Port Townsend Farmers Market to open Saturday

PORT TOWNSEND — Live music, parading goats, chips and salsa: These will converge Saturday morning as the Port Townsend Farmers Market opens its nine-month season, which happens to be a milestone.

The market, which got started with a few farmers outside Elevated Ice Cream in 1992, is marking its 30th birthday this year.

Starting at 9 a.m. Saturday on the 600 block of Tyler Street, The Chamber of Jefferson County will orchestrate a traditional red ribbon cutting.

Then, in front of scores of farm, food and artisan vendors, another tradition will come thundering forth. The goat parade, postponed for the past two seasons, will happen courtesy of Ground Control Goats, promised Amanda Milholland, Jefferson County Farmers Markets manager.

“This season, JCFM is pleased to roll back some of its COVID-19 operation practices and welcome live music, events and dining at the market,” she said.

Local growers, from Hopscotch Farm and Cannery in Port Townsend to SpringRain Farm & Orchard in Chimacum to White Lotus Farm in Port Ludlow, are at the market.

So are Mountain Spirit Herbals, Finnriver Farm & Cidery, Chimacum Valley Dairy and other stalwarts.

Milholland added that 14 new vendors will set up on Saturday. These include Chimalow Produce, Lonely Pines Farm, Saltwater Seeds, Seabeck Cellars, Lunaseed Farm, Sweet Blossom Bakery, The Mossy Fairy, Water Moon Farm and Strait Up Shrooms.

Another market newcomer: La Cocina Port Townsend, which will offer fresh corn and flour tortillas plus chips and salsa made in its downtown restaurant.

Owners Cassandra and Lissette Garay are recipients of a JCFM grant from the BIPOC Startup Business Fund, which aims to diversify the farmers market.

The fund is ongoing and open to applications from businesspeople of color; information can be found at JCFmarkets.org.

This Saturday’s opening-day festivities include music from three sets of local entertainers: The Unexpected Brass Band is expected to play alongside the goat parade at 9:15 a.m.; Kristin and Otto Smith are set to perform and the Port Townsend Library will present storytime on the grass at 10:30 a.m.

Harmonica Pocket, a family-oriented ensemble, will appear at noon.

The Port Townsend market will run every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. through spring and summer, and then go to winter hours from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. for November and December.

As in previous years, shoppers who use Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits can use them at the market along with a program that adds matching dollars.

Nine years ago, JCFM was one of a handful of markets in Washington state to start offering matching funds to SNAP shoppers, Milholland said, adding that donations from individuals and community sponsors are key to such food-access programs.

Later this spring, JCFM’s Chimacum market will appear outside the Chimacum Corner Farmstand on Rhody Drive. That gathering of growers and vendors will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays from June through October.

The Port Townsend and Chimacum farmers markets have been through some slim times since the pandemic set in, Milholland said.

Numbers of vendors and shoppers shrank in 2020 — but then came a groundswell. Both markets saw increases in sales during 2021: Chimacum grew 12 percent over pre-pandemic 2019, and Port Townsend vendor sales went up 1 percent.

“This growth during one of our most challenging years shows deep community support for local farms and small businesses,” Milholland said. “This support is essential to sustain local agriculture and grow a resilient local economy.”

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Jefferson County Senior Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz @peninsuladailynews.com.