lifestyles
Ken Snow, Lawrence resident, sells pears, tomatoes and preserves at the Downtown Lawrence Farmers' Market, corner of 1.1th and Vermont streets. He has sold his produce at the market for two years.
The Farmers' Market
Mama always said to eat your vegetables. Now it's easy to find healthy alternatives to pizza and beer.
Story by Casey Barnes Photos by Jay Thornton
The talk is mostly produce, with an occasional joke about tomatoes. It's the Downtown Lawrence Farmers' Market, and this season cantaloupe and watermelon are ripe for the picking. Next month, it will be apple cider and pumplins.
Floyd and Becky Ott have been selling their home-grown products at the market for about 15 to 20 years. Becky is a retired registered nurse, and Floyd rents out his farm and sells produce as a hobby.
The market is the oldest of its kind in Kansas, but even the veteran farmers can't remember exactly when it started.
"We've been doing it for a long time," Becky Ott said. "It's always been our dream to do this when we retire. It's a nice supplement to our
income, and it keeps us healthy."
the Otts are one of about 65 vendors that set up their
displays from 4 to 6:30 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday and from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. The market opens on a regular basis the second Saturday in May and closes on the second Saturday in November. But
there are occasional holiday markets around Christmas and Easter.
The market is located in a parking lot at the corner of 11th and Vermont streets, and vendors sell everything from fruits and vegetables to Mexican food and cinnamon rolls.
The small lot is a cramped place for the growing event, which has become family to the vendors and a weekly routine for the many faithful shoppers. The prices are comparable
to grocery markets' prices, but the atmosphere is more authentic.
"We have a lot of nice, repeat customers who come back because we give them a nice product," Floyd Ott said. "The stuff may not be as pretty as it is in the grocery store, but it's fresher and just as safe."
Floyd said safe products were not a concern to his customers in the past. It was taken for granted that the food was safely grown. These days, most customers at the farmers' market insist on food that is organically produced.
To be organic, the food must be grown with fertilizers consisting only of natural animal or vegetable matter, said Mary Joe Mensie, chairwoman for the vendors' group.
Only a few of the vendors are certified to sell organic products, but many follow the guidelines and do not use inorganic pesticides or fertilizers.
To say that food is organically certified, vendors must pay at least $1,500 in fees and have their crops tested.
Nuria Lucas, Lawrence graduate student and a local farmer, sells her crops at the market. Although she is not certified to sell organic food, she posts signs on her tables stating that her food is organically grown.
"It's outrageously expensive to be certified to sell organic products," Lucas said. "I guess if people want proof, then certification would be necessary, but a lot of regulars come to my booth because I pick it fresh everyday."
Freshness is what draws the crowds. And this fall some of the biggest sellers are broccoli, apples and tomatoes.
...
Bringing Chinese Buddhism to Lawrence
An exhibit of Chinese Buddhist pictorial art at the Spencer Museum of Art tries to take the spectator across the seas to a Chinese monastery.
By Eduardo A. Molina Kansan correspondent
"Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism, 185-1850," is the title of the first exhibition outside Asia to examine Chinese Buddhist pictorial art from the mid-ninth century to the mid-19th century.
Bong! Bong! Images take visitors to the halls of a Chinese monastery. But spectators are not inside the tall walls that surround the monastery's interconnected buildings and courtyards. They are at the Spencer Museum of Art.
"There is a Buddhist notion that the Buddha's teachings pass through three phases: an early phase when the teachings were perfectly understood, a middle phase when only a semblance of the law or teachings remained and the latter days of the law when the teachings entered a period of decline and ultimately disappeared," she said.
Marsha Weidner, curator of the exhibition and associate professor of art history, said this period was the last phase in Budda's teachings.
The exhibition has 83 works, which include paintings, rubbings, wood-block prints and pictorial textiles.
Paintings of Buddhas and hanging scrolls of the top deities, or Bodhisattas, welcome people as if they were visiting the Great Buddha hall,
called "The Temple: Ritual, Devotion and Study."
