By Allison Trunkey
Correspondent

On June 24, 1991, the Bremerton Progress reported that “Bremerton old-timers” could remember buying “fresh veggies and noisy poultry” from the 1920s- and World War II-era Bremerton Farmers Market.

That early iteration of the market was located next to the Navy yard, along Burwell Street between Pacific and Park avenues.

Bremerton resident Margaret Jensen, 78 when interviewed in 1991, remembered exploring the wood-covered market as a teenager and eating her first-ever potato chip.

In 1991, the Bremerton Progress described the early market as a “craft-filled fair that … occupies the city’s waterfront each Sunday.” By the 1990s, many of the farms that had vended in the early century had closed, retained only in the memories of Bremerton’s oldest residents.

Today’s market formed in 2004, according to the market’s website, and bills itself as the “fabulously welcoming and bustling market tucked among the trees and beside the sea at Evergreen-Rotary Park.”

“Over the years, it’s just sort of grown and grown,” assistant manager Marie Vila said, explaining that the first location of the modern market was in a parking lot across the road. “This is the spot that’s been a gem and a community gathering place.”

Indeed, even on a rainy Thursday afternoon, the market draws a substantial crowd to the nearly 30 vendors who sell a variety of food and farm wares, prepared and baked goods, artisan crafts, and more.

One of the market’s veteran vendors is Cliff Wind, who owns Abundantly Green, a certified organic farm that sells meats and poultry. The farm goes back 120 years on his wife’s family’s side. Wind estimates they’ve been with the Bremerton Farmers Market for more than five years.

One of the market’s newer vendors is Tina Corbo of Tamgo Jams. Just into her second year with the Market, Corbo said, “We like the park setting,” adding that her children do too, and that “the market manager is great.”

You can visit the Bremerton Farmers Market from 4-7 p.m. Thursdays May through October, and participate in the legacy of nearly a century of community work. More info: https://bremertonmarket.wordpress.com.

Also on June 24, 1991, the Bremerton Progress reported that Bremerton could be the future home of the Kalakala.

The Kalakala, according to the ship’s website, was the world’s first “Streamlined Vessel” (it was often called the “silver bullet” for its Art Deco-style glossy hull and round-tipped front).

The Kalakala sailed her maiden voyage on July 3, 1935, and carried passengers between Bremerton and Seattle for 32 years before retiring in 1967. According to the Kalakala Foundation’s website, the new ferry Hyak made the Kalakala and another Bremerton ferry, the Willapa, superfluous, and both were retired the next year. The Kalakala was sold and became a seafood-processing vessel in Alaska.

In 1991, the foundation began planning to make a $30,000 bid for the ferry, hoping to convert it into another museum alongside the USS Turner Joy, which would open to the public as a museum in 1992.

Then-Bremerton Mayor Louis Mentor doubted the project would succeed; he felt it would overcrowd the waterfront and conflict with several other local fundraising projects, including one for the Admiral Theater.

In 2004, after a succession of owners and financial woes, the ship was moored in Tacoma. It was scrapped in 2015.

— Allison Trunkey is an intern for Sound Publishing Kitsap Group. Contact her at atrunkey@sound   publishing.com.