Polson Farmers Market celebrates 40 years
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POLSON — Rumor had it that the Polson Farmers Market was the oldest running market in the state. The market began humbly in 1976 with a simple ad placed in the newspaper by Joyce Marsh. According to Marsh, the market took its first form about a year after Missoula’s market started up, clearing up any such rumors.
While it’s not the first market in Montana, throughout its 40 years, the market has moved from many locations, shifted in size and scope, changed leadership, and includes its fair share of blurred good and bad memories, all set as a backdrop to a now bustling place for local growers and crafters to sell their wares.
Marsh said she hadn’t exactly intended to start a farmers market.
“I was looking to start a food co-op, not a market,” Marsh said. Marsh said that at the time, there was no outlet for local growers in the area. The year before she had grown 75 tomato plants, and at that time, there wasn’t a lot of farm stands in the area. With far too many tomatoes even after canning for the year, she ended up selling green tomatoes outside her house for 5 cents a pound. She claims she sold more than a ton, which got her thinking about other possible outlets.
The first year of the unofficial Polson Farmers Market, it was just Marsh and Melanie Martin who had answered her newspaper ad. The two sold raspberry jam, apple juice, fruit leather and honey. By the second year, Lucille and Otto Buchmann, who had a huge garden, had joined to sell their gladiolas. According to Marsh, the market was loosely organized and moved around a lot.
“We charged (vendors) 50 cents to advertise in the paper,” Marsh said.
The order in which the market moved to various locations throughout 40 years is somewhat challenging to recount, although founders, vendors, and current board members all pieced together their recollection of the movements like a patchwork quilt. The market was once in the parking lot of what is now the Polson post office, then closer to what is now Napa, in the Walmart parking lot, near the Masonic Temple and likely a few places in between. There were also stories of the market being painfully slow because only a few vendors showed up or because it was raining.
When current market master Bill Triggs and president Lou Anne Hoskinson were asked who might be the longest selling vendors still at the market, it took the two some time to identify the sellers. Their known longest selling vendor had recently passed away. It seemed likely that it was a tie between current board secretary Nicole Jarvis of Ploughshare Farm; Hutterites from the Pondera Colony that sell produce; and Jim Cockriel, who sells upscaled recycled junk art, silverware jewelry and wood creations.
Cockriel has been with the market for about 12 years, including when it was located at the Masonic Temple. He enjoys upcycling and recycling with his projects that have spanned from wood to silver.
“I just like creating,” Cockriel said.
Jarvis said she had been with the market for about 10 years. The current growth and stability has been more than she could have imagined when she first started. She recalls how slow the market was prior to its current location on Third and Main, and how few consistent vendors and patrons there were.
“The community is just awesome and the vendors are super supportive,” Jarvis said of the current market structure and customers.
These days the market is bustling and even a slow day is nothing compared to stories from the “old days.” The market is at current capacity for permanent vendors and has a rotating group of temporary vendors always looking to sell at the market.
The market has continued to reach out to the community and helped put on healthy and educational classes with community and tribal partners. For the past four years the market has matched SNAP benefits (food stamps) spent at the market, up to $10, to be spent on local food.
The market invites the community and vendors to celebrate 40 years on Friday, Sept. 2. Market hours will be extended until 2 p.m. and there will be day of full of celebrations.
