On Break

In the middle of her shift as a dental assistant at the Thundermist Health Center, Cassandra finds time to stop by the farmers market right outside her work. As a Thundermist employee, she receives a weekly allowance to spend at the market.

I live in Woonsocket, and I work at Thundermist. I’m still on shift, but we take turns, so we can come downstairs. I’m on break. I’ve worked at Thundermist for 14 years, so I’ve been going to the farmers market ever since they started it, which is—I'm trying to think, they've had it for a very long time, since we've moved to this building. So that was 2016, eight years ago. They've been doing the patio outside here since then. 

I come every week, because I'm upstairs. Every Tuesday, if I can. I supplement what I buy at the farmers market with other things, like I'll go to the grocery store for salad mixes, things like that. But when I want, like squashes, or—we do pumpkins in the fall, all my family, we cook them, so I always get my pumpkins here. They just taste better. And I like the fall root veggies, so that's usually when I come down. I'll get cucumbers and stuff here. They usually have pretty good corn in the summer, my mother-in-law likes that. I come down and I'm like, ‘oh, let me get my awesome corn.’ It depends on what I'm looking for, but they always have pretty good stuff. 

As an employee, we get $200 a year we can spend for wellness, and part of that wellness is $10 a week towards the farmer's market. It's part of our benefit package. So in the summer and the fall, you come down, you sign your name, and then they give you $10 a week, so they don't always use it. I didn't use it last week because there was nothin’ I wanted. So I saved up, and then I used $15 this week. A lot of my coworkers also do the same. If they don't see something they want, they' ll save it up. They'll come down and we all cover each other and take turns.

They tend to have, you know, I think the only negative this year, there used to be three booths, but this year there's just two farms. I forget the name of this farm that’s here (she points to the farm stand run by Xang and Chai), but they tend to have more exotic foods. Different types of spinaches, or they'll have potato greens, mustard greens. So this (she gestures towards Matthew’s farm stand) is more of your Americana type stuff. 

A lot of stuff will go really fast, so being at work and not being able to come when you want… When you come downstairs, sometimes the really good stuff will be gone, especially when they have the little watermelons. They probably don't have any more. They're out of season now, but in the spring, like mid-summer, they'll have them. And everybody's fighting over them. It's really funny. 

The only downside is the weather and stuff, and their growing season. Sometimes, stuff that they had last year, they won't have this year. It all depends on how the seasons go. But other than that, nothing really negative to say. 

I’m always like, 'ooh, the farmers market!’ you know? I'll get in the car to go home sometimes, and I'm like, 'I forgot to go to the farmers market.' And then I get all frustrated, because I didn't even check to see if there's something I might have wanted, you know? Today, I was like, 'I want spaghetti squash.' And then my friend's been looking for eggplant, and they never have them. And they had them today, so I was like, 'oh I'll bring them upstairs to her, in case she doesn't have a chance to go get them.'