Religious themes are introduced in the first section of the exhibition
One hall contains meditating lohans, or Buddhist saints, and paintings of hell. Another part represents the Water-Land ritual.
the most important hall in a monastery.
"Green Tara," early 13th century
The museum has tried to replicate the halls, each of which demonstrate a specific function of the monastery.
"This was a mortuary ritual to improve the conditions of reborn ancestors and relatives," Weidner said. "The images of spirits and divine beings were used to create a ritual space, a ritual arena during the sevent-day ceremony."
Julianne Peter/KANSAN
The second section, "Beyond the Monastery Walls: Professional Painters and Popular Themes," shows that Buddhism was followed by all people.
"It was not something just confined to monks, nuns and monasteries," she said.
One of the most popular images for Chinese Buddhism was Guanayin, the Bodhisattva of compassion. A very flexible deity, Guanayin can assume any appearance she wishes to help people.
"If she needs to appear as a beautiful woman or like a spiritual man, she will do that to save people," she said.
One painting has Guanyin riding
"The first two sections are characterized by the use of colors in a decorative sense," she said. "In this section, the style changes. This is the scholars' world where images are restrained and quiet."
The last section is called "From the Monks' Quarters to the Scholars' Studio." The purpose of this section is to present images produced from the interaction between Buddhist clergy and Chinese scholars, Weir said.
down the clouds on a mythological animal and holding a male child, which is a response to the desire for a son to carry on the family name.
Chinese scholars read poetry, practiced calligraphy and painted.
This section includes paintings of parties where monks and scholars shared the arts and the teachings of Buddhism.
"It was a gentlemanly thing to do," Weidner said.
Mike Bultena, Kansas City, Kan., sophomore, said anyone could enjoy the exhibit.
"It is a fantastic and interesting exhibition," he said. "It doesn't matter what your major is because one can learn a lot about this culture."
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Weidner will give a tour of the exhibit at 12:15 p.m. Sept. 15. The exhibition runs through Oct.9.
Lawrence Nightlife Calendar
The Bottleneck
737 New Hampshire St.
Sinister Dane with Motherwell, 10 tonight, $4
(18 and over)
The Millions, walking on Einstein, Rex Daisy, 10
p.m. tomorrow, $5 (18 and over)
Blig Gloat with The Skeletones and Power and Fear, 10 p.m. Saturday, $6 (over 21), $7 (18-20)
Open Mike Night, 9:15 p.m. Monday, no cover charge
Shudder to Think with Stanford Prison Experiment, 10 p.m. Tuesday, advanced tickets $6 (18 and over)
Mercy Rule with Dali-Automatic and Six Penny,
10 p.m. Wednesday, $4 (18 and over)
Grither and Amputatee (after the Reverend Horton Heat show at Liberty Hall on Thursday), no cover charge (18 and over)
Full Moon Cafe
803 Massachusetts St.
The Winfield Bluegrass Festival Kickoff Preview Review featuring White Trash Express with Lou's Revenge, Creek Bank Ghetto Boyz and Julia Henderson. 8 p.m. tomorrow, free
Bluegrass Festival Review featuring White Trash Express with Sister Sue and the Bad Habits, Biggs & Bennett and Mo' Better Bluegrass Boys, 8 p.m. Saturday, free
North Indian Music with Theen Tal, 8 p.m.
Wednesday, free
River Valley Music Cafe
1601 West 23rd St.
Sunday Club, 9 tonight, cover charge
Munkafest, 9 p.m. tomorrow, cover charge
Common Ground, 9 p.m. Saturday, cover charge Fat Tuesday with doll face, 9 p.m. Monday, cover charge
The Prayers with Sole-fish, 9 p.m. Wednesday, cover charge
642 Massachusetts St.
The Reverend Horton Heat with Paw and Tenderloin, 8 p.m. Thursday, advanced tickets $12.50
If you would like to submit a weekend performance for the nightlife calendar, you may fax it to the Kansan at 864-5261, call the Kansan at 864-4810 or stop by Room 111 in Stauffer-Flint Hall. All applications should be directed to Teresa Veazey. The nightlife calendar is printed every Thursday, and all applications must be received a week before.