NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton Farmers’ Market is back for its 48th season starting this Saturday on Gothic Street.
The market will be open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. from April 30 through Nov. 12. On its first Saturday, it will feature flowering and vegetable plants, maple products and storage crops. New vendors will be joining this season selling poultry products, meat, hard cider and mushrooms.
The early weekends of spring also will feature plants to give people the opportunity to get their vegetable and flower gardens started for the season with hangers and flower pots and fresh vegetables, including asparagus and rhubarb, arriving in mid-May.
Rick Tracy, president of the Farmers’ Market, who runs Intervale Farm in Westhampton with his wife, has been part of the market for 42 years.
The couple raise plants and vegetables and have been going to the market ever since they began raising crops.
“It’s part of my life and routine, and I’m looking forward to another season,” Tracy said.
The market helps support local farmers and is “a chance for some of the smaller growers to get direct contact with the consumer,” Tracy said. “It’s important to us because it’s a big part of our income.”
This also helps local downtown Northampton businesses as it makes “people come to downtown Northampton on a Saturday morning,” Tracy said.
A variety of vendors have participated in the market in recent years, bringing with them baked goods, canned goods, herbal productions and more, according to Tracy.
Vendors accept cash, credit, debit and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments (SNAP), while some vendors are also part of the Healthy Incentives Program (HIP).
For those attending, parking is available on the lower part of Gothic Street, in the courthouse parking garage and the James House lot.