ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
The weather outside may have been unseasonably cooler than usual this past week, but despite this, spring is in full swing with summer less than two months away.
As spring progresses into summer and later into fall, people can be seen outside doing a variety of activities, and for the last decade on Saturday mornings from May through September, one of the local activities people can be found doing is visiting the Liberal Farmer’s Market.
The first edition of this year’s farmer’s market will take place Saturday, May 4, and Market Manager Debra Huddleston said the market got some help this year in the form of a grant from K-State Research and Extension to hire an assistant for her.
“She’s done some work for the coalition before in voter engagement,” Huddleston said of Julissa Gutierrez, who was hired for the position. “She will be helping me with things there at the market.”
Huddleston said she hopes to have more events, marketing and promotion in the community to make everyone aware of the market.
“I still run into people who say, ‘I didn’t know we had a farmers market,’” she said.
Huddleston too said she is looking to incorporate some activities for kids in the farmer’s market.
“In the past few years, I’ve had the high school cheerleaders come and do a demonstration,” she said. “The most popular so far has been the high school boys soccer team, who really entertained everybody. We really want to Just get people to come to the market and have things for kids to do.”
Huddleston said Gutierrez will be at the market on Saturdays and around town doing promotions during the week.
“She’s bilingual and speaks Kiché, which is Guatemalan,” she said. “She can help get the word out to the Guatemalan community.”
Huddleston said the focus of the KSRE grant, though, is to promote the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as food stamps, and the farmer’s market’s double-up food bucks program.
“(Gutierrez) will be getting that information out and letting people know they can use their SNAP card at the market for the same items they can purchase at a grocery store,” she said. “The double-up food bucks is only for fresh fruits and vegetables, but if they come to the farmers market and get $10 worth of tokens to spend on vendors on their SNAP card, I also give them $10 in tokens for the double-up food bucks. They double their money.”
For this year’s farmer’s market, Huddleston said she already has a good lineup of vendors.
“I never know who’s going to show up until the first day,” she said. “Three Sisters Produce probably won’t be there because the produce people don’t have a lot that early. It depends on the weather. They will definitely be there the next week.”
Other items being sold in the farmer’s market include leather goods, and Huddleston said area vendor Balko Gardens from the Oklahoma Panhandle will be selling produce. Local resident Bobbie Hammock will also be on hand selling baked goods.
“I’ve had several calls from people who are interested in coming, say they’re going to come,” Huddleston said.
Huddleston said she likewise tries to find vendors for the market in her everyday life.
“I try to watch, and if I see somebody selling something or if I see something on Facebook, I say, ‘You need to come to the farmers market,’” she said.
Huddleston said Gutierrez can also help with this. As for what can be sold at the farmer’s market, Huddleston said it simply needs to be either handmade, homemade or homegrown.
“If they’re selling food, they don’t even have to let me know,” she said. “They can just show up on Saturday morning and find me. I’m on a little red scooter, and I’ll show them what spaces are available for them to park. It’s $10 per Saturday, and I don’t even go around and collect until mid-morning.”
Food vendors, however, do need to call Huddleston to get a list of restrictions on food.
“That comes from the Kansas Department of Agriculture, not the farmers market, not the city,” she said. “My number is 620-624-8832. It’s the number to call or text, and we do have a farmers market page at Farmers Market in Liberal, KS. They can look there for information. The Kansas Department of Agriculture makes the rules.”
However, Huddleston said, KDA does not publish the rules, but she said K-State has put together information on the rules of selling food at a farmer’s market.
“They do have a publication both in English and in Spanish,” she said. “I can send them that by text or e-mail or get them a hard copy, and we can talk about the food.”
Huddleston said she too can advertise for specific vendors.
“They need to let me know in advance,” she said. “I call Radio Bay on Friday mornings and talk about the farmers market. I can also do Facebook postings.”
Huddleston did say there are many food items that cannot be sold.
“Cut fruit cannot be sold,” she said. “Therefore, lemonade made with cut lemons cannot be sold. You can sell eggs, and you don’t have to keep them refrigerated if you have 50 hens or less. If you have 51 hens, you have to keep your eggs refrigerated.”
Huddleston said refrigerated items can also be sold, but vendors must supply their own refrigeration.
“We don’t have any power down there, so they’d have to provide their own generator or freezer,” she said.
