How many of you have visited our market at the Icehouse Amphitheater? An addition in progress is a new Pavilion, according to Council woman Kathy Maness. It will house many events and on Saturdays will accommodate market vendors. Kathy says space is needed for vendors to display their wares.

Saturday I saw jewelry, unique gifts, beautiful plants and fresh produce grown by our farmers this time of year.

Barbara Gregory took her mother “Miss” Nancy Saturday to the State Farmer’s Market in search of just the “right” tomatoes. She also found plums, corn and watermelon. Many of our roadside markets and stores offer all of these shopper’s favorites.

Donna Bundrick Griffin, former TV food personality formerly with Walter P. Rawl Farms, gives us some valuable tips:

• Look for a fresh produce. Be familiar with their color, shape, and size. Produce inferior in shape can be inferior in taste.

• In selecting cantaloupes, look for a beige, yellowish color and a fragrant smell. Choose watermelons with rinds having dull rather than shiny surfaces, symmetrical ends and creamy colored undersides.

• Keep ripe fruits and vegetables, except tomatoes, cold. Tomatoes needing ripening should be stored at 50 to 70 degrees F.

CONGRATULATIONS to our Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce for its Communication Excellence Award from the Carolinas Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives for its advertising and marketing for the Dining On The Dam.

The chamber will hold its Business Lexpo July 9 at Riverbluff High School.

LEXINGTON COUNTY Museum Director JR Fennell tells me his staff has given no talks the last few months due to covid-19.

Some popular topics are quilts and other artifacts from the Dutch Fork, Quattlebaum and Hall families and the rifles they made, and the history of alcohol in the county.

For a staff member to speak to your group, give him a call at 803-359-8369.

ANNE BULL reminds us that Flag Day is Sunday, June 14. What better way to show appreciation for our flag which represents our freedoms than to fly it proudly!

HAVE YOU EVER attended a wedding in Japan? Deb, Leigh and Don Petty did recently when their son Ryan married Emi Nagato. The ceremony was held in a Shinto shrine, an all-day affair. There is no event more important to the Japanese than the wedding ceremony.

Best wishes to Emi and Ryan who make their home in Tokyo.

HATS OFF TO poll workers who helped with the election last Tuesday. With the virus scare, we are especially grateful to those who willingly gave of their time.

MANY CREDIT Sonora Dodd with founding Father’s Day in 1909. How will you honor your father Sunday, June 21?

NO MORE egg-scuses! Ronnie and Joy Wingard’s hens started pecking and eating their own eggs so Ronnie plans to put brown ceramic eggs in the nests. If this doesn’t work, he may make chicken bog!

FAMILIES PLANNING on home summer vacations are installing swimming pools according to Chuck Corley. He says residential pools are in demand.

HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY to Betty Harmon Powell. Karen Parrish tells us Betty, widow of Buddy Powell and mother of Sandy (deceased), Dale and Butch (Susan), celebrated at her home Friday, June 5.

And a big Happy Birthday to A. J. Dooley, who celebrates his 90th June 10!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Judy Kyzer, Joe Boles, Ginger Macaulay, Charlotte Cochran, Ansley Cordell, Ashley Cordell, Chis Gorman, Katie Brodowski, Elle Clark, Patrick Richey, Bill Taylor, Laura Taylor, Sheila Thompson, Johny Whitehead, Parker Barnes, Lisa Catalanotto, Audrey Leaphart, Blenda Rhoden, Jonathan Whitehead, Suzanne Cordell, Dixie Faulk, Nicole Sink, Jennifer Talor, Sandy Dawkins, Marie Welsh, Brent Caughman, Bret Harris, Susan Lee, James Renwick, David Scircle, Lucy Swaffield-Green, Max Senf, Mark Hatchett, Ann Campbell-Kelly, Charlie Stith, Amy Davis, Patricia Minemier and Debra Pate.

Sheri Kimball reminds us the Pilgrim Lutheran Church phone ministry is available at 1-833-800-1492.