Music, food, produce, art and entertainment fill the small strip of downtown Moscow every Saturday from May to October at the annual six-month-long Moscow Farmers Market.
The Moscow Farmers Market was founded in 1977 said Moscow art director Kathleen Berns.
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A boy watches as Sesitshaya Marimba performs at Friendship Square during the Farmer’s Market at noon on Saturday Sep. 24.
Burns said the market started in the back parking lot of City Hall and has gradually moved downtown.
The market follows the food calendar, this means that only seasonal produce found regionally are included in the market in order to support local vendors. As the seasons move along so do the contents of the market, Berns said.
“When I took over nine years ago we were in three bays of the Jackson Street lot and that got pretty tight and crowded,” Berns said. “We had to move the market to Main Street because we were paving and the citizens responded saying don’t move it back to the parking lot. Leave it on Main Street.”
Since then the market has grown by about 50 percent and continues to grow, Berns said.
“The market grows local farmers and it grows young farmers,” Berns said. “WSU has the oldest organic farm in the United States and they have a two year small farms program and the University of Idaho has a small farms program.”
There is a lot of value in local foods, Berns said. Some vendors have begun to sell things like duck eggs, cheese, milk, goat milk, goat meat and the farmers market gives these local food vendors an opportunity to sell.
Berns said vendors pay $12 to $32 a day at the market for their space. All produce vendors are welcome at the market without a jury process, but are still required to pay fees.
“The money that’s collected at the market helps create a sustainable market,” Berns said. “The city still subsidizes the market by about $12,000 to $14,000 a year.”
The Moscow Farmers Market is part of a growing trend of local markets accepting electronic food stamps, Berns said.
“We were the first market in Idaho to accept stamps,” Berns said. “We have been taking food stamps for eight years … last year we accepted $14,000 alone in food stamp money. ”
This year the Moscow Farmers Market began accepting checks from Washington welfare programs, WIC (women, infants, and children) and senior nutrition checks, Berns said.
She said the state picked up the Moscow Farmers Market because of its proximity to the border. The success of the Moscow Farmers Market is a great brand for the city. The people of Moscow and within the region enjoy it, it brings fresh food to the region and the people rely on it, Berns said.
“The market has become a cultural institution for Moscow. It has a special place-holder in our community,” Berns said.
As the city works with market vendors, so do the vendors among themselves. They often share products and booth space to maximize their own experience and that of their customers.
“We have a symbiotic relationship,” said Christine Boothman of Boothman Bakery. “As vendors, in some ways we compete because we have similar products, but we all need each other.”
Enda Neer, owner and operator of Grandma Neer’s Jams N’ Jellies, supports the farmers market by purchasing local produce to produce the jam and jelly she sells at the market.
Neer said she works with fellow vendor, Craig Roberts, the owner of CR Honey Bees.They share a stand, split the fee and help each other out at the market every week.
Boothman calls it the organic life of the market. Vendors have relationships with other vendors. She said if any anyone needs something because they have run out, they can go to another vendor and share. Boothman said customers will ask about a product a vendor does not have and the vendor will send them to another vendor who does.
“The raspberry people, the honey people, the boutique people — we all look out for each other,” Boothman said.
Kevin Neighbors can be reached at