People from across the Valley gathered in Carnation on Tuesday, May 3, for opening day of the 2016 Carnation Farmers Market.

Run by Sno-Valley Tilth, a non-profit organization focused on sustainable farming, the Carnation Farmers Market is in its 13th year of operation and has been tracking consistent growth from year to year.

The market is open from 3 to 7 p.m. every Tuesday from May to October.

Opening day events included children at the market participating in a Maypole dance, which has become a tradition.

Lindsay Nessel, market manager, said the schedule is based around farmers and what they are growing. Everything sold at the market is grown in the Valley.

“We start early and run late because we are farmer-run and farmer-oriented. If there is somebody here selling something that’s not food it’s because they grew ingredients that go in it, like our soap vendor, but everybody here is a grower or food producer in some way,” Nessel said. “In the fall season, a lot of the markets are closed but that is a really bountiful season for farmers. They have a lot of crops growing in around that time so it’s really beneficial to the growers to stay open later.”

This year the market is experiencing more community involvement than ever before. The last Tuesday of every month is a “community roots” day, which give the public an opportunity to learn about food production in the Valley.

Community roots days will feature cooking demonstrations, educational activities for children and the local doctor’s office will have a booth, providing nutrition information in addition to the weekly “Take a walk with the Doc” event, Nessel said.

“Every Tuesday they go on a 30-minute walk where they discuss a nutrition-related topic. The first five people who show up get a $1 market voucher,” she said. “And on community roots days the doctor’s office will have an additional booth where they have different nutritional information, they do blood pressure checks, baby weight and different things depending on the month. There is an art activity on those days. Lots of extras. Some vendors are only here on community roots days.”

The market has about 20 vendors signed up with more to come. The vendors and food producers fluctuate throughout the season. The market’s offering diversifies through summer.

Nessel used berries as an example. There are berry vendors currently signed up but they will not appear at the market for another month.

“When you are eating fresh, you are eating seasonally. You can’t have corn in May. It fluctuates a little bit in that regard,” she said.

This year also marks the start of the Carnation market bringing in a wider audience of people as they now take credit and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cards in order to assist low-income individuals and families.

“Now we have a much bigger community involvement, regular shoppers and we started a new program last year. Now we can take credit cards and we can take SNAP cards which are like food stamps,” she said “Starting this year with the SNAP customers we offer ‘freshbucks’ which is a double up matching program. So for the first $10 they spend at the market on their SNAP card they get $10 more in ‘freshbucks’ that can be used on fresh fruits and vegetables and things like that.”

The Carnation farmers market also hosts live music every week, featuring a mix of local and touring musicians to provide 27 weeks of free live music.

Above everything else, Nessel appreciates facilitating the connection between farmer and consumer. Seeing the farmers directly connect to their consumers and giving the public the opportunity to have access to this food is one of the main highlights of the event, Nessel said.

“Most farmers markets are run by cities or other organizations that aren’t farmers. Our farmers market is run by a farmer-based organization. We are focused on the farming community and that really sets us apart.”

Learn more at http://carnationfarmersmarket.org.

For more photos from the event, visit: https://flic.kr/s/aHskA2sqtZ