Farmer's Market Celebrates Its 20th Year
Farmerâs Market Celebrates Its 20th Year
T
he farmerâs market held at the Cooperative Extension Systemâs Bethel office on Route 6 on Saturday mornings is celebrating its 20th year, with plenty of fresh vegetables, fruit, plants, and baked goods.
The market will operate rain or shine from 9 am to 1 pm every Saturday until late October.
This year Linda Hufner is the market master. Mrs Hufner, who with her husband Frank operates Cedar Hill Farm in Newtown, said the market is off to a good start.
âWeâll have a couple more participants soon when the apple crop starts coming in,â she said. âAnd we will have another baker by September.â
A few crops, like tomatoes, arenât quite ready yet, but several farmers were selling greenhouse tomatoes. There were ample supplies of Connecticut-grown sweet corn, summer squash, green beans, new potatoes, many varieties of peppers, cucumbers, bunches of fresh basil, salad greens (including interesting Asian greens like mizuna), boxes of blueberries, and lots of other just-picked produce. And lots of flowers, both cut and in containers.
Ann Sagarin was at the market with her son, Nicholas, who happily helped himself to a large chocolate chip cookie at the stand operated by Audrey Day of the American Pie Company in Sherman.
âThis is a very good market. Weâre doing a lot of business,â said Ms Day, who also sells baked goods at the farmerâs market held in Danbury on Wednesdays.
Ms Day said it was the first year that the American Pie Company was participating in the farmerâs market in Bethel. Other vendors, like the Hufners, Don Taylor of Danbury, and the Berry Farm of Southbury, have been coming since the beginning.
This year the Berry Farm brought a large box truck specially outfitted with tables that swung out from the sides and were piled with fresh produce. The familiar figure of Berry Farm-owner Randy A. Vaszauskas wasnât to be seen at the farmerâs market this year, however. Mr Vaszauskas died of a heart attack April 7 at the age of 53 at his old pumpkin patch property on South Main Street in Southbury.