Cache County Gardeners’ Market begins Sat, May 7

Beth Pratt and her sister Sarah Emmett show one of the cakes they made for Utah State University graduation on Thursday May, 5,2022.

LOGAN – Cache County Gardeners’ Market (CCGM) is pulling out all the stops this year, bringing all their crafts and the live music to go with all of their locally-grown produce.

A Beth Pratts cake adorned with the same kind of fruit that can be found at the Cache County Gardeners’ Market.

The 2022 market will open May 7 at 9 a.m. and will end at 1 p.m. behind the Cache County Administrative building at 200 North and Main Street. The market will wrap their season up on Oct. 19.

The CCGM is not only for what a person can grow in their gardens but there are a lot of other goods that can also be found there. Beth Pratt began a successful baking business by bringing some of her non-traditional and traditional baked goods to sell.

“My husband Jacob drug me with him to the gardeners’ market about 12 years ago,” she said. “He and my dad sold these homemade knives made from tools.”

She started to bring some baked goods and it wasn’t long before those baked goods began to take over and the knives got pushed to the back.

“I finally got my own booth and sold enough things to make it a summer side job,” Pratt said. “I thought if I could sell enough cookies, I could make some good summer money.”

Pratt works as an American Sign Language interpreter for a local school district. Beth’s Bakery has become a great side hustle. She makes money during her summer vacation.

“We did carrot cake, pies and cheesecake in 2009 and it just took off,” she said. “It has become this incredible business.”

Beth Pratt’s nontraditional cupcakes adorned with candy can be found at the Cache County Gardeners’ Market after they open on Saturday, May 7, 2022.

Her sister and their daughters began to help meet the demand and now it is a family business. Beth’s Bakery is known for using fruit in their baked goods at the farmers’ market. She said it works well at a place where local growers are selling their homegrown fruits.

“I’m there every week from the beginning of May until the end of August,” she said. “Everything at CCGM is his handmade or homegrown and they have great local bands.”

There will be over 100 vendors at this year’s CCGM selling a variety of things.

“The CCGM helps the local economy and we have become friends with a lot of customers over the years,” Pratt said. “I have customers that come back every year to see me, specifically, and buy from me.”

Pratt will miss the first week of the farmers market because she has too many bakery orders for Mother’s Day.

Farmers and consumers alike benefit from fresh, healthy, locally-produced food sold at farmers markets. Farmer-to-consumer markets create economic opportunities for small family farms and increase consumer choice for accessing fresh healthy food. It also improves economic opportunities for rural food producing communities.

Beth Bakery’s crew includes her sister, Sarah Emmitt. Here they show off one of the cakes they made for Utah State University graduation on May 5, 2022.

Building connections between backyard producers translates into increased market opportunities for them and increases healthy food access for their community. However enjoyable the process of producing goods are there is still a lot of work involved.

CCGM participates in the Double Up Food Bucks program for people using food stamps.

The Double Up Food Bucks program doubles the value of federal nutrition benefits (SNAP or food stamps) spent at participating markets and grocery stores. The program helps participants bring home more healthy fruits and vegetables while supporting local farmers.

The program is in place to help low-income consumers eat more healthy food, local farmers gain new customers and make more money, and more food dollars stay in the Cache Valley.

The CCGM was organized by the Sustainable Agriculture Association of the Bear River Area, a 501-C organization which organizes the event yearly.

 

 

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I agree to these terms.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.