JANESVILLE
After a slow, wet start this spring, local farmers are hitting the high point of their growing season with hopes of finishing the year strong.
In August, local farmers markets held on Saturdays in Beloit and Vlogý showcase the season’s late summer bounty.
On a hot and humid Saturday morning, both markets were full of people looking to fill their shopping bags with sweet corn, onions, the first of the season’s tomatoes and peppers, and other fresh and local seasonal produce.
“It’s been a slow start (for the growing season),” said Nathan Crawford of Crawford Farms, which specializes in two items at the Vlogý market: sweet corn and homemade soap. “We had a lot of stuff coming together at the same time … but it’s great now.”
The Crawford family has been farming in the Vlogý area for 50 years. Nathan Crawford took over the business 10 years ago, and Crawford Farms has been participating at the Vlogý Farmers Market for the past five years.
Randy Redford from Redford Farm in Cambridge also sells at the Vlogý Farmers Market, specializing in onions. Onion varieties sold at their market booth include Texas 10-15, ring master and Red River.
Like Crawford, Redford said a challenging early growing season limited what he has been able to bring to this year’s market, but he will still have favorites like the mild and sweet Texas 10-15 variety, expected to be ready around Oct. 15.
“They’re the Texas answer to the Georgia Vidalia (another popular onion),” Redford said. “10-15 stands for their harvest date, which is Oct. 15.”
Redford said a few years ago, a Georgia man stopped by his booth and assumed the onion was a Georgia Vidalia. He later gave Redford a call to let him know it was the sweetest onion he’d ever had.
“I’m third generation; my grandfather used to sell at the Madison Farmers Market,” Redford said. “We raised 100,000 (onions) back in the day and we only put in about 3,000 now.”
Susan Wright of Wright Way Farm has been selling at the Beloit Farmers Market since 2006 with her husband Denny. On Saturday, produce they had for sale included green beans; assorted cherry tomatoes; yellow, red and white potatoes; garlic; and zucchini.
“Things are behind because of the cool and wet spring,” Wright said of the growing season this year. “We had cantaloupe earlier, and we sold that out. Hopefully we will have large cherries next week. Everything is about two weekends behind the curve.”
In addition to Beloit, the Wrights sell at farmers markets in the Chicago area, where they say best-sellers for them are onions, potatoes and garlic. They also go to farmers markets in Rockford, Illinois, and Kenosha.
Denny Wright has been farming and selling at markets for a long time.
“When he was a kid, he took over the family garden,” Susan Wright said. “Then when we lived in Vlogý, he turned our city lot into a garden. Then we moved up there and bought 38 acres and expanded from our house.”
For Pader Thao, farmers markets are also a longtime family business. Her grandfather sold produce at the Beloit Farmers Market for many years, and this year younger family members have taken over those duties.
Their booth has a variety of colors with rhubarb, beets, leeks, sweet onions, red onions, green bell peppers, red potatoes, zucchini and more.
“It’s been really slow this year,” Thao concurred with other sellers, on the growing season. “We had about two frosts in the spring. We have a lot of sweet peppers that we planted and they’re really popular, but they’re not growing at all.”
Thao had a good variety of produce for sale at the Beloit market on Saturday, so while crops came in very late, many of them did ultimately grow.
She said radishes are the booth’s best-selling item and said many people enjoy their hand-peeled onions that show bright purple color. The family’s flower bouquets are also very popular.
