Island City Farmer’s Market Opens on Fridays

Can’t get enough of farmer’s markets? There’s a whole new opportunity to buy fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, plants and even salmon fresh from Bristol Bay this summer. Every Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. stop by the Island City Farmer’s Market at the parking lot at Bronson Lumber for all of these items and more.

If you are one of those folks who can’t pass by a fruit and veggie stand without stopping, or have a little too much bounty from your own garden this year, then the Island City Farmer’s Market may be just the right fit. Growing seasons can seem to be really short in northeast Oregon and one can only fill a freezer so much.

One thing that isn’t seen too often at such a market is salmon, and salmon fresh from Alaska is even trickier to find. Bob Darrough and his lovely other half, Louise, are at the ready to give a thorough education on where their salmon comes from and when it comes in. This fish is so fresh it’s almost still flopping around.

“Our son is up there in Alaska fishing while we speak,” Darrough said. “He flies it down here and I pick it up in Walla Walla. The only way it could be any fresher is if it was coming right out of the net.”

Next to the salmon freezer was a table bearing dark honey and orange syrup. Darrough said the darker the honey the better it is for you, and he eats about a pound of the golden stuff per week. While he professes to not being a doctor or nutritionist, he says that he swears it helps to wake him up in the morning and gets him to sleep at night.

So why is a local building supplier getting into the farmer’s market business? Chris Haefer of Bronson Lumber says he felt a need for some more traffic at the store on Fridays, and he’s not getting into the business end of it because the store doesn’t charge space rent.

“Contractors like to get their business wrapped up before noon so they can go fishing,” Haefer said. “That makes traffic pretty light out here on Fridays, so Tim Gordon came up with the idea of adding a farmer’s market during the summer season.”

The market is in its second week and is already growing. Haefer said that they have plenty of room for more vendors.

“Next weekend we will have Joshua’s Country Store here,” Haefer said. “We’re pretty much wide open when it comes to what type of vendors want to park out here. We had a person selling eggs today and they have already sold out”

Karen Bischoff, owner of Stargazer Perennials of Summerville, mans her booth that is loaded with quality organic plants and plant helpers. Bischoff said her business was recently featured in Sunset Magazine for the alpine strawberries they grow and ship all over the U.S. Not to worry, there are plenty of the strawberry plants there for sale as well.

Bischoff also said Stargazer has an upcoming event, Peaches ‘n’ Plants, a farm fresh event that offers free classes in beekeeping, canning, deer resistant gardening and organic gardening. The event is set for August 20-29, 2010 at the nursery on 69611 Summerville Road. For more information call Karen at 541-786-1791 or visit the website at www.StargazerPerennials.com.

These are folks with small farms that want (and probably need) to get rid of some of their respective bounties. Bob Salisbury from Summerville said he has about a 3/4 acre farm and has already taken more than a hundred pounds of green beans out of it. The big bucket of beans, along with cauliflower and zucchini tell his tale of a plentiful garden this year.

This is a pretty simple way to get rid of some excess produce at this time of the year when gardens are producing at a faster rate than one can consume. For more information about becoming a vendor, stop by Bronson Lumber or call at 541-963-4848 and talk to Chris or Tim.