Nacogdoches Farmers Market is now open two days a week, less than .5 miles away!

By Donna McCollum

NACOGDOCHES, TX (KTRE) -Right now, the Wednesday Nacogdoches Farmers' Market is closing down shop at the downtown location. They'll be back on Saturday and again on Wednesday.

The return of Wednesday market is a welcome sight because it's a sure sign of good things to come.

At the Nacogdoches Farmers' Market, Jennifer Smith of Lufkin marked fresh strawberries off her shopping list.

"And they look gorgeous, delicious," Smith said. "I got here just in time and got the last of her strawberries."

Call them red gold.

"I went inside the building for just a minute to check on something, and I came back and they're all gone," said Kim Barton, another shopper at the Nacogdoches Farmer's Market.

Lori Crawford and another vendor, George Millard, will have more berries on Saturday. Good produce will follow.

"I got peach trees, plums, and stuff like my tomatoes," said Crawford, the owner of Crawford Farms in Timpson. "I got tomato plants that already got tomatoes on them. I need it to stay warm."

So do bees.

"They tend to hover a lot in their hive," said Olpha Blume, the owner of the Wildhurst Bee Company in Alto "They want to stay warm.

"Sweet gum logs inoculated with shitake mushroom spores don't mind the cooler temperatures, and they love lightning storms.

"It's the negative ions in the lightning and it just causes them to produce," said C.J. Wheat, a shitake mushroom log vendor.

Lots of love keeps the Texadus Family Farm in Timpson going.

"Our kids all work in it. All baked goods are made by either my 15-year-old daughter, my 24-year-old daughter," said Lynn Jones, the owner of Texadus Family Farm. "Everyone works. Even Ella has been out planting peas in our arms a few times."

Ella is one of eleven children. Believe it or not, Dr. Carroll Gregory, a cheese vendor, can relate. He said the same gallon of milk can make 4,000 different cheeses. So what's his favorite?

"That's hard to answer because it's like a favorite child," Gregory said.

"You really don't have one."There's more than food at the Nacogdoches Farmers' Market.

"These are jewelry hangers," said John Shaffer, a re-purpose craft vendor.

Shaffer makes that and more from wooden pallets and re-purposed items."Thank you habitat," Shaffer said with a chuckle.

"I get a lot of my stuff at Habitat or the Hospice Thrift Store or Goodwill. Places like that."Bradd Starr, a wood crafter, makes birdhouses and feeders as fast as he sells them."I had sold at the Saturday market all the feeders that I had," Starr said.

That success is what keeps vendors coming back."It's been easier in this farmers' market setting probably because there's such a sense of community," said Shannon White, a jeweler.

And that's why customers keep coming back to the Nacogdoches Farmers' Market, which is now held twice a week.Healthy Nacogdoches hosted the market at Memorial Hospital this morning.

From here on out, you'll find the vendors each Saturday morning from 8 a.m. to noon and on Wednesdays from 2 to 6 p.m.You'll find the market at 107 West Pearl, across from the Nacogdoches Police Department. To visit the Nacogdoches Farmers' Market Web site, visit this link. You can also pay a visit to the market's Facebook page.Copyright 2014 KTRE. All rights reserved.