~Rebecca Robinson

"This is exceeding my expectations," said St. Johns Farmers Market Manager Lisa Bersani this morning as people streamed into the St. Johns Plaza for the market's opening day. "We started counting [people] an hour in, and we've counted 1800 people. And that's a very conservative number."

A market volunteer boasted that "we had people gathering before we opened," and the Plaza was still packed at noon. By that time, many of the market's 15 vendors were beginning to sell out of their goods, including the newly launched Wealth Underground Farm.

Located just five miles from downtown St. Johns (see clever sign below), Wealth Underground is a small-scale farm in its first year of operations. Organic certification is in the works, but for now Nolan Calisch and his farming friends have gorgeous lettuce, beets and kale available weekly at SJFM and on the menu at the James John Cafe.

"We came in with high hopes, and we're meeting them today," said Calisch.

Others in attendance praised the market's diversity of products - from berries to Hawaiian rice noodles - and family-friendly setup.

"I'd prepared for problems and stumbling blocks, but everything went so smoothly," Bersani said. "It's really been a community effort to get this off the ground, and we're lucky to have 30 people who are working like this is their full-time job ... but they're volunteers!"

Even though the market is blessed with a superstar staff, Bersani said that there's still a need for more volunteers. Anyone interested in committing a few hours or a full summer's worth of (unpaid) work to the market can contact Bersani at lisa@sjfarmersmarket.com.