Dancers and cupcakes at the Quincy farmers market

QUINCY — Saturday was a terrible day for a farmers market.

The haze, caused by giant forest fires hundreds of miles north in British Columbia, was so thick you couldn’t see the hills north of Quincy from Lauzier Park.

Or anywhere else.

“Normally, the market is full, and we almost canceled because of the smoke,” said market organizer and produce seller Chelsea Putnam. “But no way are we canceling!”

While the poor air quality kept vendors and shoppers away from Quincy’s Farmers Market, it was still important for a number of sellers and customers to get out and support local farmers and watch local kids dance Mexican folk dances.

This is the first year for Quincy’s Farmers Market, which meets in Lauzier Park the first and third Saturdays of every month until September. This Saturday includes a few produce sellers, a bakery, a coffee truck, and a man selling watermelons and cantaloupes off the back of a truck.

“This morning was decent,” said Elizabeth Davis, who is helping Putnam man her vegetable booth. “A lot of people got out early to beat the heat and get the best produce.”

“We like to be out regardless,” said Jarod Rollins, who along with his wife Tanya owns The Pink Oven Bakery, a small bakery the two run out of their home.

Rollins said the farmers market has been good for their business, since it has allowed them to reach customers with smaller orders than they normally do or can as a custom bake shop.

“It’s a really good venue to have people meet us and try our stuff,” he said.

Even on a day like Saturday.

“I live north of town, and it’s better than yesterday,” Tanya added as she was taking some cupcakes out for a customer. “You could actually see the town today. Not yesterday.”

The heat and the air didn’t keep the young dancers of Sol y Luna, a dance troupe of about 25 kids which specializes in Mexican folk dance, as they girls twirled and the men stomped for the small crowd gathered in the park. This was their first Saturday providing entertainment for the farmers market,

“This is something that we like to contribute to the community,” said Delaynne Sandoval, dance teacher for Sol y Luna.

Sandoval explained that the troupe, which includes young dancers aged 3 to 18, tries to incorporate the dance traditions and styles of all the varied regions of Mexico into their dance. The group does what it does for the love of dance and an appreciation of cultural heritage, and it’s a way of keeping kids busy during the summer.

“We only do this during the summer, when there’s not that much to do.”

Not all of the dancers have connections to Mexico either, Sandoval added.

“We are not exclusively Mexican,” she said. “We have two Salvadorans in the group as well.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.