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Fairfield Farmers Market to celebrate 50th anniversary Aug. 2
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield Farmers Market is turning 50 years old in 2025, and to celebrate, the organization is holding an anniversary party at Howard Park on Saturday, Aug. 2.
The group’s anniversary party is called “50 Years of Fresh,” and will feature live music courtesy of the band called The Boys, who will perform from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Market Master Megan Hines said the event will include activities for kids in a “Future Farmer” kids’ area with a corn pit, vegetable painting and prints, and drawings to win baskets of produce. There will also be wood fired pizza, tasting stations, vendor spotlights and more.
Hines is in her second year as market master, and feels honored to continue her family’s legacy of helping at the farmers market. Market-goers will know her mother, Kim Keller, as the “pie lady,” and for her copious amounts of organic produce from her three-acre garden. Hines’ father Steve passed away in 2023, and he was also a staple at the market.
Her grandparents, Mark and Twila Keller, were fixtures in the early years of the market, back when it was held in the parking lot north of the Fairfield Community Center. Kim’s mother, Ruth Heston, baked pies for the market, and Kim inherited that responsibility when Ruth could no longer do it.
Hines said the market is still going strong after half a century, with 30-40 vendors every week. Vendor numbers swell in the spring and fall when produce is most abundant.
“We have some summer squash and green beans starting to come on, and tomatoes come all year,” she said.
Vendors typically line the sidewalks on the south and east ends of Howard Park. The sidewalk on the east side of the park is currently under construction so it can be widened, and Hines hopes the new sidewalk will be ready for the festivities on Aug. 2.
“Deanna Julsen headed that up, to make room for better traffic flow,” Hines said. “We’re hoping to do a dedication of the new sidewalk.”
Hines said that, after her father passed away two years ago, her mother needed help with her farmers market booth. Not only did Hines want to help her mother, but she wanted to help the whole Fairfield Farmers Market.
“I really wanted to give back to the community and support a good organization that my family has helped grow,” she said.
The Fairfield Farmers Market was founded by Gay Chapman in the summer of 1975, a project she took on while pregnant with her fourth son. Chapman was on the board of Pathfinders Resource Conservation & Development, itself a new organization with an office on the east side of the square. Other members at the time were Dale Kraus, Joyce Snakenburg and Joann Sturdevant.
“It was something I brought up as an idea,” Chapman said about hosting a farmers market. “I thought it might be something that might go well in the community, and I asked about a commission to get it started.”
Chapman had a huge garden at the time, and was excited at the prospect of creating a central location for farmers and gardeners to sell their surplus produce. After obtaining the blessing of the city council, the first farmers market was held in July 1975. Chapman said it was a good mixture of people from the town and countryside, and from surrounding towns, too.
“It was very well received and very busy,” she recalled. “It was quite a community effort, and that’s what made it so neat.”
Chapman said she remembers that Mark Keller was among the first farmers to sell at the market. The farmers market’s website also lists Clay and Hazel Lanman of Keosauqua, and Ernie Hinkel of Birmingham, as “among the first farmers to offer their homegrown produce for sale.”
The market has changed a bit over the years. The group’s website indicates that it moved to the square in the 1990s, and in the 2000s moved to Howard Park where it is today. The summer market expanded from once a week to twice a week, adding Wednesday afternoon to complement its main draw Saturday morning. Chapman and Hines spoke of a few other changes as well, such as more Amish vendors coming in recent years, and more craft vendors today compared to the early years.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
