McHardy Market draws crowds for second year
Spirited Soul owner Amy Kasten helps customers at her booth, where she offered tin jewelry, repurposed clothing and funky art prints. Jamie Hult/BV Journal
The second annual McHardy Market drew hundreds of first-time and returning visitors to Brandon Friday and Saturday for a wide variety of maker’s market items.
Amy Kasten was happy to bring her business, Spirited Soul – a collection of tin jewelry and recycled and repurposed items – to the McHardy Park peninsula for the first time this year.
McHardy Market was originally set for May and postponed to July 17-18 due to COVID-19.
“It’s going great,” Kasten said midday Friday as customers perused her racks of necklaces and flannels. “It’s breathing new life into discarded things.”
The market also had several returning vendors, including Sew Doggy Boutique from Tea.
Owner Karli Raymond makes and sells dog collars, bandanas and the like from fun fabrics and sells them at reasonable prices.
Raymond typically does 20 to 25 maker’s shows a year; this year, she said, she’s only done four.
“I’m hoping COVID won’t cancel the Christmas ones,” she said. “It’s nice to see people get out and about and be a little bit normal.”
Many of the vendors and customers wore masks, though the open air and warm temps persuaded others to go mask-free.
“We’ve been cooped up. We’re tired of being quarantined,” confessed Brittany Bliss, who frequents craft shows and attended McHardy Market with her parents.
They were disappointed that their favorite event in Odin, Minn., was canceled this year.
McHardy Market was also a chance for A Homestead Brew owner Lee Anderson to debut two sour ales with new labels he designed himself, along with Boysenberry Jam, made with 164 pounds of boysenberries and six gallons of Smucker’s jam.
