Susan Smith: Princeton Flea Market -- "ho-made" treats and the kitchen sink

Originally published July 19, 2008

By Susan Lampert Smith


PRINCETON – The only way to truly attack a day at the Princeton Flea Market is on a full stomach.

And what better breakfast than a “breakfast egg roll,’’ a deep fried concoction stuffed with eggs, cheese, sausage and hash browns? I’m pretty sure they don’t have them in China, but they do at the “Ho-Made Egg Roll” trailer located at the corner of Fulton and Wisconsin, on the edge of Princeton’s venerable flea market.

I hadn’t been to the market in years, but last semester, I got a jones to go again after I had Brittany Bowling as a student in my writing class at the UW-Madison Department of Life Sciences Communications. Brittany is a Princeton native, and we got to talking about the market, a Green Lake County tradition for more than 30 years.

Brittany alerted me to the “Ho-Made” egg rolls, and since my kids and I have a running joke about all the items made by alleged “ho” s, (Ho-made pizza, ho-made bread, etc.) I just had to see them for myself. Hey, somebody’s got to keep those hos off the street.

Thus fortified, we attacked the market, located in Princeton’s vintage “City Park,’’ which has an old metal archway and a central pavilion. The teens ditched me, headed for jewelry, both old and new, and dresses from India.

I, as usual, was taken in by the used books. I had a nice half hour browsing, but only bought one: a 30-year old hospital auxiliary cookbook from the late ‘70s, when foods such as molded seafood salad and “peas orientale” with French-fried onion rings were all the rage. It was worth $3 to get the recipe for a liqueur made from Italian prune plums.

The Princeton market’s 180 vendors offer everything from kohlrabi to cone flower plants.

There’s even a kitchen sink, or two.

Frank Gwidt of Wautoma was selling old galvanized wash tubs, along with jams made by the Amish, antiques, and a rake-like device he described as a “horse do-do picker upper.”
He also had some of the market’s most unusual home made crafts: old pitchforks, their handles covered by birch bark, topped with cute bird houses. I whipped out my camera, and Frank asked whether I was planning to copy them at home.

Don’t worry, I told him. I’d have to be imprisoned in Taycheedah and struck by lightning to have the time or talent to make such a thing.

When we tired of pawing through the old stuff – “Hey, look, Bicentennial Log Cabin (fake) maple syrup bottles!” – we headed to downtown Princeton for some more upscale shopping.

If the flea market is low brow, the stores along the main drag make up for it by catering to the lake house crowd from Green Lake and other nearby resorts. At Henry’s, you can buy greeting cards featuring New Yorker cartoons and Lillet, the French aperitif.

Next door at Twister, there are fancy sandals and fancier kitchen wares. At the store’s center, if you’ve worn off the ho-made egg rolls, you can pick up Viennese pastries, Madelines, cardamom tea cookies, and other lovely bakery made by the European Renard’s Bake Shop.

Princeton’s littlest store, the shoe-box sized pottery shop called “A Hairy Potter,’’ has a funny name and little bowls for just $3 each. Perfect for keeping your new old jewelry from the flea market.