New farmer’s market in town off to solid start
Vendor fees to aid LifeSong
HALFMOON, N.Y. » The recent opening of the town’s new Farmer’s Market was supposed to be a small affair but you couldn’t tell that by the number of customers it drew.
Despite an extensive agricultural heritage and an abundance of private farm stands, town officials felt the community deserved its own Farmer’s Market and they had just the location for it.
Those public officers celebrated its opening June 20 with a ribbon cutting and the promise of more vendors to come.
“We want to support our local businesses and we feel this is a tremendous advertisement,” said Supervisor Kevin Tollisen. “We’re hoping as people are driving by they see the signs and the activity and stop in.”
The market is open from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. every Wednesday until Sept. 26 in Abele Memorial Park on Harris Road. The site is directly across from the town Justice Center on Harris Road near the intersection with Route 236. There is ample parking behind the Justice Center.
As traffic picked up last week during the evening commute home, it was obvious that Tollisen had been right about the location. It is indeed easy to see.
“We had a vendor who was just driving past, saw us, and came over and signed up,” he said. “We chose to hold this Farmer’s Market on Wednesdays because it’s a day where there aren’t too many open.”
The Halfmoon Farmer’s Market is a partnership between the town and LifeSong, a Clifton Park-based nonprofit that cares for and helps with the development of individuals with disabilities. The town is donating all seasonal vendor fees to the organization where they will go toward programming.
Darren Barkman, a member of the LifeSong staff, is the market’s manager.
“We’ll have a wide variety of things for sale,” he said. “We put the word out a couple of weeks ago and got a good response. We’re hoping this grows into a very large market. We certainly have the space.”
Joining in the festive atmosphere of the ribbon cutting was the president and CEO of the Southern Saratoga County Chamber, Pete Bardunias.
“This town is fortunate,” he said. “It has a lot of longtime businesses like DeVoe’s Rainbow Orchards and Petuske’s Produce and this Farmer’s Market is a wonderful way and a wonderful location to celebrate that.”
DeVoe’s was at the market starting June 27.
The formality of the speeches and the ribbon cutting didn’t prevent customers from taking stock of what was available and making their purchases.
At Petuske’s Produce mobile farm stand and picnic table Mike and Donna D’Aloia of Halfmoon were checking out the fruit and vegetables.
“We go to the local farm stands but we stopped here today because we wanted to see what else is here,” Donna D’Aloia said.
The couple bought peaches, nectarines and a berry pie.
Set up next to Petuske’s was a table from Carpenter’s Farms of Stillwater. They offered customers fresh eggs and produce.
The next vendor in the semi-circle of businesses was Abba’s Acres of Cobleskill. Their stand offered frozen chicken, duck eggs, regular eggs, fudge, maple syrup, hickory syrup, jars of chicken stock, containers of jams and two types of soap made at the farm, lye and goat’s milk.
Jerri Betsinger and her son Joshua manned the table as Jerri explained the difference between duck eggs and regular eggs to
customers. They taste much the same, she said, but duck eggs have a consistency that’s a bit better for baking.
“We encourage all our kids to find something on the farm that they can do as a business,” she said. “Joshua got into maple syrup by tapping a few trees by hand the first year. Then we went to the tubing. This year he tapped 63 trees and got 15 gallons of maple syrup.”
“I’m hoping to go into bee keeping next,” Joshua said. “I’ll get honey and bees wax for candles.”
Toni Mansfield of Earthen Gold Farms is another vendor signed up for Wednesdays at the Halfmoon Farmer’s Market. At the opening she was promoting the healthy benefits of her fresh, pesticidefree, juice products, teas, and her home grown loose teas.
Beside her table was vendor Bruce Wadsworth of Bountiful Treats. Wadsworth makes edible treats for dogs and cats. His bags of treats for cats offered two types this day, chicken and herb, and tuna. The bags of dog treats offered cheesy fries, peanut butter and honey, and chicken and herb.
“They’re all natural with no preservatives,” he said. “I make them all from scratch in small batches. As the weeks go by I’ll have a rotation of my recipes.”
In addition to being a partner in the market, LifeSong is also a vendor. At the opening they had pens and bird houses for sale.
Vendors interested in joining the Halfmoon Farmer’s Market can reach Barkman at LifeSong at (518) 406-5157 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday.