Every Tuesday during the summer months, the farmers market at the First United Methodist Church on 428 Kenwood Ave.
brings out growers, florists and barbecue stands to attract locals into buying locally grown produce and handmade goods.
This is our social life, said Chaz Martel, a farmer who has gone to the market for the past four years and who belonged to the church before relocating to Greenfield Center with his wife.
Martel brings his Blue Moon salad dressings and marinades to the market as well as homemade soap, honey and vegetables. He started growing produce to make use of the waste left behind by the horses he and his wife own, and it quickly became a way to make money on the side.
`They [the church] are very generous to let us use the parking lot,` Martel said.
The Delmar Farmers Market started at St. Thomas the Apostle Church at 35 Adams Place in the 1970s. After gaining popularity on Fridays, the market expanded to include Tuesdays. Later, the market moved to its location on Kenwood Avenue and is now held only on Tuesdays.
The mid-week afternoon was picked because it is the more productive day, according to Gretchen Geurtze, who runs Geurtze Bar-B-Q, which has been at the market since the beginning, when the company was still being run by her father.
`I have weekly customers that have come to me since we started. I know 90 percent of my customers’ names,` said Geurtze, a Delmar native. She said she has some customers who have been buying from her since the days her father was still selling eggs at the market. She sells about 175 barbecued chickens per week and until recently used her own chickens until the demand became so great she had to buy them separately.
The farmers market at the First United Methodist Church is a part of the Capital District Farmers Market Association, one of the oldest groups in the region that helps to bring together farmers and buyers of local goods. Merchants who go to the market in town have to be a part of the association and are voted into local area markets on the basis of keeping everyone balanced.
`You don’t want to have three bakers or overwhelm someone with produce,` Geurtze said.
Martel said the Delmar farmers market is not the only one he goes to during the week, going to two others — one in Ballston Spa on Saturdays and one at Empire Plaza in Albany.
For the farmers, this is a great way to get their goods out to local buyers and remind those in the area that there are different options than the local supermarket chain.
`It’s a great place to come for fresh produce, and you know that its all locally grown and not shipped in like some of the grocery stores,` said Geurtze.
`I make anywhere around $150 to $300. It costs me $50 in gas just to go 100 to 125 miles per week,` said Martel laughing. `We make a living somehow.`
The farmers market at the First United Methodist Church takes places every Tuesday in the summer from 2:30 to 6 p.m.“
