Photo by Chris Burritt/NWO
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Spring 2022
Courtney Adams (left) and her mother, Helen Duncan, buy bouquets of flowers at the farmers market to decorate their homes. Courtney’s son, Langston, stands in the center.
As farmers return to the Colfax market, selling cool-weather vegetables and flowers now and tomatoes, corn and cantaloupes in coming months, the crowds are sure to follow By CHRIS BURRITT COLFAX – In her first visit to the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market, Lucia Estevez-Peters paid $20 for a bouquet of flowers. Wisps of white and pale purple sprouted from the paper wrap, hinting at the bounty coming later this spring and summer. “We will come back,” said David Peters, Lucia’s husband. Later in the morning, the couple bought vegetables before returning to their home in Gibsonville in eastern Guilford County. As the weather warms, vendors of pansies, tender lettuce, curled parsley and phlox are returning to the farmers market in Colfax, joining year-round shops and stands selling honey, eggs, cheese, soap and home décor. A fifth-generation farmer in
southeastern Guilford County, Michael Blake is selling produce from Georgia, Florida and California until he’s able to produce his own tomatoes, corn, squash and watermelons. “Things are locally grown and I think they are better,” said former Stokesdale Mayor John Flynt, shopping early on a recent Saturday morning in March for phlox and dianthus from Bethany Plants and Produce. Despite the chill and wind, the crowd grew steadily before noon, filling about half of the parking spaces that come summertime will be hard to find. A popular first stop is Home Grounds, a coffee shop inside of the Market Shoppes, an enclosed building. Vendors also sell from two large areas with roofs but no walls.
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