Farmers Market kicks off next week
Clocks and bakery dog snacks among this year's offerings
MOSES LAKE — Judy Spalding has lofty goals for the Columbia Basin Farmers Market and Craft Bazaar this year.
If the manager of the annual market has her way, she'll cover enough space to expand throughout Civic Center Park, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Balsam Street, all the way to Pioneer Way.
"I'd like us to still broaden," she said. "I still have this dream, that I'd like to have us all the way down to Pioneer. I would like it to grow, I would like the diversity to keep up and for all our vendors to look at the diversity themselves, because that's how you sell, is the new stuff."
The market will kick off its 2006 season Saturday, May 6. Through the month of May, the Saturday markets will take place 8 a.m. to noon. Beginning June 3 until Oct. 28, the market will take place from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Wednesday markets will take place from July 12 through Sept. 27 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Two more Wednesday markets have been added this year.
The market, which opened in 1979 and has been located in Civic Center Park since 1997, offers crafts and produce vendors and entertainment opportunities.
Spalding has been manager of the farmers market since 2003.
"I've been a farmer most of my life," she said, adding she felt drawn to the position when she first heard it was available. "It's like going home … As long as I can walk, I figure, I'll be there."
She believes the market and bazaar is a good place to meet people, particularly on Saturdays, when people are there to socialize and listen to the music.
"Also, if they have something to sell, here's the place to do it," Spalding said, adding that new vendors are always welcome. Ninety percent of the products available have to be homegrown or handcrafted by vendors.
New crafts available at the market this year include clocks, crochet clothing, floral hairpieces, a new candle vendor, greeting cards, paper boxes and pottery. Produce coming in May includes asparagus, controlled atmosphere apples, lettuce, early onions and radishes. Mini-donuts are back for the second year, as is TNT with fresh flowers and fruits, Jim's Wood-N-Stuff with Intarsia wood items and Jeanette's Studio with hand-painted greeting cards. Phil and Sally's Bakery, from Milton-Freewater, Ore., is back after being absent in 2005, and will be bringing new bakery items, including dog snacks.
Spalding said the market is still working on getting a lunch vendor, and may be looking for a new coffee vendor as well.
New entertainment offerings include the Washington State University Extension Master Gardeners Plant Sale at 8 am. on May 6, the Chief Moses Middle School Jazz Band at 11 a.m. May 13; the Center Stage Dance Studio at 9 a.m. June 3; the Moses Lake High School Jazz Band on June 17; the Avocet Folk Jazz Band (formerly Cows Gone Mad and Double Down) at 9 a.m. July 29 and the Moses Lake High School Jazz Choir Oct. 14.
Three children's markets will take place June 17, July 15 and Aug. 19.
"We try to bring in entertainment that can cross the age limit, because we get a lot of seniors," Spalding said. "This is their cultural, social day, and many of our vendors are older. They actually really are not worried about selling, they worry about this is their social time, that they get to see everybody."
Also new to the market will be a suggestion box located on the market's little red barn building headquarters, located on the park.
Through May and June, a program offered by Aging and Adult Care of Central Washington with $7,000 given by the state will distribute $15 vouchers for produce through the Moses Lake Senior Center to seniors and low-income people receiving the Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, nutrition program.
For more information, call Spalding at (509)766-6751.