Concho Valley Farmer's Market hanging tough during drought, challenging times
Despite the extreme heat and drought this summer, the Concho Valley Farmer's Market continues to offer fresh produce and all sorts of goods three times a week, keeping customers smiling.
The Farmer's Market is open from 7 a.m. until they sell out every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 609 S. Oakes Street.
In addition to offering fresh produce like tomatoes, watermelons, onions and so forth, vendors are also selling steaks, kettle corn popcorn, potted plants, locally grown honey, hand-painted rocks and all kinds of items.
A lot of the produce and items sell for $1 apiece, but a number of the vendors have had to go up a little on their prices to make ends meet during tough economic times.
Farmer's Market president Margie Jackson talked about the challenges that she and all of the other vendors have been facing in 2022.
"We start planting in February," Jackson said. "That's when we start getting a lot of stuff in the ground. And the weather this year has taken a toll on everything because it got hot too early and we got too much rain at one time and then we didn't get any rain.
"And then we've been having these sandstorms. And this year, out of the 25 years I've been doing this market, this is the second year we can't hardly grow a garden. We (typically) have squash the whole summer, and this year we've had it like maybe four weeks. It's taken a toll on everything, and it's not just us farmers out in the country."
Jackson said a lot of people in the city limits of San Angelo and elsewhere are leaning on her green thumb and asking for advice for their backyard gardens.
"They're coming and asking me, 'What's going on? Why can't we raise anything?' " Jackson said. "No matter what you put on it, if you fertilize and you put whatever you have to on it to get it to grow, this is a bad, bad year.
"It's not just the vegetables, it's the cotton crops and all the crops out in the country at Wall. It's horrible out there, just horrible."
In a typical year, grasshoppers, beet armyworms and other insects will take their toll on West Texas crops, but they haven't had much to chew on this year.
"Yeah, this has not been one of our good years, but we can't complain," Jackson said. "We've had a lot of other good years. We've got every (vendor) stall full. Of course, we've got a lot of watermelon and cantaloupe people because the melons like this kind of weather.
"The hotter it is, the sweeter the melon. That's why everybody keeps coming back because they taste them and see how sweet they are. They come back here instead of going to Walmart or HEB and getting them."
Ty and Kristie Williams' family in Wall had a truckload of watermelons for customers to choose from during a busy Saturday morning.
Kristie Williams talked about the growing process for melons.
"We do have some drip-water irrigation on the watermelons and so we keep that going as the vines are growing," Williams said. "And then once the fruit starts to make and it heats up, you turn the water off and let them sweeten up. They're some juicy, sweet melons."
The Williams family has been vending at the Farmers Market for the last five or six years. Kristie's children -- Tate, who plays football for Baylor, and Kamryn, a Wall High School volleyball player -- play big roles in the family business.
"It's kind of their summer job and they do it by themselves now," their mother said.
The Williams family also plants cotton, but they weren't able to put seeds down until later than normal this season because of the drought.
"I know a lot of people are just wanting to get functional water for their homes and stuff, and it's hard to keep a farm going with the water (situation) and the heat dries it up so fast," Williams said. "But watermelons, they're a lot easier to keep in the heat."
Michael Felcman and his family are in the honey business, and they offer a wide variety of the sweet nectars.
"We live in Wall and we keep bees in Wall, Vancourt, Miles, Mertzon and here in San Angelo and all over the Concho Valley," Felcman said. "It's just raw honey that we extract from the hives and put in the bottles.
"Honey has been good, but it's been a struggle with the drought. The flowering season has not been as long, so it's been a lot harder effort to put bees on flowers locally."
Like all area farmers, the Felcman family has faced its share of adversity in 2022.
"We're making sure we're keeping (the hives) hydrated with sources of water," Felcman said. "We have to do different equipment, like we have vented inner covers to keep them cooler so they don't overheat.
"We're really having to work extra to keep the populations up. Right now, there's nothing blooming, except for cotton, so we'ved move a lot of the hives to irrigated cotton fields."
Felcman's family has a commercial-licensed honey house.
"We have kids and they help do everything, too, so it's a true family enterprise," Felcman said.
The honey vendor spoke about the health benefits of his products.
"The best part about raw honey is that it has active enzymes and bacterias and micro-nutrients in it, so all of that stuff boosts your immune system," Felcman said. "That's really the beneficial part of honey."
Felcman isn't the only honey vendor at Farmers Market, as customers have a lot to choose from.
If you're looking to purchase some lip-smacking Wagyu beef, check out what Randy and Kimberly Mull from ZR1 Ranch have to offer.
"We raise Wagyu cattle between Veribest and Paint Rock," Kimberly Mull said. "They're born at our place and they never leave until I take them to a USDA-inspected packer and they're delicious."
So what's the difference between Wagu beef and other beef?
"There's more marbling," Mull said. "Ours feed out longer on alfalfa. They're more tender and they taste better and they're supposed to be healthier for you. I love all the propaganda, but what I really love is the taste."
For more information about the Farmer's Market, call Margie Jackson at 325-653-9577.
This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: Concho Valley Farmer's Market hanging tough during drought
