The winter market starts Sunday, 12/4/11 and the hours change to 11AM to 1PM.  The winter market will continue on the first Sunday of each month until the summer market resumes the last week in April.  Many growers now have green houses so in addition to apples, winter squash and hardy kale, you may find salad greens and spinach.  For salad greens, be sure to come early.

Folks, we have a bittersweet announcement. The October 30th market will mark the end of VAN RIPER FARM business as currently recognized.

Eight or nine years ago we set up our first table, no tent, at the Corrales' Growers’ Market hoping to sell the small surplus of vegetables we had in our petite, personal garden. No more than a dozen vendors were selling a limited amount of fresh produce, and for us it was a pleasant and successful experience! In the morning before the market we were able to pick everything we had for sale – not a big deal. So we went back the next week, and pretty soon we were making plans for a bigger garden so we would have enough produce to fill our table for the entire morning and for the entire market season. We bought a tent, added several rows to the garden, and put up a fence. Over the years we added even more rows complete with automated irrigation to the garden, bought a second table, and spent more and more hours planting, weeding and harvesting. We hired several part time workers to help cope with the growing workload. Still, gradually and innocently we arrived at our current involvement with what we call “garden/market craziness”. All day Saturday is currently devoted to picking vegetables! It has been a rewarding and challenging experience filled with successes, frustrations and surprises.

Year after year the craziness began to dictate our way of life so from time to time we discussed cutting back our involvement. As a matter of fact, 2007 was going to be our final year, but we could not find a comfortable formula to make it happen. So we ordered more seeds, plants and irrigation tape, and grew even bigger! Lucky for us, now we have met Strawberry Mollie, and she will convert our entire garden to a strawberry field. She will help us carry on the farming traditions of Corrales, selling strawberries, our asparagus, raspberries, and fruit should it survive our late frosts. We will return to our petite, personal garden and enjoy some freedom from the weekly demands we now experience.

Without your kind support and continued business we would never have been successful. You have our heartfelt gratitude. You have been good sports waiting in line, helping us keep track of the sales, promising to eat the beet greens, reading the books we suggested, not calling our sweet potatoes yams, and planting your own gardens. Most of all we will miss Sunday markets and our friendships with you. October 30th will be our last Corrales Growers’ Market as venders, but for sure you will see us shopping there in the future. Please welcome Strawberry Mollie next spring when she brings asparagus, strawberries and raspberries to the market.

Thank you again!

Martha & Richard