Farmers market grows every year, vendors say

WILLIAMSBURG — A good 20 minutes before the farmers market officially opened Friday in Williamsburg, vendors were already selling their produce, baked goods and crafts.

Even little Conrad Clowers was giving his sales pitch. The son of Tanya and Mike Clowers of South Street Cookies, Conrad had baked small loaves of banana bread to sell.

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“This is a good market,” Tanya Clowers said. “It’s growing every year.”

That’s what everyone says.

Charlie Hoehnle, of Homestead, sat behind a table filled with produce and the molasses cookies he’s famous for. He’s sold more than 5,000 bags in nine years, about 500 a year, he said.

“My wife baked them at first,” said Hoehnle, but after a while she told him he’d have to bake them himself.

“I usually do pretty good here,” said Hoehnle. “This market has really grown.”

About 30 years ago, when Hoehnle started selling at the farmers market, he was one of three or four vendors. Now tables line an entire sidewalk in the center of the town square.

Hoehnle sells goods from his garden plot — which is about 35 feet by 149 feet — and 35 fruit trees. “I enjoy doing it.”

Hoehnle just got back from the state fair where he won a blue ribbon for his grape tomatoes and received second place for his cherry tomatoes.

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Leroy Pope, of Millersburg, stopped to pick up a couple of tomatoes. He doesn’t have a garden at home anymore.

Linda and Mark Yearian, of Williamsburg, purchased some of Hoehnle’s plums. They go to the market every week to buy whatever they don’t grow at home, such as green beans, sweet corn and squash.

“The farmers market is great,” said Linda Yearian. And she enjoys seeing the people there every week.

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Tony Curtis has a table full of produce, but he’s got a treat for animals, too. Catnip grows wild on his property, and his wife dries it out to sell.

Curtis moved to Williamsburg 15 years ago from Mississippi, and he’s been selling at the farmers market since then.

“It’s a lifelong hobby,” said Curtis. “I enjoy growing produce.” He learned to grow vegetables from his grandmother when he was 12, he said.

Little Mariana Marez hugged a crocheted animal she purchased from Hats for You. Julie McIntosh crochets large and small creatures, and daughter Julie helps sell them, at farmers markets and on Facebook.

Julie’s grandmother taught her to crochet when she was about 8 years old, she said, but she only started crocheting seriously about five years ago.

“I needed something to occupy my time,” said Julie. “It’s simple. It’s repetitive.”

Her bestseller is a unicorn about 18 inches tall.

“We do a lot of custom orders,” Julie said. “Next week I have to make Bowser,” the main antagonist in the Super Mario franchise.

The Williamsburg Farmers Market is on the town square from 4-6 p.m. through September. Every third Friday is a special event with music and activities for children.