By CHRISSY PRICHARD

Express News Staff

The Old Forge Farmers Market held its final day of the season on Friday, Oct. 5. Held each Friday beginning in late June, the market has run for five years now. Each year, the market seems to get a little bigger and a little better, and this year was no exception.

Market Manager Reed Proper, along with the help of his wife, Barbara, play a big role in the success of the market. This is Reed’s first year as market manager, and he says it’s been a fun job. He and Barbara are on site every Friday, arriving four hours before the market opens. They work to get the site ready, set up their tent and information table, help the vendors get situated and unloaded, and troubleshoot in any way they can. Although Reed is the market manager, he says his wife is with him every step of the way. “I couldn’t do it alone,” he says. “She’s my right hand lady.”

They are there to solve any problems that may arise, but Reed says he can’t remember anything happening that he would consider a problem. Once the market opens, they spend most of the time visiting with the vendors and shoppers, providing information or just making friends. “The market is a great social event. We see a lot of people come that we know, and they stand around and talk and meet other people that come that day. It’s sort of a meeting place for Friday afternoons,” said Reed.

Barbara likes to go around and visit with all the vendors and see how things are going each week. She says the farmers are some of the nicest, hardest working people she’s met. “It’s good to get to know these people because we’re not a farm community,” says Reed. “We get to know how their life is going. It’s been a dry year, they’ve had some problems with their crops, things like that.”

New this year, customers were able to use EBT (electronic benefit transfer) cards for purchases at the market. To use this service, customers simply brought their benefit card to the Old Forge Farmers Market booth to be scanned, and were then given tokens that they could use for purchases at participating booths throughout the market.

This new service was made possible through a Fresh Connect Grant from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets that was secured by CAP-21 this spring. CAP-21 Executive Director Nick Rose says the program gained momentum throughout the season. As the summer went on, more vendors began accepting the tokens, and more people kept using the service.

Starting in August, for every $5 in tokens that EBT users purchased, they were given an additional $2 coupon through a Fresh Connect incentive offered by the state. This is one of the ways the market is making strides to assure that fresh products are accessible to everyone.

“It just helps their money go even farther,” said Rose. “People can really eat healthy and get things they might not otherwise be able to get.”

The farmers market is a non-profit organization, with all proceeds going back into the market and the community. The majority of their proceeds are donated to the two community food banks. Rose says that this year they expect to be able to make a $500 donation to each food bank.

Rose reported that customer numbers were up this year, and there were more vendors than in the past. He is grateful to the owners of Old Forge Hardware for providing the site that the market is held on each week.

He hopes to build on the market’s success and look for ways to make it better next year. He plans to take an informal survey of the vendors to get their ideas and suggestions of ways the market can be improved. Over the winter, the farmers market committee will take these ideas into consideration while planning for next summer.