In this file photo Emily Stanski 17, and Harold Golomb set out flowers for sale during a previous Wilkes-Barre Farmers Market. The annual market opens for the season today. (June 25.)
Times Leader file photo
Coronavirus guidelines will also be in place
Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Shopper Mattie Bradley looks for flowers for her front yard at the first Farmers Market of a previous year. Flowers will again be among the offerings on this first market day, along with several varieties of fruit and a few other items.
Times Leader file photo
Cherries and peaches, rhubarb and early apples, potted herbs and plenty of flowers will be among the offerings area farmers plan to bring to the Wilkes-Barre Farmers Market when it opens for the season 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today, on Public Square.
Within a week or two they expect to bring sugar snap peas, zucchini and cucumbers for pickling, too.
And, of course, shoppers can expect safety precautions because of the coronavirus, with masks required for sellers and recommended for buyers.
“And we’ll have our employees working 6 feet apart,” said Paul Brace from Brace’s Orchard in Dallas. “So that will help customers stay 6 feet apart.”
Shoppers eager for local produce will find plenty of fruit at Brace’s stand, including peaches, cherries and some early varieties of apples, along with pies, honey and cider.
Other farmers, who specialize in veggies, say cold weather in May contributed to a late start this year.
Among them is Harold Golomb from Plains, who expects to bring “a small quantity of rhubarb” as well as potted flowers and vegetables that you can take home and plant. “By next week I’m very hopeful we might have sugar snap peas and probably some Swiss chard. Maybe some pickling cucumbers, too, but that’s a long shot.”
Larry O’Malia from Larry O’Malia’s Greenhouses in Plains Township also expects to bring to the opening day herbs, flowers and young vegetable plants that people can take home and plant. “We won’t have edible produce the first week because it was so wet and cold in May. Remember the snow? And there were some nights when the temperature was below 28 degrees.”
For the O’Malias, another factor that gave them a late start was that so many people were shopping for their home planting needs in the spring that Larry’s brother Gary O’Malia pitched in at the greenhouse instead of the fields.
But don’t worry, Larry O’Malia said. “In two weeks we should have spinach, red beets and kohlrabi.”
Jen Broyan from Broyan’s farm in Nescopeck is also looking ahead two weeks; that’s when the zucchini and pickling cucumbers now in flower should be ready to harvest.
“We’ll probably have them in two weeks; they grow pretty quick,” she said. “The broccoli, kohlrabi and kale are almost there.”
As for another much anticipated crop, she said, “The tomatoes are big and beautiful in our high tunnel (which is like a greenhouse) but they’re still green.”
At least for the first few weeks of the Wilkes-Barre Farmers Market this year, there will be no vendors other than the farmers. Additional vendors and crafters will be assessed later in the season.
Paul Brace from Brace’s Orchard said people interested in buying prepared food for lunch will likely venture off Public Square to patronize nearby businesses “that have been hard hit.”
He’s glad they’ll have that support, and urges shoppers to support local farmers, too.
“People are concerned about where their food comes from, and if farms disappear, what do you get? Probably real estate development.”
The Brace family has been involved in agriculture for nine generations, and almost 200 years, he said. But, he added, “A generation ago there were 88 fruit growers in Luzerne County. Now there are two.”
The Wilkes-Barre Farmers Market is set to continue on Thursdays through Nov. 19. In a news release the city announced it is happy to welcome the following vendors: Brace’s, Broyan’s, Dymond’s, Golomb’s, Hoagland’s, Kessler’s, O’Malia’s, Rowlands, and Zimmerman’s.