The Village at Eldorado’s Farmers Market picking up steam after two weeks
It was both an echo of times past and a preview of things to come.
One local crafter offered lye soap made in Glorieta from local goat’s milk and honey. Another brought fresh corn from Moriarty so sweet, it can be eaten raw, right off the cob.
In a sneak preview of the Village at Eldorado’s Farmers Market, three vendors set up shop in the north parking lot of the new shopping center Friday, offering fresh fruits, sweet corn and handmade soap.
“This will be great for me, because I live so close by,” said Glorieta soapier Daven Lee.
Tones of citrus, lavender and rosemary wafted through the canopies where Lee offers soaps made the old-fashioned way, mixed by hand in open pots and scented with essential oils. She sells from her home, and from the Santa Fe farmers market on weekends, but the Friday market a few miles from Glorieta offers her a new chance to reach buyers on their way home from a busy week at work.
Though lye soap has a reputation as a harsh cleanser used long ago when mild, aromatic soaps weren’t readily available or affordable, Lee said her homemade soaps are mild because she lets them cure for several weeks. “My house smells really good” when the soaps are curing, she said.
Santa Fe school teacher and Eldorado resident Patsy Tafoya stopped in the market Friday and picked out some of the apples Marlene Roybal brought from her father’s Española orchard. Convenient for commuters, the market offered Tafoya a second chance to enjoy locally grown apples.
“Ours aren’t quite as good. Ours are wormy. The birds are eating them,” Tafoya said.
Roybal’s family has sold Española produce at area farmers markets for several decades. On Friday, her father and sister were selling in Albuquerque while she worked Eldorado.
The Friday hours in Eldorado let her add another day to her family’s retail effort. On Saturday, she planned to sell in Santa Fe.
“Last week was literally getting our feet wet,” Roybal said.
The market’s opening day, Aug. 31, was marked by a light drizzle. The weather didn’t dampen sales for Tafoya.
“We did well. We took back very little of our produce,” Roybal said.
Under the shade of a white canopy, Roybal offered Italian and greengage plums, Alberta peaches, Bartlett pears, Jonathan apples and Golden Delicious apples, picked from some 500 trees her father maintains in Upper San Pedro.
Brandy Peralta said she sold about 800 ears of Moriarty grower Dean Schwebach’s sweet white corn last week, and was well on her way to a similar showing during the first hour of Friday’s market.
“It’s so sweet, it tastes like candy,” Peralta said.
“The only bad thing is I’m going to go broke here,” said market manager Susan Tarvar.
As she chatted with customers and the handful of sellers, Tarvar picked out soaps and produce for herself. Last week, her day running the market yielded a selection of vegetables for a pot of minestrone soup.
Tarvar said about 150 customers visited two sellers during the first week. In the market’s second week, three sellers supplied a steady stream of customers.
The market will be open from 4 to 7 p.m. on Fridays for the rest of the summer as long as the weather cooperates, Tarvar said. Billed as a sneak preview, she said the market will continue next year.
For more information about the Village at Eldorado Farmers Market, contact Susan Tarvar at 820-1117 or 920-5660.
Contact David Collins at dcollins@sfnewmexican.com.
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