EASTERN SUBURBS – The weekly farmers markets underway in the eastern suburbs, including the ones in DeWitt, Fayetteville and Minoa, are your go-to, one-stop places for locally grown products this summer.
DeWitt’s market, which was previously held at Carrier Park, takes place every Wednesday in the parking lot of the DeWitt Town Hall, while Fayetteville’s summer market is every Thursday in the parking lot of Towne Center and Minoa’s is either inside or just outside Spill the Tea Cafe every Friday.
DeWitt
DeWitt’s farmers market, which goes from noon to 6 p.m. every Wednesday outside the town hall at 5400 Butternut Drive in East Syracuse, is set to run until the middle of October. The concerts under the Ryder Park pavilion just a few yards away immediately follow from 6 to 8 p.m. those evenings.
The regular vendors this summer include the East Syracuse bakery Sweet Dreams Are Baked of This with its brownies, apple cinnamon rolls, banana chocolate chip muffins, and what its owner Sabrina Marra calls “mofos,” which are giant cookies named as such because the word “mouthful” comes out sounding like “mofo” when your mouth is full.
There’s also Flippity Flap Farms out of Pompey with its selection of organic vegetables like cucumbers and beans, as well as Stone Hill Gardens, which prides itself on avoiding GMOs, pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Last week, Chuck Maxfield, the owner of Stone Hill, presented a six-pound chicken, bulbs of garlic, and tangy, juice-filled cherry tomatoes that are great for snacking.
At nearby stands, Riches Apiary from Kirkville brought out honey roasted almonds and cashews, honey sticks of different flavors, and bottles of honey naturally infused with organic herbs, while the author of the conversational book on healing “Naked,” Sarah Dulany-Gring of Clay, was there with motivational quotes written on sticky notes.
Across the way, Smackers Snacks and Gifts carried racks of sweets in dozens of varieties, including crunchy freeze-dried candy, salt water taffy, and fudge and toffees handmade overseas. Anything Smackers has left in stock by later in the fall will go to the CanTeen youth center located next to Cicero-North Syracuse High School.
Town of DeWitt Recreation Attendant Brie Hall said this summer’s market has had consistent traffic from those driving by, people already planning on heading over, and people who stumble upon it before or after going fishing, using the playground or walking the trails in the vicinity. Plus, employees of the town hall or folks stopping by to conduct business tend to make their way over to the market too, she said.
Now in its second year, the market sees the vendors joke and laugh and look out for each other, said Hall, who organizes and promotes the market on social media, where she also includes what forms of payment the stands accept.
Fayetteville
Fayetteville’s outdoor farmers market, which started in May, lasts from noon to 6 p.m. every Thursday until Halloween, weather permitting. It’s set up next to Bonefish Grill in Towne Center.
Lacey Cashman, who manages the market and runs the Jamesville-based Mountain Grown Farm, said it’s been a satisfactory season so far and pretty dry weather-wise aside from the Thursday of Aug. 8, which brought with it plenty of rainfall. The market, now in its 10th year, moves inside to the Shoppes at Towne Center atrium and becomes bimonthly rather than weekly come wintertime.
The market includes Burrell’s Navarino Orchard, normally located off Route 20 by LaFayette, with its applesauce, blueberry banana bread, pickles, pies, and regionally award-winning hard cider.
Visitors of the market will also come across Hillside Farms from Truxton with its grass-finished beef, forest-fed pork and pasture-raised poultry as well as Pied Piper Maple Products, hailing from a farm by Otisco Lake, with its maple syrups infused with ginger, cinnamon sticks and vanilla beans as well as its churned maple cream, maple black tea, and freshly ground maple coffee—”you name it,” as that business’ owner and “The Pied Piper” herself, Barb Hamlin, said.
Under the other tents, there’s also Brownson Family Farm from Kirkville with items like sweet corn relish, strawberry rhubarb preserves, orange marmalade, fire-roasted salsa, horseradish mustard and raspberry vinaigrette; HeartStone Artisan Bakery out of Cazenovia with scones, almond croissants, orange cinnamon swirls, pumpernickel rye and focaccia; and Nikki’s Bikkies from Baldwinsville with plant-based cookies and other baked goods inspired by Australian and American recipes, such as carrot cake, chocolate coconut bars and lemon lavender shortbread cookies.
The different vendors at the Fayetteville market say they enjoy interacting with supportive regulars every week and setting up beside other environmentally conscious and health-conscious businesses, as they together give customers a chance to get most of their grocery shopping done in just that shared space. They also say they enjoy the aspect of doing business with customers directly, keeping dollars local, and being able to remain contactable if there’s ever an issue or a question people have.
Minoa
The Minoa farmers market takes place from 8 a.m. to noon every Friday, but it will be wrapping up earlier than the others on Aug. 30.
The market has usually been situated outside between the village hall/fire station on North Main Street and Spill the Tea Cafe, but the week of Aug. 9, the decision was made to bring it inside by the cafe entrance due to rain.
Working in tandem at the market are the businesses GreenThumb and Heartbeet Gardenscapes.
GreenThumb is run by Minoa resident Rhiannon Butchko, and its purpose is to inspire people to begin hobbies beneficial for the mind, body and soul. Butchko has, for example, propagation jars for anyone interested in taking care of “low-maintenance” houseplants along with “blind dates with a book,” her table of book recommendations showing only the plot description, the publication date and key words and themes but nothing else so people go in without knowing the title or the author’s name or judging the book by the cover image.
Heartbeet Gardenscapes was started by Fayetteville resident Christalle Twomey at a time when she was making a shift in her diet and lifestyle. After getting into growing her own food and studying herbalism, she began the business as a way to connect people with nature and nudge them toward being more cognizant about the food they eat and where it comes from.
Through Heartbeet Gardenscapes, Twomey offers organic herb bundles, digestive oils and skin-soothing salves along with her gardening services meant to assist people with their vegetable, herb or fruit gardens. She also makes her own herbal cocktails for private events.
The Minoa farmers market has also included local resident Justin Blok’s business Plant It Forward with its pesticide-free heirloom plants. In the springtime, Blok has veggies and berries for sale—anything she can take a cutting of or grow from a seed.
