BY MICHELE MILLER
What’s What New Port Richey
The temperatures are dipping. Winter holidays are around the corner. And as the fall growing season takes root, local farmers markets are gearing up.
Depending on the week, markets featuring a variety of vendors are popping up on Saturdays, Sundays, Tuesdays, and occasional Friday nights in and around New Port Richey, Trinity, Odessa and further out, too.
That’s a very good thing, a sign of vibrant regrowth in our community. Fingers crossed.
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After a hot summer that lingered into fall, the Tasty Tuesdays Community Market, held weekly at the New Port Richey Public Library, is feeling busier. With a lagging growing season, produce offerings tend to be a little slim right now, but there’s plenty more to shop for. A favorite in this household – shiitake mushrooms and “get-them-while-you-can” persimmons that are grown at Cadle’s Cove Farm in Greenville, Florida.
“The weekly market is a treasure trove of delicious homegrown and homemade items ranging from duck and chicken eggs, cheese, nuts, microgreens, onions and potatoes, to freshly squeezed organic juices, salves and teas, breads and pastries, spices, honey, jewelry, wreaths, jellies and jams, coffee beans, soaps, and plants,” library director, Andrea Figart, wrote in an email.
The community market features local farmers and vendors that use non-GMO, organic, and locally sourced produce and foods, as well as unique handmade items made by local artisans.
PHOTO | MICHELE MILLER
Vendors sign a contract but there’s no fee to set up. An average of 23 vendors are there weekly, Andrea wrote, “with more expected as Florida’s cooler weather makes fall an excellent time to grow and harvest vegetables.”
An added benefit – The Tasty Tuesdays Market matches every SNAP/EBT dollar with Fresh Access Bucks that can be used to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables. Patrons are also welcome to stop in the library to check out organic seeds for free from the Seed Library.
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There was a welcome sense of bustle during a recent Sunday morning stroll down New Port Richey’s Main Street where tents lined the sidewalk for Wright’s Farmers Market.
The downtown event, held on the second and fourth Sunday of each month, recently resumed after a summer hiatus. The market is sponsored by the owners of Wright’s Natural Market and Cafe, a local mom-and-pop New Port Richey staple that offers free space for vendors and a 10% Sunday discount to customers who shop in their store. The market averages 25-30 vendors, according to Meghan Wright, store manager. “You can find locally grown produce, plants, jams, honey, eggs, baked, baked goods, hand-made soap, hand-made jewelry, and art.”
I tended to a little holiday shopping there, purchasing a hand-made beaded bracelet from Ava Gilpin, 7, an up-and-coming entrepreneur who was selling her wares under the guidance of her aunt, Kelly Hackman, owner of the White Heron Tea and Gift Shop on Grand Boulevard.
I also purchased a couple of bars of sweet-smelling homemade soaps from JoEllens Natural Soaps, made by JoEllen Webster-Conover, who like me, is in the early stages of a second chapter of sorts that she is writing as she goes.
That’s the cool thing about these markets – they offer the opportunity to get to know a little something about the people you are meeting and find a common thread perhaps, while supporting small, local businesses.
JoEllen, who lives in Hudson with her husband, Brian, has been a vendor at Wright’s since early on. Her soaps are also sold at a market at Kiddy Up Ranch and at a shop called Aerie Lane Home in Safety Harbor. More recently her soaps have been picked up in stores in California, Hawaii, Texas, and New York.
PHOTO | MICHELE MILLER
She’s undoubtedly had some early success, but prior to starting her business, JoEllen had been bed-bound with MS for ten years.
“I lost out on a lot of my kids’ childhood,” she said.
Since becoming an empty nester the business has given her a new direction.
“This keeps me moving and focused. It keeps me motivated. Being creative is wonderful and I’ve met so many people at the market,” she said. “It’s a great community of people.”
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PHOTO|MICHELE MILLER
Building community is both a driving factor and a pleasant offshoot of these local markets.
“We are focused on building a fun community event and getting our community involved in supporting local businesses, farmers and makers,” Meghan Wright said. “We feel that this is really important in helping our community thrive long term.”
The markets bring foot traffic that is invaluable to helping local businesses continue to prosper and grow, Kelly Hackman said, adding that some who stop by on a Sunday morning come back to check out other businesses and eating and drinking establishments in the downtown area.
For local artist, Michelle Gates, setting up a tent at Wright’s Farmers Market helps broaden her reach and her audience – particularly to out-of-towners who might like to hang a unique piece of vibrant, tropical artwork in their homes.
“People visiting from out of state are happy to stumble upon the market. They absolutely love buying local arts & crafts to take home or send back home as gifts,” she said. “Outdoor markets are an important and essential part of a successful small business community. Not only to bring freshly grown farm foods to an area where they are scarce but also to allow a sense of a small town walkable community – a place people know of and want to visit.”
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Fall planting season had a latent start for many this year, so produce offerings at this writing tend to be a little slim. But, this is Florida. Within weeks more local growers will be setting up shop again.
Among them, Jim Kovaleski, an urban organic gardening guru who supports his household by farming in his yard in New Port Richey in the winter months, and on land in northern Maine come summertime.
This is a busy time to tend the New Port Richey garden for Jim. He plans to give his crops a little time to grow and will be back selling at the Tasty Tuesdays and Wright’s Farmers Market in early December. He will also be selling produce through a couple of CSA‘s (Community Supported Agriculture). (Check out the feature story on Jim here).
Local farmer’s markets are a means to provide for a large family and support a new lifestyle for Jackey Morgan and Jody Hartlove, proprietors of Chosen Oaks Homestead.
A couple of years ago, they packed up their nine kids and moved from Trinity to a 5-acre plot in Golden Acres in Port Richey. There they cleared the land of invasive trees to make room for garden beds, animal pens, and 64 beehives.
Being new to Florida farming, there is a learning curve, Jody said. So the two have been taking good advice from Jim Kovaleski and others at the three markets they sell at – Tasty Tuesdays, Wright’s Farmers Market and Trinity Farmers Market.
For sale – eggs (duck, chicken, quail), baked goods, candied pecans, jams, jellies, honey, plant starters, craft items, along with the swift selling Cowboy Candy (candied jalapenos). They also sell microgreens, something they’ve learned more about under the guidance of fellow vendor, Maryanne Langler of Sunflower and Stars Farm.
“We wanted to be more self-sufficient and grow more things,” Jackey said. “(The markets) have helped us meet like-minded people and give us access to things that we didn’t know about. It’s introduced us to vegetables we didn’t know about. And it helps us provide for our family.”
Before establishing the homestead, both had traditional jobs. Jackey worked in the banking industry. Jody in health care.
The homestead has proved to be a good environment to raise children – including the added foster children – that come under Jackey’s care, Jody said, adding, “The kids know where their food comes from. They come off the school bus and they notice a new tomato growing. They love feeding the animals and seeing what’s growing in the garden.”
“The markets are kind of great because you get to do something you love and meet other people in the community that you would have never reached otherwise,” Jody said. “You get to educate people and on the other hand, you get to learn all kinds of new stuff.”
“It has been rough starting the garden this year with the heat and then a cold snap starting so early. Everything is struggling right now,” she said.
Even so, as with all gardeners, there’s hope for the future and something new cropping up in the soil.
“We’ve got microgreens and a couple of hot pepper plants that are fruiting at the moment,” Jody said. “We’ve got beans started and Everglade tomatoes, salad mixes, a variety of peppers and, herbs – cilantro, oregano, and thyme.”
All coming to a market near you.
PHOTO | MICHELE MILLER
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