Cabbages from Red Moon Farm. (Tyler Morning Telegraph File)

Jim Biles’ bees are just getting active; it’s pollen season, and the protein in the pollen signals the queen to start producing more eggs to ready the hive for the flowers to come. But there’s no honey yet; it will be June before there’s fresh 2016 honey to sell.

The Flint beekeeper was at the Rose City Farmers Market on Saturday anyway, with honey-based candles and other products to sell.

“Right now I’m working with my hives, making sure they’re strong and healthy,” he said. “The bee population is booming now, and they’ll be ready for when the nectar starts to flow.”

The 2015 honey has sold out – last year’s rainy spring limited honey production, Biles explained, so there wasn’t as much of it. But that’s OK. Honey is seasonal, and in due season – June, probably – there will be a fresh batch of Sugar Creek Honey for sale.

A few booths over, Cody Carter sold out of his fresh greens – mustard, mostly and some Swiss chard – by 10 a.m. He’s just now planting his four-acre farm in Chandler, Neverland Garden, with the tomatoes, peppers, squash and corn customers are wanting.

“The weather has been crazy, and that slows your crop,” he said. “It’s in the 80s one day and in the 40s the next. That’s the hard part of farming – there’s nothing you can do to rush it.”

But that’s OK, he said – everything in its season.

Carmen Sosa, who runs the Rose City Farmers Market, agreed.

“We have become so far removed from where our food comes from that we’ve lost a sense of how important homegrown, healthy, tasty food is,” she said. “So we’re really out here trying to re-introduce a very, very old concept – eating seasonally and eating locally.”

This is the fifth year for the Rose City Farmers Market, and there are several other farmers markets in and near Tyler. Rose City, which is held every Saturday morning in the parking lot at Juls on Old Jacksonville Road, is the first to open this season.

Other farmers markets, including the East Texas State Fair Farmers Market, the East Texas Produce Market, and in the Lindale Farmers Market, will be opening in the weeks to come.

Locally grown produce is starting to catch on in East Texas.

“At first it was a hard sell,” Ms. Sosa acknowledged. “Because you can go across the street to a grocery store, and buy anything and everything your heart could desire. You can find pineapples and coconuts and tomatoes and peppers.”

But, it’s not the same. There’s nothing like biting into a tomato sandwich with a locally grown tomato, still warm from the sun, with a little mayo and cracked pepper, she said.

“And for us, particularly at the start of the season like this, we see it as a teaching opportunity,” she said. “People ask us where the tomatoes or corn or squash is, and we can talk to them about eating seasonally.”

 

COMMUNITY

Bill and Jane McGoff are regulars at the Rose City Farmers Market. On Saturday, they weren’t even sure the market would be open, so they drove by to check. They seemed delighted to find the awnings up and the growers chatting with customers.

“We like coming out for the community,” said Jane. “I like to cook, and when I cook I do like to use fresh vegetables. But that’s not the only reason we’re here. We like to buy local and support the kind of folks you see out here.”

The farmers market is more than just an open-air produce aisle, Ms. Sosa said. There are artisans, artists, yoga classes and live music.

“We’re proud this market reflects our community’s farms and agriculture, food artisans, and artists.” Ms. Sosa said. “It’s definitely not the easiest path to take but it is the path to food integrity and supporting our community’s local economy; the ethos all our members embrace.”

Part of that ethos is helping others. Starting May 7, the Rose City Farmers Market will again partner with the Texas Department of Agriculture and Texas Department of State Health Services, Women, Infants and Children Program (WIC) to distribute free produce vouchers to eligible WIC participants. Each eligible participant receives $30 in free produce.

It’s an effort to help families in need get fresher, healthier food items. And at the close of each market, extra food is donated to the food pantry at PATH, People Attempting To Help.

“A part of what we do is trying to help people shift their thinking and shift their priorities,” Ms. Sosa said. “Buying produce here means people will have to cook, will have to get back to having dinner together. That’s a good thing.”

The market also helps local growers.

“Right now we have 16 vendors, plus local musicians,” she said. “At our peak, we’ll have up to 40. We think it’s important for us to be here to support local agriculture and local farmers, because we’re at risk of losing them.”

 

PASTORAL PACE

At 23, Daniel Forry believes he’s the youngest farmer at the Rose City market. He had some college, but decided it wasn’t for him. He’s happier farming his six acres in Jacksonville, planting the tomatoes and cucumbers and eggplant that are just now going in. He also has laying hens; though maybe not enough. He sold out of fresh eggs, all 18 dozen, by 9:30 a.m.

He’s thinking about stepping up egg production, but there’s a limit to that; the hens have a say in such matters.

“We might need to get some more hens,” he said. “You can’t rush them.”

The same goes for locally grown produce, Ms. Sosa added. In time, there will be tomatoes, and tomato sandwiches. There will be berries, and then there will be fruits. In the fall, there will be the potatoes and the carrots and the heartier vegetables.

Everything in its season.

“It’s a different pace from what we’re all used to,” she said. “But it’s better for us.”

 

Twitter: @tmt_roy

 

IF YOU GO:

What: Rose City Farmers Market

WHEN: Saturdays, 8 a.m. to noon

WHERE: 7212 Old Jacksonville Hwy., at Juls

 

 

OPENING SOON:

Lindale Farmers Market: April 30

East Texas State Fair Farmers Market: May 7