Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
A growing Sweet Home Farmers’ Market wrapped up its second summer Saturday with plans to continue growing and provide more service next year.
The Farmers’ Market opened last summer, but it was small, starting with three regular vendors.
“It kind of fell apart,” said Market Manager Janice Nielson, who owns Fraga Farms. “I kind of kept it going. This year, it became more organized.”
The market put together a five-member board of directors and is now in the process of attaining tax-deductible nonprofit status, said Nielson, who is also board president. This summer, the market has had 11 regular vendors selling everything from goat cheese, flowers and produce to goat’s milk soap, mohair clothing, mushrooms and bread.
This year, vendors have been able to adjust what they’re bringing to market, so everyone isn’t trying to sell tomatoes, for example, she said. One vendor was selling mushrooms. Rather than compete with the mushroom vendor already using the Sweet Home Market, he went to Brownsville.
Among other improvements, the board is trying to raise money to purchase a machine to accept Oregon Trail and debit cards next season.
The market was open all summer long from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays in the Thriftway parking lot.
“They’re pretty cool with it,” Nielson said of Thriftway, which charges the group a minimal fee for liability purposes. “It brings them business actually.”
The booth fee is low too, she said. Sweet Home Farmer’s Market charges $5 where markets in other communities charge up to $40.
The market also features a community booth where people can bring their smaller harvests and sell them on consignment. As part of requirements for nonprofit status, it is used as an informational and educational booth by Master Gardeners, Corvallis food web Ten Rivers and other groups.
“We try to have musicians every week, and that helps,” Nielson said.
The market draws interest from local residents as well as travelers, she said. “We’ve had a quite a few people traveling to Sisters or Bend, and they stop.”
The local regular shoppers show up even when the market isn’t at full strength just to support it and help get it going, she said.
“This was a pretty rough spring,” said Larry Nielson, a board member and Janice Nielson’s husband. The late rain made it hard to get produce off the farms and into the market.
“People wanted to come,” Janice Nielson said, and with gas prices this summer, people were happy not to have to drive to the market in Corvallis.
The goal of the market “is to bring good food to people at a reasonable price,” with the cost of transportation low, Larry Nielson said, and it provides an outlet for backyard gardeners who have a surplus of produce.”
It provides stronger socio-community connections, Janice Nielson said. Customers and sellers get to know each other and feel more connected.
“I think it’s good to just provide a service to people, have something fun to do,” she said.
“You can get fresh produce and fresh eggs,” Larry Nielson said. The only way to get it fresher is out of one’s own garden.
In the event truck drivers can’t get produce in to the community and its grocery stores, the market provides an outlet for local food to reach residents, Janice Nielson said.
Business is growing, she said. The customers are dedicated and keep coming to the market.
Local growers also have sold to the Point Restaurant and discussed selling their produce at Thriftway, which will require higher quantities of produce as well as liability insurance.
Thriftway has generously helped the market, Larry Nielson said. The grocery store is putting in a new power source.
“They’ve been great,” he said. “They really have.”
The local community supports the market, and the market supports the local community, Janice Nielson said. The market uses bags from Seamingly Creative, and T-shirts are printed locally. The market’s sign was painted locally.
“We try to keep everything in the community, try to keep it all local,” she said. That’s in keeping with the goal of self-sufficiency for that day when the trucks can’t come, the thinking behind the food web meetings that spawned the market.
The Farmers’ Market grew out of a community effort to create a local food web. Two things came out of that meeting, the establishment of a community garden and a farmers’ market.
The community garden is up and running at the United Methodist Church. The food is used in the Sweet Home Emergency Ministries Manna program. Surplus is sold at the farmers’ market to help pay the water bill and other garden expenses.
Nielson plans to continue working as market manager when the market reopens in May, but she is planning to step down as board president.
Her outlook is optimistic, she said. She expects vendors from Sweet Home and Lebanon along with the market’s customer base to return in force next year.
The Farmers’ market accepts membership for $10 per year, Janice Nielson said. The fee primarily supports the market, but it also gives members a break on prices at market fund-raising events and activities.
At a fund-raising dinner two weeks ago, the market raised approximately $400. The dinner was provided primarily by local food producers, with donations of door prizes and food to help run the event.
The market is part of the Chamber of Commerce and the Farmer’s Market Association.
For more information, call Janice Nielson at 367-3891.