Galway farmers market to make debut June 28

PHOTOGRAPHER: Tatiana Zarnowski

Galway residents and people driving north on Friday evenings to spend the weekend at camps around the Great Sacandaga Lake will have a new place to get local produce and home-baked goodies at the end of the month.

The town’s first farmers market will open Friday, June 28, in the new pavilion at the town playing fields on Sacandaga Road, Route 147, just south of the village of Galway. It will be open from 4 to 7 p.m. every Friday until the end of September.

Nine vendors have signed on for the season: the Ross Farm, Glenville Farm, Arnold’s Farm Fresh Produce, Cliff’s Vegetables, Gramma’s Cookies 4 You, My Other Garden, Wyndbourne Bed & Breakfast, Sawmill Farms and Damrock Farms. Together, they will sell everything from heirloom vegetables and berries to flowers, muffins, candy, poultry, eggs and wooden kitchenware.

Other vendors may come as they have things to sell, said Nancy Caparulo, who is on the board of the Galway Farmers Market and owns Wyndbourne Bed & Breakfast.

Unlike some markets, which require a season-long commitment, the Galway market will rent spaces by the day if someone wants to unload a bumper crop of tomatoes or zucchini, for example. That’s a plus in an area where many people have ample gardens but may not get enough traffic to have a successful roadside stand.

“There have been times when my garden was gushing with things that I couldn’t keep up with,” Caparulo said.

Sacandaga Road gets very busy with people heading north from the Schenectady area to Galway Lake or Great Sacandaga Lake, she said.

“We actually have traffic here in the summertime,” she said.

There is ample parking and an ATM across the road, Caparulo said.

The town finished the new pavilion at the end of last year with the help of the Highway Department, former Town Board member Bill Topper’s volunteer labor and a $40,000 grant from the Dockstader Trust. The structure has 23 bays for vendors under the roof and additional room in the parking lot for vendors to set up tents.

The market committee is seeking entertainers to perform during the market. Anyone interested may email Town Board members Susan Sutch at [email protected] or Michael Tillson at [email protected]