“Fresh juice, fresh meat, free kittens,” Bob Bowen hollers from the back of Sunnyside Florist and Greenhouse in Bangor, trying to entice customers at the European farmers market Saturday.

“I love farmers markets – it’s my only social life,” said Bowen, who spends half his time on the road selling meat and goat cheese and the other half at the markets. “These people are just like family. … I hug half my customers.”

“That’s the whole reason I come here,” replied Jan Maillet of Bangor as she picked out porterhouse steaks for a dinner party that night. “This is the only meat we eat. If it wasn’t for Bob, I wouldn’t eat meat at all.”

Maillet has been a regular at the market, which is held year-round on Saturday mornings, since it opened almost six years ago. Over time, she and her husband have made friends with the vendors and other customers.

“It’s a social event,” Maillet said. “We know the vendors now and there’s a lot of banter back and forth every week.”

That’s what the market’s organizers hoped for when they turned their greenhouse into a weekly bazaar in 1996. Ingrid Perkins and her partner of 12 years, Rick Gilbert, had traveled to Budapest, Hungary, where they shopped at a huge indoor marketplace. The couple, who run the adjacent Ingrid’s German Gift Shop and Sunnyside Florist and Greenhouse, thought the people of Bangor would enjoy buying breads, meats, cheeses, vegetables and prepared dishes from the people who produced them. Plus, they could pick up a bouquet at the florist and some imported chocolate at the gift shop.

“That kind of gave us the idea when we traveled to Europe,” Perkins said. “Maybe we could do it in a similar fashion. The idea is to do just one-stop shopping.”

What started with a few core vendors has grown into a full-scale marketplace with around 10 booths during the summer and up to 15 during the winter. Unlike at other farmers markets, vendors here don’t have to produce everything they sell, but most do. Some, such as Bowen, sell items produced by other farmers as well as their own products. Most of the original vendors are still there. And the customer base keeps growing.

“We have customers that literally come every Saturday,” Gilbert said. “If they don’t show up, we wonder if they’re OK.”

Mary Turner of Bangor is one of those customers.

“If I’m not here it’s because I’m out of town,” she said as she picked out hydroponic tomatoes from Haight Farm. “It’s so good. We’re spoiled.”

Courtenay Haight, who owns the hydroponic farm in Blue Hill Falls with his wife, Woody, shares Turner’s enthusiasm for the market. Much of his produce is sold wholesale to small stores and restaurants, but here he can get feedback from his customers.

“We have a nice, established group of customers that come back every week and we love that,” Haight said. “You can lose touch with the customers and you can lose touch with your own product.”

In the booth directly across from Haight’s, Ilone Lucza was getting in touch with a customer.

“I make paprikash, too,” Ursula Payne of Bangor told Lucza. “But I don’t put paprika in sauerkraut. I have sausages with sauerkraut.”

Lucza reached over a row of pots filled with Hungarian dishes, such as creamy mushroom soup, stuffed cabbage and stuffed peppers, to pat Payne’s cheek.

“It’s OK,” Lucza said. “That’s good.”

After Payne left, Lucza explained the secret to Hungarian cooking.

“Paprika is very important – very important,” she said. “Paprika and caraway seed.”

The scent of fresh rosemary wafted over from the table next to her, where Elizabeth Kalogeris of Hampden stood over a group of nearly empty platters. The early crowd cleared out her spanakopita, or spinach pie, the honey-laden baklava was almost gone and the karidopeta, a Greek nut cake, sold out right after the market opened.

“It’s a very popular item,” she said.

Kalogeris, who works in academic affairs at the University of Maine, said the market is a pleasant diversion.

“For me, it kind of filled a void on the weekend,” she said. “I love to cook and both my children are grown. … You’re sharing something with people, and it’s a great satisfaction in a lot of ways.”

A co-worker at the university approaches, scans the table for nut cake and stops when she sees Kalogeris.

“I like your hair – very nice,” she says. “Is it a new color or a new cut?”

Though the market is filled with food, the conversation often strays from it. Customers come to Bich Nga Burrill’s booth as much for the banter as they do for the fresh Thai rolls with peanut sauce or the gingered chicken and string beans.

“I keep her slim, trim and sexy,” Burrill says with a smile as she hands a bag full of food to Carol Clair of Brewer.

“Are you married yet?” she asks a man whom she hasn’t seen in a while. When he says no, she wags a finger at him. “You’re too picky.”

Burrill serves up as much advice as she does food. When Jennifer Mellett of Levant stops by, the women chat about Mellett’s new gym membership, and when she tries to order something from a tray full of fried dumplings and spring rolls, Burrill talks her out of it.

“Jennifer, Jennifer, you gotta think differently,” she scolds. “I want you to be healthy.”

“She’s so good at knowing people,” Mellett said.

Last week, she brought her mother, Candy Mellett of Woodstock, N.H., who goes to the market whenever she’s in town.

“I can’t wait to come here,” Candy said. “I love coming here.”

So does Lorrie Richard of Guilford, who sells maple syrup and rabbit meat. Her brother Tom is a beekeeper in Eddington who sells honey, soaps and hand cream. The two sit side by side, enjoying the crowd and the fact that they’re indoors where they don’t have to worry about rain, wind or sunburn.

“Oh, I love it here,” Lorrie said. “I love the plants, the people, the food.”

Even Ron Chew likes the atmosphere, though he says he’s not particularly social. The Dixmont man was one of the original vendors at the market, and he has found a niche selling freshly grown shiitake mushrooms.

“One of the neat things about this place is it’s putting people back in touch with the people who grow their food,” Chew said. “People linger here. They drink coffee. It’s a neat place to go.”

Jeff Ackerman of Castine, another charter vendor, has a booth next to Chew where he sells homemade ravioli, pasta sauces and pestos. As he arranges what’s left of his selection, Bowen walks by and jokingly chides him for arriving at 9:30 because the market begins at 9. While he enjoys the interaction with the other vendors, Ackerman loves talking with customers.

“This is where I get the one-to-one contact,” he said. “I can find out how people use my products, and get ideas from them.”

This interaction is exactly what Perkins and Gilbert had hoped for when they started the market. And while there aren’t hundreds of vendors like in Budapest, the quality and variety is still there. Where else can you go to pick up mesclun mix, baklava, a baguette and a free kitten in one stop?

“All we want is a chance to experiment and try new flavors and foods,” Gilbert said. “We try to find unusual food and ingredients. Even though we have a small population base we can have a wide variety of food.”

The European farmers market is open from approximately 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays year-round at Sunnyside Florist and Greenhouse and Ingrid’s German Gift Shop on Buck Street in Bangor. For information, call 947-4342 or 947-8464.

JUMP PHOTO