Kanthamma Vegetable Market

We set up Kanthamma Vegetable Market right at the house here, H. No -6-69 in Rampur Thanda. It’s in the Suripally area of Chennaraopet. Most of the vegetables come in from the local fields. We start setting out the crates and bags early when it's still cool outside. The floor is usually covered in bits of leaves and some dirt from the potatoes. It’s a small space, but we pack a lot in. People from the thanda come by throughout the day to see what’s fresh. We don't have those plastic-wrapped veggies like the big stores in the city. Everything is just piled up in bins or on the ground. We weigh things out on the old scale we’ve had forever. Sometimes we run out of change, so we have to ask the neighbor to help us out. It gets loud when the market is full of people talking and bargaining. We know most of our customers by name since they live just down the road. My hands are always stained green or brown from handling the produce. It’s dusty work, especially when the trucks go by on the main road. We don’t do any fancy advertising. We just put the sign out and people know we’re open. It’s a basic way to make a living, selling what grows nearby to the people we live next to. That’s how we’ve always done it here in Rampur Thanda. It keeps us going through the seasons.