Fresh local produce will be available in abundance beginning the first week of June when the annual summer farmers markets open up shop in Hailey and Ketchum. Some additions to the "locavore" scene this summer include an early-season compost and plant start pickup site at Dick Springs' Sustainabilty Center on River Street in Hailey.
The Wood River Valley Farmers Market Association will operate a market in Hailey and Ketchum beginning in early June and running through the first week of October.
Produce will vary with the season, with mid-July markets offering the most selection. There will be live music and 24 vendors in Hailey selling fruits and veggies, sausage meats, wine, jam, bread, pasta sauce, lamb and elk. Bands will also play in Ketchum where 40 vendors will set up shop.
"You get to know where your food comes from," says association board member Kaz Thea. "We require the farmers to be at the markets selling their produce."
To save on local food production's carbon footprint, food sellers come from within a 100-mile radius, are mostly small scale and are either organic producers or working toward it.
Hailey's market begins June 11 and will run every Thursday from 2:30-6:30 p.m. on a grassy lot just south of Bank of America at 215 N. Main St. For more information call Kaz Thea at 788-7052.
The Ketchum farmers markets begin June 9 and will run every Tuesday on the Fourth Street Heritage Corridor between East Avenue and Walnut Street from 2:30-6:00 p.m. For more information call Lara Rozell at 788-1366.
Idaho's Bounty, a year-round local food co-op, will continue to deliver produce to Hailey and Ketchum each week. Food must be ordered online at www.idahosbounty.org. Drop-offs are on Wednesdays at Hemingway Elementary School in Ketchum from 5-6:30 p.m. and at the Hailey Armory from 4-6 p.m.
For gardeners trying to get their own veggies out of the ground, Blaine County farmer Dick Springs is offering compost, horse manure, kelp extract fertilizer and plant starts at his Sustainability Center at 308 S. River St. on Fridays from 3-7 p.m.
Springs is also offering memberships in a community-supported agriculture program that he says will offer "big savings" on whole or half slaughtered animals. For more information call him at 788-8508.
Tony Evans: tevans@mtexpress.com