The Garden City Telegram
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Homegrown specialties at the farmer's market
Published 6/22/2009 in Local News
By STEPHANIE FARLEY
Rain water ran down the windshield of Watson Nichols' car and down the parking lot of Westlake Ace Hardware Saturday as he sat in the vehicle to keep dry during the weekly Garden City farmer's market.
Three sizes of honey jars sat on a table behind Nichols' car, and a sign that read "Honey direct from the producer" was close by. As people walked by Nichols' honey stand, the 84-year-old Great Bend man would poke his head -- covered by a hat advertising Nichols' Apiaries -- out and then step outside the vehicle.
Nichols covers most of western Kansas with his honey sales, selling in Oakley, Scott City, Garden City, Dodge City and other towns. He's been raising bees for about 46 years after he captured a bee swarm that landed in a crab apple tree. He and his partner now have about 90 hives, and Nichols handles the packaging and selling of the product.
And just about every Saturday during the summer, Nichols is stationed in the Westlake parking lot, pushing his honey. Garden City's farmer's market, which features a variety of homegrown produce, home-crafted items and homemade foods, runs 7 a.m. to noon every Saturday through Sept. 26 in the parking lot of Westlake Ace Hardware at the corner of Fleming Street and Harding Avenue.
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Brad Nading/Telegram - Vicki Micheau, left, stands under her umbrella to pick out baked goods from one of the vendors Saturday morning during a rain-soaked farmers market in the Westlake Ace Hardware parking lot.
"How 'bout some good, dry honey," Nichols asked a man coming over to chat with him on Saturday as the rain came down.
Nichols loves beekeeping and says he believes in his product and other natural, homegrown and homemade products others bring to the market.
"It's just quality," Nichols said of the difference between his honey and what you might find in the store.
Nichols spoke of a couple who, a while back, bought some honey from the store and threw it out because the honey was so strong and bitter. There are some people who don't like honey because they haven't tasted good honey direct from the bee, he said.
"It's what I call raw honey," Nichols said of his honey, adding it's not processed or cooked.
Honey is one of the most helpful, versatile products you can keep in your kitchen, Nichols said, explaining there also is research backing up honey's medicinal uses, including placing it on burns.
"I've been blessed with good health," Nichols said, adding he attributes some of that to his honey. "I really do."
Aside from Nichols, there were about six vendors that showed up for the market in Saturday's rain, including Toke Heiman, one of the organizers for the event, who was selling jelly and baked goods. Other vendors marketed flowers, tomatoes, more baked goods and food, including bierocks and tamales.
"I like sitting in the rain myself," Heiman said as she stood beneath her tarp with her jars of jelly laid out on the table.
Jan Ramirez stood next to Heiman. She helps Toke and Finney County Extension Agent Dean Whitehill organize and run the market -- and said they never turn down rain in Kansas. You simply say, "Thank God, and we'll be back another day." But Ramirez, Heiman and other vendors lasted in the rain.
Heiman and Ramirez said the market had about 15 vendors two weeks ago and that the market will grow as the growing season picks up and more produce is available. The market will be packed by mid-July, Ramirez said.
Heiman had just been bought out of her 15 jars of pear jelly by a woman who'd visited the market.
Ramirez said she'd had a boy walk by and tell her, "I've been waiting all year for this," of the market. Ramirez said she was thinking, "me too."
Both Heiman and Ramirez said the market is a family event, and the products are good and fresh.
"You can't compare it to what you get in the store," Ramirez said of some of the products, including the sweet corn that'll start being available at the market.
Aaron Claar and his sister-in-law, Jennifer, along with her sons, Joshua, 7, and Daniel, 4, took shelter beneath a tarp as the rain continued coming down. The family, along with Aaron's brother and his parents, Ron and Chris Claar, run the family business Divine Gardens, near Deerfield, that markets itself as "a little taste of Heaven."
Aaron said the family started the business to subsidize farming when it was slow. They were out Saturday selling tomatoes.
As the boys played in the little stream running through the area of the parking lot covered by the family's tarp, Aaron explained the produce is pesticide free.
"We know what's been put on it," he said of the produce.
Dale Sekavec, Garden City, pulled his vehicle up to the tarp on Saturday, getting out to purchase a flat of tomatoes.
"My grandkids go through tomatoes like candy," he said, explaining he comes to the market for the "good food, good people." And it allows him to buy local, he said.
For more information on the market, contact Finney County Extension at 272-3670.
Learn more about farmers' markets with Kansas State University Research and Extension Office's Shopping Tips for Farmers' Markets. Or download a Buying Guide for Kansas-Grown Fresh Fruits and Vegetables.
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