Farmers' market celebrates anniversary

Music, children's entertainment part of celebration

MOSES LAKE - The Columbia Basin Farmers' Market celebrates its 30-year anniversary this Saturday.

The celebration starts at 9 a.m. with music, with presentations starting at 10:30 a.m. and more music starting again at 11 a.m. The market is held at the Civic Center Park in Moses Lake.

The Boys and Girls Club of Moses Lake is providing cotton candy, crafts and other activities for children as well.

Leonard Molner, the market manager, said between crafts and produce, he expects about 60 vendors.

"This is the peak of the season for produce," he said. "There's still strawberries and raspberries. There's peaches and nectarines … There are people who knit, make rugs, do their own weaving, jewelry making … We got just about everything there is."

Brenda Teals helped start the market in 1978, after visiting a similar market in Portland, Ore.

"(The market was) so fun and so colorful and so lively, I said, 'We need one of these in Moses Lake,'" she said. "One of our goals was to enliven the downtown."

Teals said she's served as an advisor through the 30 years of the market. The grant that started the market also formed Columbia Basin Allied Arts. The fact they have lasted this long makes her proud, she said.

"I kind of think of both things as my children," she said. "They're both alive and well. I'm really pleased."

The market changed location several times during the years, until it ended up at the Civic Center Park, but Molner said it still attracts area farmers and crafters.

"One of the vendors has been there for 28 years," he said. "I think it's one of the finest markets in the state of Washington, personally."