31 May Pawling Farmers Market: A Bounty of Fresh Food and Fun Every Saturday by Amy Emke

  One of the best things about Pawling in June is the re-opening of the Pawling Farmers Market each year.  Now in its 17th year, the Pawling Farmers Market is an outdoor market on the Pawling Village Green every Saturday from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. 

        This year the opening day for the market will be on Saturday, June 15th.  I sat down with Betsy Montgomery, the President of the Pawling Farmers Market, to learn more about the market and what they have planned for the new season.

         Betsy told me that the all-volunteer organization is especially busy right now.  

     “All of our volunteers are working really hard right now to make sure we have a great assortment of events, cooking demonstrations and entertainment at the market this year.  We’re also working to make sure we have plenty of volunteers on market days to help move the tent, tables, chairs, and all of that signage. It’s a lot of work!”

            The Pawling Farmers Market nonprofit board has 12 trustees, and a good number of volunteers. Betsy told me that the market is always looking for people who are interested in the farmer’s market to join their volunteer group. Most of their board members began as volunteers, because the best way to find out if you’d like to join the board is by volunteering and finding out what working behind the scenes at the market is really like.

           Betsy mentioned some of her colleagues on the board who are working diligently behind the scenes to make the market the thriving weekly event that comes to Pawling Village every summer. “Chris Carty is our vice-president and secretary, Mandy Dykeman is our treasurer, and Pauline Del Rosario Mansfield handles our merchandising.  We’ve been selling the tote bags, and last year we added t-shirts and baseball caps. The baseball caps were a huge hit! We’ll have them again plus bucket hats for kids. You know those ‘Black Dog’ t-shirts from Martha’s Vineyard that have a different iteration each year? We’re planning to be doing tee shirts like that, with a new one each season.”

        Visitors to the Pawling Farmers Market can count on plenty of entertainment while they shop.  Local bands and musicians, organized by board member Jay Erickson, perform every week in the gazebo.  Lots of activities for children are on the market schedule this year as well, including face painting, a balloon sculptor, a magician, snow cones made to order, Pawling LIbrary Storytime and a petting zoo. The market also plans to add more cooking demonstrations this year, including some that are geared toward kids. Topics for these kids’ cooking demos include tortillas, corn cakes, corn salad and “Lunchbox Adventures” 

          The market has seen a lot of changes since its founding in 2008.  The market has now grown to include 17 vendors who are there every single week, plus 20 or more artisans who participate on a rotating schedule, appearing at the market on 4 Saturdays of the season.  For two seasons, the COVID pandemic forced the market to reduce the number of vendors and artisans due to social distancing restrictions, but it is now back to its full roster and thriving as it was before.

           One relatively new addition to the market that Betsy was excited to share is the “Feed Your Neighbor” program.  Board members Jay Erickson, Mandy Dykeman and Chris Carty were the main drivers behind this new program for our food insecure neighbors, which began last season. 

     Betsy said, “Hunger is not something you see, you’re not aware of it, but there are many people in Pawling and Holmes who really could use a little help.”  Eligible families can sign up at the Pawling Resource Center, where they are given a punch card that they can bring to the market. Last year each family received 10 “tokens” per each market day, and this year the market is hoping to raise that to 15 tokens.  Each token represents a dollar, and families can either spend their tokens that week or save their tokens for a few weeks to purchase food and drinks from market vendors. The program is funded by the Pawling Community Foundation plus donations from local businesses and organizations. If you’d like to donate to the Feed Your Neighbor program, you can do so here: https://www.mightycause.com/story/Pfm-Feed-Your-Neighbor-Program

        As we were wrapping up our conversation, I asked Betsy the hardest question of all: who are some of your favorite vendors at the market? 

        “Wow! That’s really a hard question…there are so many.  Well, I love Dykeman Farm– they’ve been here since the very beginning…Trapani Farm for their fruit…Dan Madura Farm, Cardoso Cookies, Pawling Coffee Roaster–he has GREAT iced coffee, Wave Hill Breads, Six Dutchess Farm for their gorgeous flowers, Ballard Maple, and I can’t forget Picklelicious! It’s so fun to watch kids walking around the market with their pickle-on-a-stick!”

        I had the feeling that Betsy could go on to list every single vendor at the market–they are all her favorites! It’s not hard to see why, with so many great vendors and artisans to choose from. To learn more about the Pawling Farmers Market, check out their website: https://www.pawlingfarmersmarkets.com/

     See you at the market!