On Sunday, October 13 I knew I needed to get from point A to point B, A being Vassar College and B being the Beacon Farmers Market.  There was only one way to do this, there are actually more ways to do this but for a broke car less college student like me there was only one way, the Metro North Rail.  I took a cab to the Poughkeepsie Station with my very nice roommate, Madison who agreed to accompany me on this independent field trip after begging her for what seemed a lifetime, 30 seconds.  Once at the Poughkeepsie Station, we purchased our $7 roundtrip tickets to the Beacon Station.  We boarded the train and waited a short 15 minutes to arrive at Beacon Station, during this time all I could think of was “Once I get there, how in the world am I going to get the farmer’s market?” and “the Hudson River is so beautiful!!!” considering that was the view from the window the whole train ride. As we got closer, I was able to pick out the blue canopies laid out of the river front across from the station, could it be the farmer’s market was right across from the station.  Sure enough we got off the train and Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo it was the Beacon Farmer’s Market.

This farmer’s market was nothing like the Amenia Farmer’s Market we first visited in our journey as students of “Field Experiences in the Hudson Valley” this market was full of vendors and crowds of people with recyclable bags in hand asked questions, sampled products, and purchased products to fill their refrigerators and pantries. A line of about twenty enthusiastic buyers waited in front of one of the blue canopies which was the source of smell of beef kabobs with the banner reading “Nana’s Middle Eastern Foods”.  I was unsuccessful as I tried to sneak a picture of these tasty looking and smelling kabobs.  Apart from Middle Eastern foods, vendors selling garlic, vegetables, ice cream, milk, spices, pastries, fresh baked breads, varieties of cheese, beef, pork, lamb, chicken, eggs, honey, maple syrup, homemade preserves and jams were lined along the river front selling their products to local Beacon residents and people arriving on the Metro North Train like me.

Once I finished going around the Beacon Farmer’s Market a couple of times I saw more canopies lined up on the river front a quarter mile away from where I was standing.  As I walked out of the Farmer’s market I read a poster saying “Pumpkin Festival Sun. Oct. 13” with an arrow pointing towards the the direction were the canopies were.  This Festival was full of  family’s enjoying the beautiful day while listening to live folk music and picking out pumpkins and other merchandised sold by local vendors.  This festival seemed like it was designed for the residents of Beacon. Students from the local elementary school sang a couple of songs I had never heard and art drawn by students from the local high school was also displayed. After an hour of walking around this community based festival I decided it was time to go back to Vassar.  As I walked back to Beacon Station I saw a sign signaling the way to Dia: Beacon, I walked for about 3 minutes to get to  Dia: Beacon. I knew I had no time to go in, but I will definitely visit Beacon again to explore Dia: Beacon and the city of Beacon.