Building Your Post-Pandemic List (Part 3)
Memphis in the spring can be magical. Usually, it’s magical because it’s about five days long between cold snaps and sweltering heat, and so, if you happen to be around during that glorious spell, you learn to savor each day. This year’s spring has been so different...cooler than usual, longer than I can ever remember, and marked by isolation, closed playgrounds, locked up museums, and gated gardens. But there’s still the promise of summer and Memphis in the summer is hot, social, fragrant, and full of music. As a lifelong Memphian, I love every moment of it and I’m already starting to don my mask and step outside into the city again.
The perfect way to feel connected again to the city, the local farmers, and the regional fare is to head out to the Cooper Young Farmer’s Market or the Memphis Farmer’s Market (or both!) on an early Saturday morning. Both markets are easily accessible with plenty of surrounding parking and the booths and tents are spaced out enough where you can shop and purchase items without feeling too crowded. It’s so good to get out and run into friends and neighbors, see favorite vendors, take advantage of food trucks, and support local businesses. I’ve been especially impressed by the social distancing measures the Memphis Farmer’s Market has taken to ensure that customers stay 6ft away from each other in line and that the crowd doesn’t get too large at any one time. Practicing social distancing while picking up fresh Jones Orchard strawberries, hydroponically grown veggies from Fenster Farms, and locally manufactured tea from My Cup of Tea kicks your weekend off with a start that feels blessedly normal. And we’re all learning that normal is just about the best feeling we can have right now.
A sunny morning at the Memphis Farmers Market downtown
Staff and volunteers at Memphis Farmers Market ensure room for safe social distancing measures for all who visit.
Walks and bike rides have kept our little family cheerful and healthy throughout quarantine so we’re especially thankful that the Memphis Botanic Gardens has reopened to their members and public alike. The Gardens have provided visitors a new temporary entrance in order to keep tabs on how many enter and even though the My Big Backyard exhibit is still closed up, our family took advantage of being “forced” into areas of the gardens that we rarely or even never had visited before. We fed the massive koi fish, ran like wild in the open fields, discovered a pavilion we had somehow never noticed and came up on a “secret” bamboo maze. The hour we spent was so good for our hearts and bodies as we walked through the beautifully manicured lawns and felt at home in a space we had so often visited prior to quarantine.
As we all come out of hiding, we’re realizing it’s important that we find Memphis somewhat like we left it. And with summer approaching, I think it will be easy to find ourselves out and about more...cautious, safe, but enjoying our resilient city with more appreciation than ever before.