The Española Farmer’s Market opened Monday with a handful of new vendors and the return of one that was absent last year.
Long-time vendors selling cherries from Chimayó, onions from Española and lamb from Colorado were at the open-air tttttmarket, along with several dozen customers.
“I’ve been waiting for it to open since October,” Patricia Putnam, of Truchas, said while sampling honey from a new vendor with one hand and holding a basket of produce in the other. “It’s my favorite thing in Española. This is my lunch hour every Monday. I just wish they could keep it open year-round.”
The market traditionally opens in mid-June and closes in the last Monday in October.
New additions include herbal salves from El Rito, sprouts from Taos and organic honey and fruit drinks from Santa
Fe.
“We’ve been going to markets in Arizona and Colorado for years,” said a man who would only identify himself as Gadiel and who owns Mi Tepache, the honey and fruit drink business. “But why go all the way out there when we can go to smaller markets like this one, that are closer by?”
Traditional horno bread will be back for sale at the market this year after a state-tribal task force allowed vendor Brenda Coriz to participate in a new pilot program, market organizer Sabra Moore said.
Coriz, of San Ildefonso Pueblo, had been forced to stop selling her products last year after state inspectors said her goods were not baked on approved equipment. She had been selling at the market seven years without incident. The new pilot program allows Coriz to sell her baked goods at the market provided she bags and labels it with a list of ingredients and her name and phone number, Moore said.
Later in the season, the market will also feature two new additions.
Moore obtained a grant to hire five high schools students for the summer. They will plant a wildflower garden near the market’s entrance and build a picket fence and flagstone path, she said. Using what’s left from the $440,000 legislative appropriation the market received in 2007 to set up its North Railroad Avenue location, it will finish groundwork on its vendor area. That will allow the market to accommodate 32 vendors, up from its current limit of 22, Moore said.
The market is open Mondays from 10 a.m. to 5 pm. WIC, Senior WIC, SNAP (EBT) and debit cards are accepted. For more information, visit www.espanolafarmersmarket.blogspot.com.