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“He was Walter Kantorowski, he was my grandfather. He started here — well, they didn’t own the building in 1919 — he started on the Colfax Bridge. Then they bought this property, and he was one of the original ones that were here.”

“Here” is the South Bend Farmer’s Market on 1105 Northside Boulevard. Matthew Johnson stands behind rows of shining fruits and vegetables, describing his family’s history with the market. His parents took over the booth, Johnson’s Produce, in the 1980s, and then Johnson took over in 1991.

“Been here a long time.”

The building itself is barnyard red on the outside with wood paneling along the walls inside. Customers bustle through one of two long halls, stopping at stalls on their left and right. At the far end of one of the halls, Mark Hetler, of Hetler Farms, leans over heads of lettuce to talk. Hetler has been with the market for 42 years, since 1983.

“It was actually a lot busier, there were a lot more farmers,” he says of when he first started, “at that time people would buy more in volume, bushels and bushels of stuff.”

Today, The Hillsiders, a local band, performs “Whiskey in the Jar” in a music space between the two sides of the market. Customers wander from booth to booth with pretzels from Ben’s and coffee from DeLo’s in hand.

David White moves between the greeting card section and treat sections of his booth. The walls are decked out with Union Jacks, a cardboard cutout of a palace guard and other British paraphernalia; fitting decor for The Great British Treat House. White came to the market in 2018, after he retired.

“I read about a British lady selling sticky toffee pudding, and I thought South Bend could do with a bit of that because it's tremendous,” says White. “And then it became 30 sticky toffee puddings, a hundred sticky toffee puddings.”

The best part of the market for White, though, is the people.

“It doesn't matter whether it's fruit or meat. If you're interested in people, that's what it's about. If you want a sterile shopping center, you go to Meijer's or Walmart or something like that.”

Lisa Comer and her daughters, Kelly and Robin, of SisteRs Kreations and Treats are even newer to the market. This is their second year selling cookies, cupcakes and other baked goods. They, too, enjoy the market’s ability to connect them with people.

“It's like you almost create friendships from those that you see or they see you, quite often,” says Lisa, “so it's a really nice way for networking and also to get your product out. But then, the other nice thing about it also is just the friendships that you develop from people that you see.”

Behind the rows of tomatoes back at Johnson’s Produce, Johnson calls out to greet a passerby, who asks how he’s doing.

“Good, good,” he replies.