Couple shares stand, serenity at market

A customer at the Oshkosh Saturday Farmers Market can’t help but notice Kathy Szente and Gerald Schubert’s stand.

In one half of the stand sits Szente, 43, demonstrating how to use a spinning wheel with wool, and in the other half is Schubert, 52, talking to customers about bonsai and Zen gardens.

Szente used to be a schoolteacher in Maine. She had a large farm then, and people gave her sheep and Anwar goats. Her flock grew from two to 33 over time, and she fell in love with spinning wool.

But 15 years ago, Szente found a different love, and she moved to Wisconsin to be with her companion, Schubert. Szente had to give up the farm, but she continues to spin wool. Szente can still be found at the Oshkosh Saturday Farmers Market enjoying her hobby.

Since she no longer has the sheep farm, Szente purchases white wool, which she then dyes by herself. She spins the wool and sells the yarn at places like the Oshkosh Saturday Farmers Market.

"It’s very relaxing," said Szente. "Your mind can wander, and I have wonderful memories. When my two kids were young, they would sit in front of the wheel and watch me spin. They would start falling asleep and topple over, catching themselves with their hands."

Although Szente is a certified teacher and social worker, she no longer works outside of the home. She is a full-time stay-at-home mom. One of her children has special needs. But with the free time she has left between taking care of her children and home, she spends spinning wool. She also offers spinning lessons from her home.

Schubert has a hobby of his own. He is an electrical engineer, but seven years ago, he started looking for a hobby. He had always been interested in bonsai, which can be translated into "pot tree." Schubert bought a few of the trees and began meeting people from the Fox Valley Bonsai Society. One of the members offered to be Schubert’s teacher.

"The first thing my teacher told me was, ‘Do not be afraid to have the trees die on you,’" Schubert recollected.

Schubert said it is inevitable to kill some trees along the way. He buys young Japanese Garden Juniper trees between two and ten years old from nurseries. He has never been successful growing the trees from seed. But he has learned that the soil is the most important element in keeping the trees alive, so he mixes his own soil.

The trees that Schubert sell are between four and 15 years old. When Schubert sells one of his bonsai trees, he gives the customer a pamphlet with care instructions, ranging on topics from light and water to insects and diseases.

Schubert also sells tabletop Zen gardens because of a request he received at the market to create small gardens. He has a larger-scale Zen garden at home.

"When the kids come home from school, they end up spending hours playing in our Zen garden at home," Schubert said. "It’s a good way for them to get rid of the stress from the school day."

Just as Szente finds peacefulness from spinning wool, Schubert finds that great serenity comes from raking ocean waves around the rocks in the Zen garden. He wrote in a pamphlet about Zen gardens that, "We find that time disappears as we rake, and our minds are still when our hand stops."