It has now been months since I’ve posted on this blog, a situation that saddens me but is unavoidable right now. Soon after starting this project, I started writing for Slashfood and working on my thesis and couldn’t keep up the pace of regular visits to Reading Terminal to talk to people and collect their stories. It’s a project I’d like to come back to at sometime in the future, but right now I have to focus on the writing that pays and will get me my masters degree.

Here’s hoping for renewed energy for this endeavor in 2008.

I’ve gotten several emails in recent days, asking me why I haven’t written anything about the Rick’s Steak issue that’s been the talk of the Market recently. I’ve intentionally stayed away from that issue because I haven’t felt like it fit within the framework of the project I’ve set up for myself. I want to capture what makes the Market great, not focus on the fighting and dischord. I realize that in some senses this struggle is a vital part of the story of the space, but I feel like I need to give it time to settle before I write about it.

In other news, those of you who check on this blog are aware that I’ve haven’t been posting a whole lot lately, despite the appearance on 6abc news recently promoting this project. A couple of weeks ago I got a blogging gig that actually pays me to post, which has been a blessing and a frustration. While it’s fun to make money blogging, it also has a way of zapping the energy I have for other writing projects. However, there are still great stories out there, and I hope to find some more time to tell them. Thanks for your patience and understanding as I find the correct balance.

My Reading Terminal Market Story Project got a little boost in notoriety today (a big note of welcome to those of you who are new here), in the form of an article in the Philadelphia Weekly by local food writer, Mara Zepeda. Mara contacted me about two weeks ago, having heard about my project on Uwishunu.com and asked if she could interview me for a story.

We met up at the Market one morning last week and spent a couple of hours talking about my initial inspiration for the project, how it’s been going so far and all the interesting conversations I’ve been having with the merchants, staff and shoppers at Reading Terminal.

I already wrote about Anna, the woman who I met in pursuit of a photo opportunity for the article.  Iam grateful I had the chance to talk about her, as she had a long history with the Market and much wisdom to impart about life in general.

If you have a story to share about the Market, please contact me by either leaving a comment on this post or by sending me an email at rtmstoryproject@gmail.com.  I’ll make sure to follow up everyone.

My Great-Aunt Flora only bought poultry from Harry Ochs.  She had a small freezer in the front hall closet of her Center City apartment and would stash freezer-bagged portions of chicken breasts, cut-up fryers and turkey pastrami in there for lunches, dinners and other culinary emergencies.  

During my first couple of years living in on my own in Center City, I had standing date to meet a friend for breakfast at the Dutch Eating Place on Saturday mornings.  We’d wait in line, trying to guess which diners would be leaving first, in order to open up two seats together for us.  After we were full of eggs and toast and turkey bacon, we’d spend another hour or two doing our grocery shopping, only leaving when our bags were threatening to burst.

My cousin Melissa left Philadelphia six years ago for Southern California, but hasn’t been able to forget the chocolate covered bananas from Termini Brothers.  She stops by for a dozen every time she’s in town, and in between visits, convinces her mother to send her a few packed in dry ice. 

My neighbor Suzanne shops at the Market because it reminds her of the time she spent traveling through Morocco during the 1960’s.  She likes the ability to buy in small amounts and values the connection to the people who grow and butcher her food. 

Everyone in Philadelphia has a connection to Reading Terminal Market, whether it’s a relationship to a particular vendor that was built over of shopping years or a singular memory of a particularly perfect turkey sandwich.  The goal of this project is to talk to the people who play roles in the life of the market—shoppers, merchants and passersby—and capture their wide-ranging stories.

Each day, a picture and a story/vignette/recipe/memory from the market will be posted on a blog as a way to give people an additional way to experience the richness of the Market.  My hope is to remind all those who have come in contact with Reading Terminal the many reasons why it is a unique and valuable element in the tapestry of the city.