Enchanted Circle markets open

Taos Farmers Market starts this weekend, on San Isidro Day – patron saint of farmers!

Grab your mask and reusable shopping bags and head to the Historic Taos Plaza this Saturday (May 15) for the Taos Farmers Market opening day celebration. Many of us have been chomping at the bit for this diverse, open-air excursion that will happen every Saturday morning into November.

“Many of our farmers have been hard at work and are ready to hit the ground running this season with fresh, local, naturally grown produce and plant starts,” said Taos

Farmers Market manager Jennifer Helsel online. “Come get some plant starts or even fruit trees to start the garden of your dreams this year, no yard is too small. Any patch of soil given attention and care can produce food.

“Get to know your farmers and you get to know the land you live on,” says Helsel, stressing TFM’s favorite talking point about learning and loving the land. “We promise you’ll taste the difference!”

All current state and local health orders will be followed – so have masks and distancing as required. Hand sanitizers will be at every booth, just like last summer during the height of the pandemic.

The 2020 farmers market allowed for vendors to be spaced 8 to 10 feet apart. In addition, foot traffic was limited to one direction and had to use a separate exit and entrance to minimize the potential of contact. At press time there was no change to this year’s set up.

Hundreds of community members made their way to Taos Plaza markets last summer. The average head count at any given time was about 100 people. Customers were able to enter and purchase their groceries and goods as vendors lined the plaza, many for the first time.

Customers adhered to the rules

and regulations and were reportedly wearing masks throughout the summer and fall markets.

Some had to be directed to the proper entrance and exits and reminded to keep a 6-foot distance in lines.

Upon exiting the market May 23 last year, Randy Hoover told reporter Jesse Moya, “It was really good. It seems like they have all their protocols down.”

For more see taosfarmersmarket.org.

Questa Farmers Market opening May 30

The following weekend, and every Sunday thereafter, beginning Memorial Day Weekend (May 30), from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., the Questa Farmers Market will be buzzing with new greens, fresh edibles and artisanal offerings.

Gaea McGahee, Questa’s market organizer since 2016, said of the COVID-19 effects upon farmers and produce, “It’s been a really exciting year.”

Located at the intersection of State Road 522 and County Road 38, summer 2020 brought a host of changes to the former parking lot that houses the market.

Raised beds were added and veggies grown. A series of shades were added for vendors, and an horno was built, “to pay special attention to the importance of the unique food culture of Northern New Mexico,” McGahee noted.

It was really important, she said, “to make it beautiful, to make it an intentional space where people are meant to gather.”

Music

The Questa market organizes music each Sunday and now takes on market interns, teens willing to

help set up and take down market equipment (at press time, 2021 interns had not yet been finalized). The music lineup for the rest of the summer will be announced at a later date. Stay tuned for the tunes.

Questa Farmers Market is a community-led effort to support local agriculturalists and makers during the growing season in

Northern New Mexico. Questa Farmers Market is a program of Localogy, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Questa. See questafarmersmarket.org.

Note: As of press time, Angel Fire Farmers Market did not return queries about reopening this summer.