Organic-minded visit open air market

Between the aisles of tables packed full of fresh and organic produce at the city of Bloomington Farmers Market, community members were serenaded by the sweet sounds of local musicians and they were dazzled by the twinkle of sunlight reflecting off of local artwork dangling in the breeze Saturday morning. \nBeginning with American tunes of the Bloomington Brass Band and concluding with the British body movements of the Bloomington Quarry Morris Dancers near the footsteps of City Hall, market participants also heard folk sounds of rural China, Scottish bagpipes, Irish toe-tapping and solo guitarists within and around Hoosier farmers offering everything from green onions to honey.\nBloomington resident and IU alumni James Min-Ching Yang teamed up with two of his students, residents Nick Venstr and IU Cyclotron Facility staff member and IU employee Sarah Pedersen, on the south side of the market for an Asian chorus of tunes played on a two-stringed musical instrument called an er-hu. Yang said the er-hu is the equivalent to the Western violin, and he feels his role at the market is to promote Chinese culture and to share his and his wife's Chinese calligraphy that is on-sale at their market stand with community members. \n"The er-hu has charm. When you feel happy you want to play it and when you feel sad you want to play it. It has a human singing tone," Yang said. "When you play it's almost like you're singing. If you want to play well, first you have to sing the tune."\nDating from the Tang Dynasty, 618 to 907 A.D., the er-hu is made of wood with a piece of snake skin fixed on one end of an octagonal resonant box with two metal strings stretched and supported by a wooden bridge. The instrument is played by sliding a bamboo-stick bow with horse tail in between the strings.\nThe er-hu is now a key component in Asian operas, orchestras and symphonies instead of acting as vocal accompaniment. In between Yang's er-hu trio and the Big Band sounds coming from the north side of the market, market-goers were also entertained by the Irish toe-tapping of the "Fiddle 'N' Feet" posse of two dancers and three \nmusicians. \nBesides the feeling of an instrumental breeze of music whipping through the air, market attendees often gazed, and even more often bought, artistic wares from jewelry to rugs to baskets.\nBrown County artist and flower farmer Annie Barlow offered community members dozens of unique recycled tin ornament mobiles in addition to annuals, perennials and shrubs commonplace among market vendors. She said her mobiles consist of cut strips of tin, decorated with car paint and beads strung together with wire, that can serve as Christmas tree decorations, are used to spruce up kitchen windows or are beautiful pieces of art to hang from car rear-view mirrors. \n"My mom had this philosophy that if you are busy doing something creative you don't have a chance to get into trouble," she said before helping a mother and her two-year-old child choose an ornament. "I'm compelled to make art because it gives me a certain sense of peace and pleasure. I was a craftsman before I became a flower farmer as an alternative lifestyle. What can I say? I also knit and I do beadwork"