By Jasmine Willis
WAYLAND — The local community held their first open air social distance Farmer’s Market in the Wayland American Legion parking lot on May 3.
On May 24 from 10 am to 2pm the legion will have another market in the parking lot with more vendors.
With all the negativity in the media about farmers dumping food it felt something had to be done to show local support to our community.
Kevin Mark, Wayland American Legion post commander told this reporter about the first ever Wayland Farmer’s Market in hopes it would be a great success. It was a huge success in most of the vendors were sold out in the first hour. The vendors included fresh beef, produce, potatoes, fresh eggs, baked goods, goat soap, honey, maple syrup, and handmade face masks. People from all over the area made a stop to do something familiar in an unfamiliar time. Everyone practiced the laws of mask wearing, social distance, and remaining safe. Many of the orders were pre-arranged and picked up at the market.
Melissa Landis, ML Cakes and Catering owner baked fresh donuts, muffins, apple fritters, donut holes, and granola for the event.
“I think an event like this is great to have right now. I hope we can do more like this again soon. We hope to have more vendors in the future. We even want the barbecue guy to come down. I sold out of my apple fritters and donut holes in the first 20 minutes we were open.” She said.
Visit her at www.mlcakesandcatering.comor call 607-769-1082.
Mary Nisbet, Spring Hollow Ranch owner said the goat milk is good on your skin in this hard time. It does not dry out your skin. It is very good for people who have sensitive skin. She uses all-natural ingredients in her goat soap. The couple has 13 goats on their farm with five of them ready to give birth to baby goats soon.
“Our community has a lot to offer and we all come together to help one another. We are just using our goat milk for soap now. The dream is to have a kitchen so I can have goat milk and goat cheese for sale,” she said.
Contact them at SpringHollowRanchNY@gmail.comor call 585-245-3228.
Roxanne Simeone and her mother, June Applin of Wayland have worked since April 20 to make handmade masks out of 100 percent cotton shirts for people. The result is they have already sold 75 of them in just a couple of weeks. They have a man who wants them to make a whole bunch of them special for his business logo.
“People can order them online and come to the porch to pick them up. They can leave the money with us. I just want people to be safe, and it makes me feel good to make them. I was getting so stir crazy, and this is something my mother and I enjoy doing together,” she said.
“People really love these masks. I have some plain ones and some with logos and patterns to make people happy. I like making the fun ones for people to have something special. We wash all of the T-shirts and they are 100 percent cotton so it’s easy to breath in them.”
Simeone added that any local business that wants her help in making masks can contact her online at roxsim62@gmail.com Anyone else who would like to make a mask order to pick up can contact her as well.
Cohocton Police Chief Kerry Pebbles was onscene for the event to make sure it all went smoothly.
“People are following all the directions of safety. Everyone wore a mask and practiced safe distancing. I was glad they did this for the community.” He said. “I think we should do this farmer’s market again.”
Corey Mark and Antone Case Potatoes were available at the market for purchase. The produce like peppers, squash, beans and such were sold out fast. Ed Perkowski Jr. brought that fresh produce up to the legion from the south.
“Times have been tough in the community and we wanted to do something to lift up everyone’s spirits. We sold out of a lot of our produce right away. We thank all of those who came out to help and all of those who donated. I thank Jasmine Willis for coming out to report on our first ever Farmer’s Market too.” Kevin Mark said. “We really appreciate all the helpers like Ben Reigelsperger and Eric Bergeron who came out today too. The Wayland
Legion Ladies Auxiliary has helped a lot in this as well.”
Kristine Gessner, Gessner’s Windy View Farms owner said it was her idea to do this open-air market in the community.
“We had a good time doing the Farmer’s Market in Dansville last year. We wanted to do something local since we are all from Wayland. I had about 40 pre-orders for fresh beef before I even came to the market. I sold a whole cow today,” she said. “We will want to do this again in a couple of weeks. We hope to be able to do this a couple times a month. We wanted to get something like this going in Wayland. We have a great spot for it in the legion parking lot.”
Gessner added there was nothing but great feedback from everyone who came to the market.
“When people can get fresh beef from their local farmer they know exactly where it comes from. I have known that cow for it’s whole entire life. I have raised that cow and been there for the whole process. I have about 125 head at my farm,” she said. “We were nervous at first with the market if everyone would wear masks and follow the rules, but everyone has been doing great that comes here. We even had some people have us put the beef in the cooler in the trunks of their cars.”
Contact them at widgetkg@gmail.comor 585-402-9027
Veterans came out to support the market on the nice sunny day as well. John Waldecker told this reporter it is what veterans have always done.
“We give back to our community as much as we can. We have never stopped since we served our country. We will keep on doing it too. This all goes to help the local community,” he said.
Karen Howell, Karen the Baker owner said she has sold out every time she is at these markets.
“I have enjoyed being outside for this market. We sold out in about an hour. I had a lot of preorders made. I hope we do it again soon. We really need something like this in Wayland. I don’t mind coming up the hill into Wayland for the market,” she said. “I love that we are all doing what we can to help one another right now. The site called Find Your Farmer is very helpful. I have gotten my fresh eggs and produce that way. I am doing what I can to support the local farmers. We are all in this together.”
Howell added many of her orders are online via her Facebook page. Many make an order and pick up the order on the porch. You can go to Karen Howell The Baker on Facebook or her website www.karenhowellthebaker.com or call 585-727-2226.
All of the proceeds for the market go to Point Project and Vet Aid Fund.
Landis said she plans on having a grand opening in August for her own catering/baking business in Wayland. She will have fresh baked goods, bread, breakfast and lunch.