Palmiter's Peppers

Shelia and Merle Palmiter grow a huge variety of peppers-all the colors of the rainbow and all degrees of temperature from mild and sweet to hot and xxx hot. Shoppers at the Rochester Public Market are the fortunate recipients of what the Palmiters grow at Palmiter's Garden Nursery in Avon, New York.

It is also worth the drive from Rochester to visit their nursery in Avon. The nursery offers a large variety of garden plants, flowers and shrubs. The Palmiters, along with their daughter, also landscape  beautiful gardens to help one visualize how plantings can be arranged.

Generations at the Public Market 2015 calendar

The Public Market in Rochester, New York, has been open since 1905. The 2015 calendar of Generations at the Public Market celebrates the families who have been at the market for generations.

Julie Dickinson is the fifth generation in her family farming. She works closely with her father, Randy, at their farm, Glad-to-Know-Ya in Sodus.

Bob Peters first came to the market when he was a child. His grandparents were coming to the market in the early 1900s. He is the third generation farming on Peters Farm in Fairport.

The calendar features 24 vendors. While many vendors have been at the market for three or more generations, the calendar also celebrates vendors who are the second generation of their family into farming.

Upstate New York is blessed with its rich resources of water, fertile soil and mostly with many dedicated farmers. Their dedication to farming small, instead commercial farming, is fortunate for those of us who like to buy local and know the farmer who grew the produce.

I make the calendar from photographs I have taken of vendors at the public market and from the interviews I've had with the vendors.

Please contact me at mwmiyake@hotmail.com if you are interested in purchasing a calendar.

Come Out in the Cold

While many Rochester residents food shop where it is warm, some hardy souls still come to the Public Market to buy locally grown produce like potatoes, onions, carrots, parsnips, turnips, shallots, cabbage, apples. Kept in cold storage, these vegetables and fruits are available all winter long.
 



Many thanks to farmers like Brent Bushart for potatoes and apples, Wally and Carol Liese's daughter Colleen and helper Bob Cole for kale and carrots, Anita Amsler for cabbage and onions,  Carol and Kevin  Datthyn for finger potatoes and shallots, Rick Austin for eggs and locally grown beef, Alex Flowers with pussy willows and dried beans.


 

 

  
Phil Munson is raising crops like bok choy during the winter in a high tunnel. John Bolton is keeping us supplied with fresh greens grown hydroponically.







 
Several farmers have sugar bushes like Carolyn Czarnecki in Attica and Anita Amsler and Louie Bell in Walworth. When the sap starts rising, temperatures rise above freezing during the day, but drop below at night, they will be tapping their maple trees. 

Other farmers like Deana Jones and her parents Ginny and Gary Eaton are turning on the heat in their greenhouses to start germinating seeds for planting when thelast frost is over. 

Other vendors like Rick Bohme buy produce wholesale which they sell at the market year round. Even in the depth of winter, we can often find red, yellow and orange peppers, juicy oranges, hydroponically grown tomatoes and ripe bananas at the market.

Come out in the cold and see what new produce you can find at the market.