Note: This piece was written and shot for the Murrow Rural Reporting Plunge. For more info, please see https://rural.murrowbpj.com/
ENTERPRISE, ORE. — The Wallowa County Farmers Market does two things for farmers, artisans and other small business owners from the area: promote their goods, and provide community.
About a dozen vendors — one-tenth the vendors at the Moscow Farmers Market — sold locally grown and produced food, arts, crafts and more each Saturday from May 25 in downtown Joseph, Oregon. The last farmers market of the season, which saw 31 vendors in all, is this Saturday.
For the tourist-oriented city with a population under 1,200, the farmers market is yet another attraction drawing locals and tourists alike downtown.
“People come down to the farmers market and then they hit downtown businesses, they come to downtown businesses and they see the farmers market and they come see us,” vendor Mary Welch said. “So I think we benefit each other.”
Welch runs Sugar Mama Bakery out of her Joseph, Oregon, home, just three blocks from the corner where the farmers market was held. She started the cottage food bakery in 2021 to help pay her daughter through college.
At the Oct. 5 farmers market, Welch sold lemonade, iced tea, cookies, bagels, pound cakes, pumpkin bread and salted caramel cookie bars she made in the same kitchen she uses to prepare meals for her family. This is her first year participating in the farmers market.
“Times are hard,” said Welch, who also works full-time as a phlebotomist at Wallowa Memorial Hospital. “And bringing in that extra money is really helpful.”
The farmers market has profited not just Welch, but also other vendors.
Charlotte Gowdy runs Shaw Creek Flower Farm at her home in Elgin, Oregon, about 50 miles away in neighboring Union County. She started the flower farm in 2020, two years after she and her husband bought the 160-acre property in 2018, and has participated in the farmers market since 2023.
“Most of these people are local to the area. I don’t know how many come farther than me, other than the people from Pendleton, but most people here are pretty local,” Gowdy said. “So this is a great venue for them to be able to peddle their goods.”
Gowdy said she tries to participate in all of the local markets, including the Wallowa County Farmers Market. On Oct. 5, she sold dahlias, lisianthus, snapdragons, zinnias, sunflowers and celosia despite losing many of her flowers to frost.
A lull between spring and summer flowers made Gowdy miss most of the local markets in June. Since then, she said she has appreciated the support from locals, tourists and even other vendors who buy and display her flowers at their booths.
“It’s really nice to have everybody be so friendly and open and welcoming to other vendors when you’re new coming in,” Gowdy said.
