Scene In Detroit: Eastern Market Has The Santa Claus Of Wood

By Amelia Kanan, CBS Detroit Blogger

Ahh, Saturdays at the Detroit Eastern Market.

It is home to countless farmers, 93 businesses and a few free-range chickens waiting to meet their demise. Oh and Freddy's there, too. 

This sweet faced, plaid-shirt-wearing, gentle soul of a man lives in the Thumb, where he chops down the trees himself and hauls the wood down to the market every week. He's not a shouter and he burns the wood right there for you to smell.

Not to mention, Freddy will deliver it to your door (only if you live in the Metro area, of course). He's like the Santa Claus of wood!

I, unsuccessfully tried to help Freddy sell a few bundles of wood but I think he was still appreciative ... Maybe not. However, when I pretended to be disappointed in my pitch technique, he said he would pose for my camera. His smile made me smile.

Food for thought: Wood is actually one of the oldest products that has been continuously sold since the Detroit Eastern Market's origination in 1891. Freddy didn't know that. Click here to schedule a delivery.

Amelia Kanan is freelance writer/photographer and a returning native of Detroit. A graduate of Columbia College in Chicago, she wrote for an Emmy nominated sketch comedy show and pursued her passion for documentary filmmaking in Los Angeles. An incomplete list of her loves: books, human rights, improv, the smell of new shoes, talking to strangers, libraries, France, yoga, furniture, music, sociology and pushing the limits.