Local farmer’s markets and eating fresh have been on the upswing for the last couple of years, but Ocean City has been ahead of the curve for decades – and doing it in a low-key fashion. Did you know that the resort has its own farmer’s market, just off 142nd Street?

Visitors can stop by the Phillips Seafood parking lot near 142nd Street to shop local goods, made by the people standing behind the stall.

“We’ve been doing this for 25 years, and it’s a produce-only market,” said farmer’s market master Paul Wood. “That means what you see here is in season. When it gets further into the season, you’ll see more produce like blueberries and watermelons. That’s the summer crop.”

Paul also runs his own stall at the market with his wife, Susan. The couple owns A&W Farms out in Parsonsburg.  They sell sells annual and perennial flowers at their stall the bright colors and floral aromas brighten up the farmers’ market.

Right now, the Woods are one of four stalls out in the uptown Phillips parking lot. But they said the market, like everything in Ocean City, picks up business as the summer goes on.

“We have some regulars to start out, but we get more visitors in late June. Eventually we get a mix of both,” Paul said. “People start coming through here mainly when the summer crops come in. Produce and tomatoes go quickly, it’s a great show.”

Another key point of the Ocean City’s farmer’s market  is that it’s small, only with eight vendors in high summer, buts everything is produced by locals in Maryland or nearby in Delaware.

“It’s all gotta be farm fresh, and everyone who’s here has to make it themselves,” Paul said. “Out in Ocean Pines, there’s all sorts of vendors and nonprofits, but this market solely focuses on the the producers.”

While business may be slow right now, others like Great Shoals Winery came from Easton to pedal some of their wines and ciders early. Shoppers can even have a sip of their refreshing wine before making a purchase.

“I mean, we must do good business, since my boss asked me to be here,” Olga Deshields said with a laugh. Olga is a Great Shoals employee that was manning the booth at the Ocean City Farmer’s Market.

“We started out out in Princess Anne, and we always used local and the freshest fruits in Maryland to make our wines,” she said. “Our biggest sellers here the sweet wines, like Shipwreck and the Pinot Grigio. Our ciders are refreshing too.”

In addition, Quindocqua Farms was selling leafy greens and other vegetables at the farmer’s market at last weekend’s farmer’s market. But as summer goes on expect the parking lot to boom as other vendors show up, including Bennett Orchards in Frankford, Delaware that sells their famous peaches and blueberries.

“Those are very popular. Once they sold out of peaches in a hour,” Olga said. “It’s fun to watch!”

Shop for fresh and ripe foods at the Ocean City Farmer’s Market on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The market runs from May until October.

As the summer approaches, we want to remind you to share your favorite beach photos with us. Whether your photos are blasts from the past or accounts of your latest Ocean City adventure, we all would love to see them. Lots of times people who can’t make it down for one reason or another visit both our OceanCity.com Facebook page as well as this site for a taste of the beach. Sometimes just seeing people enjoying themselves in Ocean City really can lift your spirits.

It’s in that vein that we’re launching our summer photo series. Each week, we’ll publish some of our favorite reader-submitted photos for you to enjoy. We encourage you to use the comment section to tell us which are your favorites. The best photos will be announced and the winners given prizes that include dining gift certificates and tickets to Jolly Roger Amusements. 

Please read the rules carefully if you want to participate because we often have to disqualify great photos because they don’t have any identification and because they are too small. All photos must be at least 1200 px (either vertical, horizontal or square) to be considered. The photographer’s email address also has to be included for us to be able to name a winner. Check the rules out here and submit. 

Meanwhile, here are some of the photos that recently have been submitted. Enjoy and let’s make this a fantastic summer!

International Museum Day is Thursday, and what better way to celebrate by taking a tour of the Life Saving Station Museum on South Atlantic Avenue? Here’s another incentive: the museum is waiving its admission fee for the day and having discounts at the gift shop!

This year’s theme of International Museum Day is contested histories: saying the taboo, and gaining awareness for controversial moments and ultimately acceptance. Ocean City may look like the idyllic summer town, but there were several controversial points in its history, like how only two hotels, the Henry and the Pines Hotel were built to house black lodgers in a time of segregation.

Other instances, like Ocean City’s burgeoning surfing scene, were also hot-button issues. When surfing first washing onto the resort in the 1940s, older residents and city officials complained of the sport populating the waters and fears it would lead to a counterculture. The Life Saving Station Museum has a great exhibit detailing the timeline of when surfing started and the local response to where it is today.

The Life Saving Station Museum also has a new exhibit to entice visitors titled “Native Americans:  First Contact On Lower Delmarva.” This exhibit has prints, first-hand accounts and artifacts that show how Native Americans first lived on North America at the time when Europeans arrived. The exhibit, brought by the Salisbury University’s Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture, also shows how their way of life was impacted afterwards.

Other popular exhibits include the 250 gallon aquarium on the first floor contains several sea creatures indigenous to Ocean City. There’s also a shark exhibit that shows a close-up look at teeth of a Tiger shark and other creatures. In the height of the summer, Museum Curator Sandy Hurley also offers children a “show and tell” of the aquarium exhibits as the summer goes on, so there’s a reason to come back. Fish feeding  and rope tying demonstrations are also scheduled in the future.

To get the full scope of Eastern Shore roots, there’s a exhibit on the second floor that honors powerful industry families in Ocean City. These families started flagships of Ocean City’s Boardwalk businesses, like Dolles Candyland and Fisher’s Popcorn, that are remain today. Check it out!

The Ocean City Life Saving Station is just one of thousands of museums participating in the International Museum Day this year. The holiday was started by the International Council of Museums in 1977 to increase public awareness of the role of museums in the development of society, and it’s been growing every since.  International Museum Day broke its record for participation in 2016,  with more than 35,000 museums hosting events in some 145 countries.

The Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum is located on the south end of the Boardwalk at 813 South Atlantic Avenue. For more information, call 410-289-4991 or visit www.ocmuseum.org . The open house will be held on May 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The museum is also open  May and October daily from 10 a.m. to  4 p.m., and June through September daily at 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Admission fees on typical days are $3 for adults, $2 for seniors over 62 years old or active duty military service members, and $1 for children from ages 6 -17. Children under 6 are free.