Locally Grown at the Concho Valley Farmers Market

“The early bird catches the worm” couldn’t be truer when visiting the Concho Valley Farmer’s Market. This past Saturday marked the kick-off for the beginning of thrice weekly sales at the market located at 609 S. Oakes. If you missed it this past weekend, never fear, your chance to buy fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses, plants and many more local organics is possible on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next couple of months. The market opens up at 7 a.m. and stays open until vendors sell out, which is usually by noon.

Throughout the summer, you will find a vast assortment of fresh organics from San Angelo and surrounding area farmers. As the months progress, so do the flow of crops, the market will fill with something different at almost every market day.

The Concho Valley Farmers Market (CVFM) not only provides an opportunity for city folk to buy the freshest produce out there, it gives local farmers a place to sell it. For some of those farmers, it’s a family tradition.

Barbra Mikulik of Mikulik Farms stood behind her long table filled with various green leafy plants answering questions for a customer. At one end of the table there was a huge glass jar filled with what looked like clumps of dirt and roots. “These are hollyhock seeds,” she said as she pulled a copy of Southern Living magazine from underneath the giant jar. The magazine had a picture of a flower garden on the cover. She pointed to the tallest flora with blooms that had its petals up turned to the sun like trumpets. “They were my mothers’ favorite; I sell them for $1. Sometimes they get up to 52 blooms on one stock; they’re really beautiful.”

Mikulik Sausage is well-known in San Angelo. “My parents started that business and my brother and his son run it now. They’ve carried on the tradition very well,” she said. Tradition is important to the Mikulik’s, as Barbra is also carrying on a tradition of her mother's.

“My mother and I loved flowers. Mother had a garden that looked just this beautiful,” she said referring to the magazine cover. “So I feel like she is here with me laughing about me selling these hollyhock seeds. We didn’t sell them when she was alive. She kept coming to the market even in her nineties, she loved doing this,” Barbra said fondly. “My mother started it first (selling at farmers market) and this would be almost 15 years that I’ve been doing it, just like she would have.”

Margie Jackson of Braden Farms (and also the Concho Valley Famers' Market president) brought her spread of lettuce, spinach, collards, rosemary, peppermints and many other fresh produce and spice to market.
“We were out harvesting in the mud last night,” she said. “We knew we were gonna be busy so we picked extra and we’ve sold almost all of it.”

Like Barbra, Margie is a veteran of the market. “We’ve been doing this 15 years, and it can be rough, but you don’t really think about that you just do what needs to be done for the plants and this, we come to market all three days.”

You will also find a hot cup of coffee, breakfast burritos and other homemade items at other booths. Anyone interested in becoming a vendor can contact Margie Jackson at 325-245-3338.

Your next chance to visit the CVFM is Tuesday May 19 beginning at 7 a.m. under the parking pavilion off of S. Oakes St.