Tucumcari Farmers Market opens Saturday

The Tucumcari Farmers Market will ring the opening bell of its season at 10 a.m. Saturday at Wailes Park.

The market now will meet twice a week at the east-side park at South Date Street and East Tucumcari Boulevard through mid-October — from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays and from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Thursdays.

Market manager Sandra Groves said customers probably shouldn’t arrive late, as many vendors sell out of items within the first hour. Opening day typically draws hundreds of people.

Groves said the market’s opening day will have a new twist. Instead of offering free hot dogs as it has in the past, Vince Smith will bring his chuckwagon. Smith, who previously has brought his chuckwagon to Tucumcari Rawhide Days, will offer cowboy coffee and food cooked over a campfire that morning at reasonable prices, Groves said.

Groves said she has about 10 vendors signed up for this season’s market, though not all of them will be there this coming Saturday.

She said produce that should be in season on Saturday will include zucchini, yellow squash, radishes and some lettuces.

Groves said the extended drought this spring shouldn’t have affected local produce growers, as most water their plants.

Vendors also will offer pecans, bakery items and crafts.

In addition to cash, customers can make purchases through food-stamp cards electronically or with Double Up Food Bucks.

The market also is enrolled with Fresh Rx through Presbyterian Healthcare Services in Tucumcari. It allows patients who suffer from diet-related illnesses to use “prescriptions,” or incentives, to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables at local farmers’ markets.

In 2020, the Tucumcari Farmers Market was honored as the Farmers Market of the Year during the annual New Mexico Food & Farms Day and School Nutrition Day Awards in Santa Fe.