Suffield Farmers' Market Draws a Crowd

When the weather is nice, customers and vendors turn out at the Suffield Farmers' Market in droves.

The marker offers a vide variety of produce, consumables and vendors. Local farmers from Suffield and Broad Brook set up next to fellow vendors from Torrington.

Town resident Natalie Das said the farmer’s market is “fun.” Her trip to the South Green on Saturday was one of many visits for her.

“I’m glad to have it in town,” Das said.

Randy Johnson, who owns Maplewoods Farm in town, said he has been coming to the farmer’s market for the past six years. He sells lettuce, zucchini, cucumbers, raspberries and yellow squash.

Johnson does try to sell different items. He would have had broccoli and cabbage, but rabbits ate it, he said.

Visitors not only can buy vegetables at the farmer’s market, but beef as well

Herb Holden, Jr., farm manager of , sells all-natural, pasture-raised beef products. The farm will start selling pork in the fall, he said.

Holden said he has received a “large amount of support from the community.”

Holden’s family has been operating their cattle ranch for more than 35 years. He has 65 "mama cows” on his ranch. His beef is hormone- and antibiotic-free and dry aged for 21 days, which adds more tenderness and flavor to the meat, he explained. Dry-aged meat is something a person receives at a “high-end restaurant,” Holden said.

Garlic Headz Products of Torrington had its tent next to the Broad Brook Beef stand. Customers could buy their beef and then buy some bruschetta or olive oil to go with it. Garlic Headz Products’ stand was being manned by Ryan Malahan, who helps out his parents’ business by going to different farmer markets on the weekend. Malahan said this past Saturday was his first time at the Suffield Farmers' Market this year.

“This is a nice one,” Malahan said about the market.

Malahan said this is the second year the business has been selling olive oil. The business will be selling Caesar, lemon thyme, and vinaigrette salad dressing by the end of the summer. Malahan said the business is also developing a garlic steak sauce.

Visitors looking for fresh flowers can go to Jennifer Syme’s tent to buy a flower bouquet. This Saturday she was selling sunflower bouquets.

Syme, who has been coming to Suffield's market for the past six years, said that she only had one variety Saturday because June was wet and dark, which resulted in the other flowers just coming up now.

In the months of May and June, she sells 15 varieties of herbs that grow in the farm’s greenhouse.

Charles and Donna Labbie of Suffield came to the farmer’s market for the first time this year. They came for the corn, being sold by Bielonko Farms.

“Their corn is delicious,” the Labbies said.