I came to Apple Tree Cove in February 1989 to live full time.

Jimmy James’ family had owned and used the Kingston Beach Place since 1962, but no one had lived there through a winter. What an adventure.

What a lot of pretty pictures I had of an idyllic small town in Kitsap.

That autumn, I met Marcia Adams and Cathy Wartes and soon the Kingston Farmers Market was born. I recall the first yellow banner we made together, laid across the living room floor, measured off to make sure it would reach across Main Street.

The first vendor meetings, the first board meeting … the papers filed and the advertising … the first market, and the first market season.

And now, it’s the 25th season! The market’s birthday party will be on July 19. Of course, the whole town is invited. The whole town is part of the market, and the market is part of Kingston.

The pretty pictures gave way to understanding. What does it take to sell at the market? Every vendor carefully sets up every week — hauling crates, tables, umbrella, and signage; arranging each item with care, remaining cheerful (or at least trying to) even in the rain.

The Port of Kingston’s Mike Wallace Park is the best spot in Kitsap for a farmers market, with its grass and water, nearby parking and decent restrooms. Yet it is still hard work. Music seems so simple, yet we had to learn — not all great sounds lend a light atmosphere; not too raucous, not too sad. Too loud at the front is too soft at the back.

And what does it take to run a farm? To me, this understanding is most sobering of all. It’s pretty easy to comprehend that endless hard work is required, along with the cost of land, tools, supplies. What stuns me is the impact of the elements, the bargain that every farmer must make with nature.

And it is nature that doesn’t keep the pact: The field of poppies intended for the market that suddenly succumbs to a fungal blight; the beekeeper’s truckload of hives that overturned on the highway or was devastated with bee colony collapse.

This season, Vikki Lobberegt of Dutch Acres near Hansville lost two newborn lambs to coyotes — the lambs she raises for meat and for wool.

Speaking of livestock — thinking of eggs — people often ask at the market booth for farm fresh eggs. Nash’s Organics from Sequim usually has eggs each week. And Dutch Acres is in the process of applying for USDA certification for egg sales at the market. Some farmers sell their eggs direct from their farms, also allowed by USDA. You’ve probably seen hand-lettered signs at driveways here and there, “Fresh Eggs for Sale.”

Clint Dudley, Kingston market manager, gradually built up his multi-breed flock to three dozen birds. How happy cooking breakfast with green, brown, aqua eggs, knowing they came from Dudley’s Kingston Farm. No more, alas! All 37 hens were slaughtered (plus a few turkeys) within just one week — not by Clint but by weasels that slipped in through quarter-size holes in the wire fencing.

I take a deep breath, appreciating our farmers, all farmers, all over again. Please, come on down to the Kingston Farmers Market and support a farmer today.

Thinking about a stall at the Kingston Farmers Market? Call Clint at 297-7683 or go to the Vendor Services section at www.KingstonFarmersMarket.com.

Come on down.

— Contact Mary McClure 297-4300, mary@contrarymac.com.