Copperas Cove Farmer’s Market open at new location

By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press 

The Copperas Cove Farmer’s Market has moved locations to the Taste of Cove Food Truck Park at 105 W. Avenue E starting with the second First Friday of the season this past Friday afternoon. 
Vendors at Friday’s market included Nikita’s Juice; Jenx28 Art; My Greeting Card; The Stressed Out Mom; Black Rabbit Living Goods; Rissy & Co. Dog Treats; All Things Lemonade; snow cones and earrings by James Love, from the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce; and Red Thunder Ranch. 
The food truck park has four food trucks, which were all open for the First Friday, including Sporty Dogg, Hits the Spot, Bless Hands Caribbean Food, and Lil Baghdad. 
Larissa Hall and Kayla Cortes Reyes worked at the All Things Lemonade booth together Friday afternoon. 
Cortes Reyes said her favorite flavor of lemonade was raspberry vanilla. 
Hall started the lemonade stand after seeing how successful a lemonade stand was while vending with her other company, Rissy & Co. Dog Treats, at another event. 
“We just saw a lot of traffic that was going to a lemonade stand, and we can see that it was like the blue coconut with just all this blue coloring in it. And all the cherry had all the cover coloring in it,” Hall said. “I said the lemonade stand is a great idea, but I want to go like on an organic side. I want to make something a little bit cleaner, so that’s how this was born was just thought of wanting a cleaner lemonade, so we make organic syrups.”
All Things Lemonade offers bottled syrups in organic flavors such as lavender, raspberry, basil mint and matcha green tea, and non-organic flavors such as vanilla, pickle with Tajin, crushed cucumber and mint, puree strawberry, puree black cherry and watermelon. They also sell regular lemonade and specialty lemonade, featuring the syrups. 
Last month’s first First Friday was the first time that All Things Lemonade had set up at a farmer’s market, Hall said. 
She said that the farmer’s market offers vendors like herself and others a chance to share what they have to offer. 
“Right now is a time of small business, and we really need small businesses to prevail and get that attention,” Hall said. “We’ve been doing farmers markets with our other company, Rissy & Co. for two years. It’s a lot of work, and nobody really understand how much work the vendors put in to sit out here and be- you know, it’s not just something we have lying around the house, and then we come in here and just sit down and hopefully make a couple of dollars. It’s time invested and money invested and resources.” 
 Faith Barnett owns Red Thunder Ranch which offers crocheted craft items such as beanie hats, hot pads and blankets, as well as organic produce. The produce is grown with the help of her son, Nathan. 
Featured at Friday’s market were some mini bell peppers and tomatoes. They plan to have more produce at future farmer’s markets this summer, as their garden allows for. The vegetables expected to be at future markets includes yellow and green zucchini, sweet mini bell peppers, regular sized bell peppers, butternut squash, tomatoes, okra, spinach, kale, banana peppers, jalapenos, heads of lettuce, including romaine, butter leaf and spring lettuce. Other items such as watermelon will also be available later on in the summer. 
All of Barnett’s produce is grown at her home 100 percent organic, without the use of pesticides, she said. In order to better control the humidity and growing conditions, Barnett said they will use their grow tent. 
The heat and weather has affected some of the produce grown this year so far. Barnett said that she has noticed some people come to the farmer’s market looking strictly for produce, so they hope to offer more of a selection as the weeks go on. 
Barnett said that this was her and her son’s first season selling at a farmer’s market. They ended up with an abundance of lettuce earlier this year and actually gave away around 25 heads of lettuce to their neighbor for their goats. Then they found out about the farmer’s market and decided to bring their produce and Barnett’s crocheted crafts to the public. 
“I love the fact that we can do it and then we can offer it to other people because I think more people need to just be able to have organic, and those that don’t have time, we’re doing it for them, to help them out,” Barnett said. 
K’Dajah Williams, the Chamber of Commerce tourism and communications coordinator, said that the Chamber is accepting applications for vendors, especially produce vendors. The vendor fee is $25 for the Farmer’s Market season, and vendor spots at the farmer’s market are first come first serve in terms of setting up.  The change in location to the Taste of Cove Food Truck Park allows for approximately 10 to 15 vendors at one time, she said. 
The Copperas Cove Farmer’s Market is every Friday at 105 W. Avenue E, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., and the First Fridays are held the first Friday of every month from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and will feature the farmer’s market and music and other downtown businesses who choose to participate. The farmer’s market season runs from May through October 28, 2022. For more information or to fill out a vendor application, www.copperascove.com/farmers-market/.