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The air may be turning crisper, but produce is still bountiful, and Saturday mornings still see a bright array of vendor tents sprouting up along South Chestnut Street for the Cortez Farmers Market.<\/p>\n
The market has grown significantly over its four decades of existence and has become a community staple. The 2019 season has run since June.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has this long tradition of being an institution in our community,\u201d said Lily Jamison-Cash, a co-manager of this year\u2019s market. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked hard this year to make it energetic and fun and lively, and continue to make it that space where people want to gather.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the market\u2019s entrance is the market\u2019s founder Bessie White, standing behind a table piled with bags of peppers, tomatoes and pies.<\/p>\n
Her sister and nieces bring quilts and craft goods, along with produce from the garden. White makes the pies and jams \u2013 about 25 pies and two dozen jam jars every week, she said. They come in all sorts of varieties, including rhubarb and strawberry.<\/p>\n
White started selling vegetables off Main Street 46 years ago, as a way to help pay the hospital bills for her newborn grandson.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just came, and we sold what we had,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It got large enough that participants eventually formed an organization, White said. But they still don\u2019t control pricing.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople can come and sell what they have, and put their own price on it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
This season, the market has 47 vendors from Montezuma and Dolores counties, up five from last year. Day vendors rotate in when the regulars can\u2019t make it, Jamison-Cash said.<\/p>\n
There are your standard produce and meat vendors, along with several craft stands. Yvonne Shellhammer has a roaring business selling colorful animal hats. The most popular are sharks for boys and unicorns for girls.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made a couple hats for a baby shower a few years ago, and it just took off,\u201d Shellhammer said.<\/p>\n
The market began accepting SNAP benefits a few years ago and now takes part in the Double Up Food Bucks program, which allows SNAP participants to double the value of their benefits in exchange for buying locally grown produce.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been really, really rewarding, especially being able to work with our SNAP customers, and just connect people who really need and want fresh, healthy, local produce with the vendors I know and care about,\u201d Jamison-Cash said. \u201cEverybody gets to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
A series of musicians rotates through the market, including the Moetones, Marilyn Kroeker and the Aloha Club.<\/p>\n
Their sound is distinctive enough to have inspired a \u201cSounds of the Cortez Farmers Market\u201d concert at the Montezuma-Cortez High School back in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n The market has about five weeks to go, wrapping up Oct. 26.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a really wonderful time of the season to be there,\u201d Jamison-Cash said. \u201cThe chile roaster\u2019s there. Everyone\u2019s just got squash spilling off their tables.\u201d<\/p>\n For more information, visit the Cortez Farmers Market website<\/a>.<\/p>\n