SILVERDALE – Fresh produce, flowers honey and smoked meat were some of the items available to customers during opening day of the Silverdale Farmers’ Market on Tuesday, April 28.
Pheasant Fields Farm workers Ryn Warthen and Dani Morrisey were at the new location at the Old Navy parking lot setting up at 8 a.m. to be ready for the 10 a.m. start.
“We are selling plant starts. We have tomato starts,” Warthen said, pointing to a table filled with spouts of plants in small pots.
Hops, too, were for sale.
“They’re the Cascade hops so they’re local and they’re the regional favorite,” Warthen said.
Their market stand was set up at a new location, at the Old Navy parking lot, 9551 Ridgetop Blvd NW, in Silverdale. Previously, the farmers market was based at the Old Town Silverdale waterfront.
Morrisey said around 80-90 percent of Pheasant Farms sales were through retail outlets such as the Silverdale Farmers Market or the Poulsbo Farmers Market. The rest of the sales were wholesale – and with lower profit – to restaurants and grocery stores, she said.
“The farmers markets are a major retail outlet for us,” Morrisey said.
Pheasant Farms has been in Silverdale for over 100 years.
“It’s still a family owned and operated farm,” Morrisey said. The farm also features a pumpkin patch and a corn maze, described by Morrisey as the farm’s “agri-tourism” component.
The 15-acre farm also has a community supported agriculture program where shares of the year’s harvest can be purchased.
Kevin Short with Short’s Family Farm was another seller at the market. New York Strip steaks and ground beef were among his best-selling products, he said.
“It’s always a great time. People are always excited to come,” Short said of opening day of the farmers market.
His family ran their farm for four generations as a dairy farm, but six years ago switched from dairy to specializing in grass-fed beef. The farm has around 350 head.
“Couldn’t get ahead in the world doing dairy … So 100 percent grass-fed beef was the way to go,” he said.
Short said he expected to get more foot traffic at the Old Navy location.
Dave Osborn with Big Bear Smokehouse offered customers free samples of his beef jerky, smoked salmon and turkey jerky.
“Everything has garlic on it,” he said of the flavorful jerky.
Osborn said he started Big Bear in 1999. He smokes fish with alder wood, beef with hickory and turkey with mesquite.
Several other vendors were at the market including a mini doughnuts stand, Practical Sewing, Loving You Honey Farms which sells honey in several shades from light gold to near black, Eva’s Hawaiian Delights which sells Kalua pork and teriyaki chicken lunch plates, Simply Kettle kettle corn, Norman Thomas Designs jewelry, Farmer Al’s Peonies and Other Flowers, and Relaxing Moments which sells homemade soap including “sun-ripened raspberry” soap and also a camouflage soap for men.
Vendor booth tents line the parking lot of Old Navy in Silverdale at the farmers market on April 28.