Lindale, Texas, resident Adam Wells sorts fruit at the Wells Berry Farms booth at the Downtown Arlington Farmers Market on July 19. Wells Berry Farms is a seasonal business available from May to September.
Since late March, the Downtown Arlington Farmers Market has operated west of the Rotary Dream Park and housed vendors selling a multitude of goods, from bread and produce to crafts and prints of illustrations.
The market has continuously grown since its opening several months ago and continues to be busy from the support of residents across Arlington. Vendors come from near and far, spend hours or days preparing and some even load up just to go on to the next market.
Here are four of those vendors, and a look into how they prepare and run their booths at the Downtown Arlington Farmers Market.
Nana’s Pantry
At 7 a.m. Saturday, Arlington residents Jacqui Payne, 81, and her daughter Laurie Payne, 60, arrived to set up the Nana’s Pantry booth. They unpacked jams, salsas, pickled vegetables and soup mixes, brought from their home three miles away from the downtown area.
Jacqui Payne discovered her love of cooking for people long before she started selling at markets. In the 1980s, she cooked for the people who attended service at the Canterbury House at Southern Methodist University.
“I had to fix for 50 no matter how many people showed up,” she said. “I had to make sure there’s enough, and then whatever leftovers there were stayed in the refrigerator and the kids ate off it all week.”
Laurie Payne said her mom is always eager to make food for someone else.
“She’s almost ready to go kidnap people off the street and give them food,” she said.
Jacqui Payne’s preparation for the market starts throughout the week as she makes her inventory with the help of her daughter. She does most of the pickling and salsa making, while Laurie Payne helps her mom with tasks such as lifting pots and pans that are heavy with ingredients and product.
“When I’m going to make salsa I have to make sure she’s going to be home because I can’t lift the pot,” Jacqui Payne said. “A batch of salsa is 25 pints, which is like 40 pounds.”
She has been participating in markets for close to 15 years, and her daughter began helping around nine years ago. She said she wants to continue Nana’s Pantry for as long as she’s physically able.
Laurie Payne said she’ll take up the mantle when her mom no longer can.
“I really like some of her products, and when she can no longer make them, I want to be able to do it,” she said.
Melton Family Farms
Canton, Texas, resident Zach Melton has been selling produce from the Melton Family Farm at the Downtown Arlington Farmers Market since it started. On Saturday, Melton said he started loading up the trailer with produce at 4:30 a.m. and arrived at the market at around 7:30 a.m.
Melton’s stand sold fruits and vegetables ranging from watermelons to cucumbers and squash. He said peaches and berries usually sell out before anything else.
Melton said he’s witnessed the farmers market steadily grow since March.
As it’s gotten hotter, the market has started to open and close an hour earlier, letting residents and vendors stay out of extreme heat. Melton said the heat slows the whole process down, and fewer people are likely to show up to the market.
“It’s been a lot tougher just with the heat,” he said. “Not just for me but for everybody out here.”
The family farm is a multigenerational business, spanning back to Melton’s grandfather. Melton said it feels good to keep the business going, even if it isn’t the easiest thing to do.
The Melton Family Farms booth sells fresh produce at the Downtown Arlington Farmers Market on July 19. The stand offered a mix of fruits and vegetables such as peaches, squashes and cucumbers.
Wells Berry Farms
Adam Wells and the Wells Berry Farm only recently started attending the Arlington Farmers Market. Wells said his family has vended at other Four Seasons Markets and that he thinks they may become regulars at Arlington’s.
“We’ve heard a lot of good things, and it’s a bigger market,” Wells said. “[I] just thought maybe [we’ll] get a bit more traction.”
The stand sold a variety of fruits, such as blueberries, peaches and plums. The land Wells’ family farms on was provided by Texas because they had family who fought and died at the Alamo.
“They gave all the family members of everyone who died land, so we still farm on that land today,” he said.
Wells said preparations for farmers markets are mostly done beforehand. The day of the market, the pints of fruit are brought over in flats and poured into buckets.
Wells runs the stand with his husband, who began helping him this year.
“We spend all of our time together anyways, so this is just another reason to spend time together and do something we enjoy,” Wells said.
Fox and Raven Mead
A fan named Coolio keeps Farmers Branch resident Bryce DeShazo, 42, and the Fox and Raven Mead stand cool at farmers markets across Dallas-Fort Worth.
The company specializes in alcohol made from honey.
“The whole process from start to end for us, just for the markets alone, is roughly seven hours,” DeShazo said. “That involves packing up the car, commuting, setting up, breaking down, going back.”
Saturday was the second time Fox and Raven Mead had a stand at the Downtown Arlington Farmers Market. DeShazo said he likes how the Four Seasons Markets company treats its vendors.
“Without a good support system, nothing is going to be as good as it can be,” he said. “But the fact that this company does that so well is a reason we keep coming back.”
DeShazo said his favorite part of doing the farmers market circuit is interacting with vendors and customers, getting his product out into the world and seeing others passionate about their products.
“It’s just a lovely environment to be in,” he said.
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