Aubrey rekindled an old namesake with the Fruit Jar Junction, its burgeoning farmers market.
Having the first iteration of the event on Saturday, the monthly market will be housed at Veterans Memorial Park, adja- cent to Main Street.
“Fruit Jar Junction comes from a nickname Aubrey has had since the late 1800s,” Events and Programs Coordinator Rodney Cagle said. “It was a way to pay homage since most of your farmers markets have jarred vegetables and preserves like that, so it was a play on words to keep the old nickname alive.”
Though the name was once literal, as it is for the market, Fruit Jar Junction served as code for those riding the train back in the '20s and '30s during prohibition and the Great Depression. 'Last Stop, Fruit Jar Junction,' actually meant 'Last stop for moonshine before Fort Worth.'
“That’s what saved us in the Great Depression,” Cagle said. “The only thing that would sell was the moonshine, so Aubrey survived by being Fruit Jar Junction and being known for it at that time.”
Though the string of unseasonable rain and cold worked against the event, and the early time set it before the first harvest for produce, Cagle was not deterred.
“To be honest, for the weather, we’ve had a really good crowd,” Cagle said. “When we’re talking May and June, the harvests are now happening, so we’ll have our produce and our vegetables. That’s really driving the market to expand and grow because that’s what people really want. When the harvest happens, the people come.” Six vendors lined Mulberry Street, as the park grounds were too wet to set up shop on. Cagle said more are on the way for next month. Among them was Stephanie Rodriguez’s Concha Cat Panaderia, selling homemade Concha bread.
“We did pretty well I think,” Rodriguez said. “I scaled it down a little bit because I always do when we’re somewhere new. This is the first time we’ve ever been out in Aubrey, but we did pretty good. I think it’s really important, if there is an opportunity to show support, even as a vendor, you’re showing up and bringing your product somewhere new.”
Cagle aimed for 10 vendors to start.
“I had nine that were signed up ,” Cagle said. 'One of them was sick and didn’t want to get out in the weather. My honey lady didn’t want to get out, and there was another candle lady that didn’t get out. Several others that have signed up for next month, so we’re looking to keep it going pretty strong.”
He explained kicking it off so early was by design, to help seed the idea of the market in the community’s mind.
“The people in the city who have been driving by wondering what’s going on, so they may have had somewhere to go right now and didn’t have time, but they see the sign, draw interest and they’ll come back,” he said.
