, to a group entering the shed where he and other Michigan growers were selling everything from flowers and produce to pork ribs and peanuts, cheese, sweet potato pie and pistachios.
On this particular Saturday Smith even brought in some cacti plants thinking there’s always an adventurous gardener in the mix. Apparently one of the girls who works in his greenhouse moved from a warm state to Michigan and needed something that reminded her of home.
“I guess the flower on it is really nice – big and yellow,” Carlton said, assuring some of the skeptics eyeing the cacti selling for $10 each including the pot.
That’s one of the nice surprises about buying flowers at the market. Many of the prices include the plants and the decorative pots they are grown in.