Sequim Farmers Market

When: Oct. 10, Oct. 17 — Open Saturdays 9 a.m.-3 p.m. through October

Where: Downtown Sequim at Sequim Avenue, Washington Street

Contacts: www.sequimmarket.com; manager@sequimmarket.com; 460-2668

New at the market is this season’s batch of golden honey — this time in the hands of Garry Flynn.

Garry works with products that glisten in the sun: honey and glass. You may know him for his flawless etched glasswork. If you come to the market this time of year, you can see the fruits of his labors in the orchards as well.

Garry has bounced around the region at markets over the past 20 years. He tells me he started in Port Angeles at Gerdy’s Market on Eighth Street. Since then he has participated in Port Townsend and Kingston’s markets only to settle into his hometown market, our beloved Sequim Farmers Market.

His product steadily has been the etched glass; later, the honey came on deck.

Garry got his start in glass when a friend introduced him to it. He says, “It was something to do and it just took off.” He says the equipment takes up about half of a garage and consists of a few computers, a cutter for making stencils and an enclosed work area that his arms go into.

He keeps his work space dust free as he has seen other glass etchers suffer with lung issues due to the fine glass dust. Good job, Garry!

The products he carries are a wide variety of mugs, glasses, tumblers, shot glasses and also large cookie jars. Each has an image that is blasted into it, giving it relief and texture. Some images are from the natural world, such as dragonflies, others are unique designs, some Native-inspired.

In addition to his work at the market, Garry does custom orders for businesses such as the fire department and police department.

Garry tells me, loud and clear, “I like doing the glass but I would rather be working with the bees.” He says he likes the process. It began with his personal problem of having 15 fruit trees and no fruit.

He decided to try getting a hive and see if it helped and it did! Both of his grandfathers had been beekeepers, so apparently it was his destiny to carry on the tradition. Now, more than five years later, he has gone up to 22 hives and is reaching for 35.

As we learned from our other beekeeper, this year has been a bad year for honey. Garry recounts that when you have 40 days with no rain, there is no nectar in the flowers. The lavender blooms but it is dry.

“In a wet year, you get a lot of honey,” Garry says.

The hardest thing about beekeeping, Garry says, is “lots of heavy lifting, lifting supers, rotating the brooding chambers.” He explains that in the winter the queens go to the top of the box to stay warm. In the spring, the beekeeper is trying to prevent the hive from swarming and basically leaving your hive. He says they rearrange the layers, putting the queen back at the bottom, hoping it will deter the departure.

Alas, “They will still swarm anyway,” Garry says.

How did Garry get to Sequim from his birthplace of Montana? “I took a few wrong turns,” he says, smiling. After a 10-year career in Los Angeles as a petroleum engineer, he fled to Sequim.

“Sandblasting and beekeeping are good but all in all I’d rather be in a boat fishing,” he says.

Finally, I asked him what he likes about being at the Sequim Farmers Market: “I like to be local, stay close to home and be a local business.” Meanwhile, all of Gary’s pals from the gym are coming by and visiting him.

Come get some honey while it lasts and see the sparkling works of Garry Flynn.

The market is open until the last Saturday of this month.