Other food items can be sold limited times per year, and Huddleston said this means more than just at the farmer’s market.
“In other words, a church could do a fundraiser and come sell food that normally can’t be sold as long as they don’t do that more than six times a year,” she said. “We’re going to promote more fundraisers and have a little bit of food. People like to buy food ready to eat.”
Huddleston said those wishing to use food stamps for their purchases at the market can bring their SNAP cards to her.
“I run it through the machine and give them tokens they can spend at the vendors,” she said. “If they get SNAP benefits, they can get the same amount in double-up food bucks, but the double-up food bucks can only be used for fruits and vegetables.”
The Farmer’s Market in Liberal takes place from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday from May through September in The Plaza on North Kansas Avenue across from Adventure Bay Water Park. Huddleston said she is grateful to The Plaza for giving the farmer’s market a home.
“They’ve been with us for nine years,” she said. “We’ve had to move around a couple of times. We like where we are right now. It’s a good location. We get a little shade. We get a little break from the wind.”
The market’s current location is ideal, Huddleston said, because of a pipe parking guard where vendors can anchor the back legs of their tents, which allow them to carry less weight.
“If the wind blows here, you don’t have enough weight to keep it down,” she said. “That’s easier for them. They can tie a rope around their tent leg, and the back legs are anchored, so they just have to worry about the front.”
Huddleston said the market’s location too is a visible one with much traffic passing by on Kansas Avenue.
“One of the things The Plaza asks of us is not to compete with the people who have restaurants in that area they rent to,” she said. “We try to avoid those things.”
The farmer’s market not only is a benefit to its vendors, but the local economy with visitors shopping in local stores, eating at local restaurants, buying gas locally and even staying in local motels.
“I’ve had people who stayed at a motel, drove by and saw it and stopped,” Huddleston said. “I do advertise in Hugoton, Plains, Turpin, Hooker, Sublette, Satanta, Moscow. Some of those people come to town to shop on Saturday morning, and they also can take advantage of the farmers market.”
Huddleston said she likewise has had vendors from those areas, but one vendor from Knowles, Okla., in neighboring Beaver County will not be a part of this year’s market.
“She’s had a medical issue and will not be this year,” she said. “She’s hoping to be back next year. I’ve had vendors from Bucklin.”
Huddleston said some of the market’s vendors come from across the country each summer and stop at venues such as farmer’s markets to sell their products.
“I have chili people who come twice a year from New Mexico,” she said. “Over the years, I have people who call and say, ‘We’re coming through. Can we get a booth at the farmers market?”
Huddleston said even area employers have come to the market to recruit employees, something she said that has proven successful.
“Any business can come and promote their business,” she said. “They just can’t sell anything there. They can hand out literature, make appointments with people. Any non-profit can come and give out information. Churches can come and give out information, and that’s no charge.”
The Farmer’s Market in Liberal started in 2014, and although 2023 was actually the 10th year of the market, the 10th anniversary is being celebrated this year. Huddleston said the market has come a long way in the last decade.
“I know it was small,” she said. “It didn’t have very many vendors. It has grown. In the summer at the high point, I have an average of 22 vendors. In the locations we’ve been at in the past, I was restricted on how many I could have and what type I could have. People who come and set up a tent canopy is one thing, but people who are pulling a trailer full of chickens is another. Where we are now, we have a lot of room, a lot of options, a lot of flexibility in those things.”
This is Huddleston’s eighth year of managing the market, and she said the venture has been much more exciting than she thought it would be.
“Every year changes, and we come up with more and more ideas and newer things that happen and new vendors,” she said. “We always try to help the city and promote that we have live chickens for sale, but you cannot keep live chickens or ducks in the city limits.”
Vendors can purchase a booth for $10 a Saturday or a season pass for $150.
“This year, there are 22 Saturdays, so that would save them $70,” Huddleston said. “They don’t have to pay that all at once. Most vendors who do that just pay $20 a week or however they want to. The last week, it’s $30. They have to have it paid by June 30.”
Huddleston said a season pass gets a vendor a reserved spot at the market, allowing them to have the same space every Saturday.
“Otherwise, it’s first come, first serve,” she said.
For more information on the Farmer’s Market in Liberal, go to the Facebook page “Farmer’s Market in Liberal, KS,” or call Huddleston at 620-624-8832.
“Call, text, and I can answer all your questions,” she said.
