Fruits and vegetables of every color grab your attention. The scents of fresh-baked bread and cookies flood your nose each time you inhale. The indistinct chatters between vendors and shoppers grab your attention, but only slightly can you hear their conversations. Live singing and guitar playing echo throughout the street. You feel the warm sunlight of the late morning touch your face, and a light breeze brushes past you.
Every Sunday between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., Main Street transforms into a farmers’ market. This market sells more than just produce, from meat to bread to desserts to crochet goods, the farmers’ market has much to discover.
This market is an integral way for local farmers and small businesses to connect with the Village of Brockport and its community. The farmers’ market was previously located on Market Street, but the location changed because of the Erie Canal lift bridge closure. This new location keeps the market accessible to community members, especially now that it is closer to SUNY Brockport’s campus.
One of the local farms that comes to the market is Heberle Farms. The Hamlin-based farm that has been in business for over 25 years offers market-goers a variety of fruits and vegetables. Heberle Farms owner Paula Reis says she enjoys coming to the market because she is happy to serve the community and is pleased with the market’s new location.
“I do three times as much business [on Main Street]. Market Street was kind of out of the way, nobody seemed to find us,” Reis said.
Of the produce Heberle Farms sells, Reis says her favorites include the farm’s cherries, pears, strawberries and apples. She encourages supporting local farms over dominant grocery chains, as local farms can give customers a sense of trustworthiness that big chains can’t.
“Some of our pesticides are very hard in New York to have regulated. If you buy from another country, you don’t know what they’re spraying,” Reis said.
But local farms aren’t only bringing fresh produce to the market. Camman Acres, located on Ridge Road, specializes in organic, pasture-raised meat. According to Camman Acres co-manager Shane Camman, a chicken’s quality of life determines its nutritional value.
“Most store-bought chickens don’t really spend their lives out in the grass,” Camman said. “So, when you have a small farm, they actually live out on the grass. They’re always clean and can live more of a normal chicken life.”
Camman can personally attest to the benefits of eating organic meat as he was not always a farmer. He spent his previous career as a neurosurgeon.
“He traveled the world, and he just had all these stomach issues,” Camman Acres co-manager and Camman’s daughter Audrey Camman said. “He was not doing well. He looked into how food really affects your body and how it affects your mind, so we started a little farm in our garage.”
Shane Camman says that he appreciates the many connections with the community his farm allows him to have.
“We’re not just creating a product that goes on a truck and goes away,” Shane Camman said. “We actually have relationships with the people who consume the product. They come and they tell us how great it is and that we’re feeding their families.”
Many small businesses are present at the market, too. The Undead Bread Co. founded by Melissa Wagner, is a hit with market-goers. Wagner’s sourdough products sell out quickly. Wagner started her business last fall and has since been educating others about bread’s true nutritional value.
“So everybody’s all, ‘Bread is terrible,’” Wagner said. “And maybe that’s true if you are eating grocery store bread. But fermented bread that is made at home, that doesn’t have all those chemically processed ingredients, is definitely part of what a balanced diet should look like.”
Wagner says she was drawn to sourdough baking because it gave the lifetime baker a challenge. The Undead Bread Co. combines her baking prowess with her love of Halloween. The spooky theme honors Morticia, her first sourdough starter. She plans to sell more Halloween-themed products as the holiday approaches.
“Next month, I’m going to have some pumpkin-shaped loaves, little Cinderella pumpkins. They’re going to be so cute,” Wagner said.
The enthusiasm and quality products local farms and small business bring to the market keep customers coming back each week. SUNY Brockport student Emilee Ramirez has attended the market every weekend since they have been back on campus. They said they enjoy how relaxing the market is.
“Corporations are greedy. These people actually enjoy what they are doing and care about it more than if I were to go to Walmart,” Ramirez said.
Although the lift bridge’s closure has made parts of the village less accessible to the community, the market’s new location is a solution. Market-goers can come to Main St. to not only get their grocery shopping done, but to learn about the benefits of organic food.
