Log In


Reset Password
Lifestyle

Durango Farmers Market feeds mind, body and soul

Saturday event as much about socializing as the food

Wind your way through our soon-to-be-20-year-old Durango Farmers Market and you’ll find there’s a lot happening beyond leafy greens this time of year.

Next to the transit station downtown and in the parking lot of First National Bank are all the makings of a film set: managers, directors, set decorators, art, wardrobe, hair. (But no makeup. This is Durango.)

Long before 8 a.m., the characters arrive, props in tow. No need to call “action” because the crowds come in small waves. Everything, including a few cameras, begins to roll.

That’s edutainment. You can learn a little or you can learn a lot about sustainable living, but there’s probably no better place than our farmers market to get a full taste of life, Durango-style.

“Where else can you find a Rastafarian talking with a cowboy?” asks longtime market fan and gardener extraordinaire Cherrie Lum. Lum said the evolution of this outdoor, Saturday gathering has been a good thing for the whole community.

Nancy Grief agrees.

“I have a vegetable garden … so appreciate what’s offered here,” Grief said. But she and her husband, Vern, like the Saturday stroll so they can meet and greet acquaintances while enjoying a walk around breakfast.

“For us, it’s really a social place. That’s why we come.”

I say it’s arguably Durango’s best vegan brunch, too.

Choose from Indonesian food, wood-fired pizza, the best Bread has to offer, fresh Mexican fare and gluten-free goodies, as well. Not merely coffee and donuts – but scones, smoothies, chai and lavender lemonade or hibiscus ice tea.

Market manager Cody Reinheimer said there are five “ready-to-eat” vendors selected, in part, because of their use of local ingredients. “That’s a big plus,” Reinheimer said. And it’s in keeping with the five-member board’s mission to provide a venue for local farmers to sell the things they produce using healthy and sustainable farming practices.

Three beverage vendors, three value-added vendor booths, 18 artisans and two services – massage and acupuncture – add to the eclectic mix of 55 spots and 63 vendors.

You won’t find crusty old geezers in ball caps talking down the price of a dusty peck of potatoes. Come to think of it, I saw no pecks of produce – but instead, clean, uniformly portioned offerings, attractively displayed.

Vendors warmly welcome shoppers’ questions, and information cards post everything you want to know about the farmers, from their preferred weed and pest control methods to how they treat their animals to how they improve the soil.

“We flat don’t tolerate any of this: Use of antibiotics, hormones, pesticides or fertilizers. Our method of raising animals rarely calls for medical intervention. Our cows never eat grain – ever. Pigs are fed spent brewers grain soaked in the whey from the cheese-making process,” one card read.

Or when it comes to weeds: “Tilling, hoeing, pulling and other back-breaking methods employed.”

On June 18, the market featured mostly early-season agricultural products: greens, herbs, fennel, lush bedding plants and peonies for $3 a stem. There were also plenty of grass-fed, frozen meats and meat products. Shoppers bagged free-range eggs plus potatoes, garlic and beans harvested last fall from the surrounding five counties represented at the market. Root crops grown in hoop houses allowed buyers to get an early taste of beets and carrots.

This film set even had its share of “special effects.” Out of nowhere arrived real tomatoes that just as magically disappeared within minutes of the 8 a.m. curtain, leaving a chorus of empty-handed patrons aghast: “What, you have no tomatoes? You have no more tomatoes today?”

It’s not unusual for market shoppers to seek out unusual offerings. Cylindrical beets top round ones, multi-colored carrots beat standard-issue orange.

Who’s bringing home the curly-haired bacon? Probably the shopper who hears the story behind Mangalitsa pork, the Kobe beef of pork, available now in Durango.

“This Hungarian alpine breed is the world’s last hairy hog,” pork producer Margaret Riedel said.

“The genetics were brought here in the ’90s. It takes 18 months for these hogs to get to 280 pounds. These hogs have foraging capabilities.”

Capabilities? Is this a new skill-set in hogs, I wonder? Or am I one of the last who remembers when farmers let their pigs loose in the apple orchards to glean what was left on the ground? Not only did the pigs clean up the place after the harvest, they fertilized it while they were at it.

Leave it to the pigs to come up with their own BOGO deal. Even better: one-stop gleaning, cleaning and fertilizing.

Sarcasm aside, I say bring on the heritage hogs and the goats and the bone broth, too. And the lotions and soaps made from the goat’s milk. And don’t forget the Hummus Bus, where Middle Eastern cuisine reigns.

It’s all here.

Some say a community’s farmers market is a social barometer, offering products that define what locals want and what they value. Reinheimer said this year’s market offers more artisan vendors than ever before.

There’s also a place at the table for woodworkers, jewelry craftsmen and services, along with nonprofits, such as the Durango Friends of the Arts, which sold homemade pies for Father’s Day.

The farmers market is entertainment – but it’s also a learning lab for kids of all ages.

Master gardeners man the Colorado State University Extension Services booth to explain the differences between ornamental plants and noxious weeds that bear a resemblance to each other.

A Bayfield aquaponics project vendor talks of a closed-loop system that uses fewer than 100 gallons of water a week to maximize limited resources for the benefit of both fish and plants. Dandelions are used to make delicious pesto. The list goes on.

Our local farmers work hard. Vendors sell their wares and share their knowledge with a diverse crowd of appreciative customers.

And that’s edutainment.



Reader Comments