Brrr! It’s been cold outside, and Coppell Farmers Market (CFM) farmers and food producers are still committed to fulfilling the grocery needs of area residents. Shop this Saturday to support the farmers and ranchers who are weathering the recurring hard frosts, and stock up on comforting pantry items. The Coppell Farmers Market is open year-round, 8am-noon; open on January 13th and 27th.
We checked in with farmers and ranchers to learn how this particularly cold winter is impacting their farms. The cold temps are creating extra farm work across the board. Even growers with cold-ready infrastructure, like greenhouses and indoor grow-rooms, are gearing up to protect what they can while suffering some losses. D-Bar Farm, Embry Family Farm, and Cardo’s Sprout Farm will provide the bulk of just-harvested produce this Saturday. See What’s Fresh for the breakdown.
New vendors, Delanco Farm and Bridges Heritage Growers, who aimed to sell veggies this month will push back inaugural farmers market dates to February. Delanco Farm owner Colleen Gonzalez has covered field crops with frost cloth. After the first stretch of freezing days and nights earlier this month she told us “much of the new growth was affected… [many crops] do not look very pretty”, despite the use of frost cloth. At the time she planned to reseed.
D-Bar Farm shared a similar story; owner Keith Copp said, ” Everything we covered made it, but it looks rough.”
It seems that area ranchers are doing ok. On a frosty morning earlier this month Taylor Cooper, owner of Livestock First Ranch, spotted five or six laying hens and a rooster cuddling together on a sleeping hog’s back. This winter Taylor’s freezers will be stocked with chickens that were “raised through the fall months and processed on December 12th & 21st” in his farm’s certified facility. It’s typical for area ranchers to cease production of “meat birds” during winter months because of their vulnerability to cold temperatures.
On Saturday shoppers will find beef, pork, and eggs, too. Ask Rehoboth Ranch about lamb and goat. Lucky Layla Dairy and Creamery plans to bring their signature drinkable yogurt.
The Coppell Farmers Market fulfills grocery needs year-round: open on 2nd and 4th Saturdays in January, February, and March, and weekly again in April. Producers and farmers are vetted.