In less than a month, Saturday Market returns to Washington’s waterfront. That’s definitely good news.

Saturday Market provides area growers, producers and others weekly opportunities to market their goods to area residents – and out-of-town visitors lucky enough to be in Washington during the Saturday Market season, which begins April 16 and concludes Oct. 15.

Saturday Market is much more than just a place to buy locally raised strawberries, tomatoes, flowers and plants. Saturday Market is not just about selling locally made jellies, jams and relishes.

Saturday Market is a social network. It allows area residents and visitors to mingle, chat and develop new relationships and enhance existing relationships. In a small way, Saturday Market evokes the Saturdays of days past, when rural folk would come to town on Saturdays, spending most of their time stocking up on goods, exchanging news and socializing.

On the second Saturday of each month, the Artisan Fair becomes a component of Saturday market, providing a venue for area artists to showcase their artwork.

Area churches, civic organizations and nonprofit charities come to Saturday Market to set up food booths and conduct bake sales to raise money to support their projects, services and programs – and raise awareness about their projects, services and programs.

In addition to strawberry jam and blackberry jam, there’s another jam available at Saturday Market. At 10 a.m. on each Saturday Market, the Beaufort County Traditional Music Association provides a musical jam under a shade-providing tree at the intersection of Stewart Parkway, West Main Street and Gladden Street.

Saturday Market traces it roots back to a farmers-market approach developed about nine years ago by Cam and Shirley Padgett of Chocowinity after they visited a similar market in Salem, Ore. The Padgetts served as co-chairmen of the forerunner to Saturday Market, which in past years was held on the third Saturday of each month from April through October.

Saturday Market, a project of the Washington Harbor District Alliance, is all about supporting the local economy. Saturday Market helps support the area’s agricultural industry, especially small producers, by providing them another retail outlet for their goods. Saturday Market provides consumers with the freshest of fruits and vegetables on a weekly basis and at reasonable prices.

While Saturday Market plays an important role in supporting the local economy, its role as a social network is just as important. It’s good to buy goods from Saturday Market, but it’s also good to share those goods, whether they be food items or artwork, with friends, old or new, met while making the rounds at Saturday Market.