Georgetown Farmer's Market Crops Up

Get your taste buds ready! 

The Georgetown Farmer's Market vendors are planting, picking, harvesting and baking in anticipation of the market's opening day on Sunday, May 23. 

Market manager Gail Brookover started the Georgetown Farmer's Market back in 1998. 

"Originally we occupied the large parking lot where the Lumberyard Pub is located. However due to lack of space and adequate parking for our customers, I moved the market last season to the new location at 4 Old Mill Rd," said Brookover. 

The lot at the newest location has ample parking for customers, who this year will be able to shop from 16 vendors.

"The feeling at the market is wonderful and we owe it all to Gail," said Nancy Moore of Moorefield Herb Farm in Trumbull. 

Moore sells organic herb plants and 35 varieties of heirloom tomato plants at the farmer's market.  Although her business is not organically certified, organic gardening is in her blood.  She has been growing herbs for the past 40 years and both her father and her father-in-law organically farmed before it was fashionable. 

"I can remember my mother burying fish in her yard because she was sure it would be good for the garden." 

In addition to using fish emulsions to fertilize the plants, and raised beds to prevent pests, Moorefield Farm brings in soil from Snow's Farm in Easton, which makes a combination of hummus and composted manure.  Moore won't have all of her plants available on the first day of the market, since temperatures will still be a bit too cool for some fragile varieties like basil, but as the season progresses more plants will travel with her to Georgetown.    

Bob Dinucci, owner of Veronica's Garden, will also be at the farmer's market selling organically grown produce.  What started as a hobby has now become a full blown business.  Dinucci's property was previously a feed corn farm, which has made the ground very fertile.  The farming area is now larger than a football field.  Fifteen-hundred tomato plants were started in his many greenhouses which equals 2000 square feet. 

"We have quite a following," said Dinucci.  "We make homemade pesto that people have become addicted to."  In addition to the pesto, Dinucci will be selling spinach, carrots, onions, bok choy, peppers, and cucumbers to name a few. 

"We have a whole variety of vegetables," he said.

And besides the veggies and other produce, breads and Brookover's own business Blackbird Baked Goods, there is a unique vendor that will be at the market too.  Pepe's Cream of the Crop may sound like they sell yogurt or organic milk, but the food they sell comes in a shell.  

"The clams you find in the supermarket can be a week old, but ours are never more than 3 or 4 days old," said Laurie Popadic who owns the shellfish business with her husband Edward.    

In the supermarket, clams are often put on ice, which may look attractive, but that is actually the worst thing to do.  When the clams feel the water from the ice, they open up and start to lose their juice.  That is why Pepe's uses a refrigerated van instead of ice. 

"The most important thing is that we want people to have a fresh product and our motto is that we wouldn't sell anything we wouldn't eat ourselves," said Popadic.  The smallest clamming business in Connecticut, Pepe's Cream of the Crop also harvests oysters, but they won't be selling those until closer to the fall so that the crustaceans can fatten up after their spawning season. 

For more information on the Georgetown Farmer's Market visit http://georgetownctfarmersmarket.com/.