EVERETT — A taste of summer will be available Sunday at the first Everett Farmers Market popup.
Around 30 vendors are signed up to sell their food and wares at the market’s inaugural monthly offseason event. The typical market season between May and October draws about three times that number of merchants selling baked goods, candles, flowers, fresh produce, meats and other products.
For a first-time event, a few dozen was plenty.
“We’re just trying to keep our customers connected to our vendors,” Everett Farmers Market co-owner Gary Purves said. “And it’s a long distance between October and May.”
The market will take over the Everett Performing Arts Center at 2710 Wetmore Ave., from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Booths and stands will be set up inside the building just a couple of blocks north of Everett Farmers Market’s summertime location along Wetmore.
After opening the 2019 season at the Port of Everett’s Boxcar Park in May, issues related to $2 parking fees prompted the owners to relocate in August.
Downtown Everett welcomed the market with ample free streetside and garage parking nearby. Between 3,000 and 5,000 people attended with an average visit of about 45 minutes, co-owner Karen Erickson said last year.
“It infused such new life into the market,” PupCakes owner Sandra Rindero said.
The family behind Stoffel Farm seized the newest opportunity to put their pork in front of passersby.
“We sell meat, and any chance we have to sell to our customers we take,” Dana Stoffel said.
The Arlington farm raises pigs, from birth to butcher. The Stoffel family still shows its pigs at area fairs.
It’s been a family business almost 40 years, Stoffel said. Now it is run by her daughter and son-in-law, Ashley and Isaiah Kombol.
People can visit the farm to buy meat. Or they can go to their stand at the weekly summer markets in Everett, which is the only one Stoffel Farm will sell its brats and several bacon varieties this year. Stoffel Farm has sold at Everett Farmers Market for more than four years.
“Everett is the best one because of the amount of people that go through it,” Stoffel said.
Another eager return vendor was Rindero, who runs PupCakes in Granite Falls. She and her mom brought their gourmet dog snacks to the Everett markets for the past three seasons.
The PupCakes booth is a regular standout because of the large red water dog bowl in front of it. Rindero will have the regular muffins and birthday cakes, with lamb, sweet potato and green peas in one recipe, as well as special Valentine’s Day doggy treats Sunday.
“We’ve enjoyed having a full six weeks off, but we’re looking forward to getting back out there again,” Rindero said.
Purves said he and Erickson picked the performing arts center because of location and space.
Another event could come in March and April, Purves said. In March, vendors would be on the plaza outside of the performing arts center, which already has a scheduled event. They’d be back inside in April, and could use the plaza if enough vendors signed up.
The official start of the weekly market is Mother’s Day, May 10, with the Wednesday market at Everett Station opening June 10.
Ben Watanabe: bwatanabe@heraldnet.com; 425-339-3037. Twitter @benwatanabe.
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