COOPERSBURG, Pa. — For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, a weekly farmers market returned to the borough on Sunday to connect local farmers and crafters with the wider community.
While Coopersburg held a farmers market for a few years ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, “Once COVID started, we just couldn't find a market manager,” said April Hausman, of Hausman Fruit Farm in Lower Milford Township.
"It's a place for the community to get together and enjoy what the locals have to offer. Not anything against the local grocery stores but, you know, fresh is always better.”Coopersburg Farmers Market Manager Debra Paschall
When someone posted on Facebook a year or so ago asking when the market would return, Hausman said she strongly supported the idea, but knew she couldn’t do it alone.
“I said, ‘Hey, we'd love to start it again, but we need community help,’” Hausman said.
Help came in the form of Debra Paschall, who now manages the market along with her daughter Samantha De Vico.
Paschall, who has lived in Coopersburg for about 11 years, said she took the project on as a way to give back to her adopted home.
“It's a place for the community to get together and enjoy what the locals have to offer,” she said, as well as a way to help create easy access to fresh, high-quality food.
“Not anything against the local grocery stores but, you know, fresh is always better.”
Organizers decided the Coopersburg market would be a “producer market,” with everything made or grown locally.
For example, vendors selling farmed produce such as eggs, meat and vegetables must have grown or raised their wares themselves on land within 50 miles of the borough.
“Right down to the pierogi people — they are supposed to source their potatoes locally,” Hausman said.
Local produce, local customers
Another vendor who applied to sell sauces at the market was turned away because they weren’t using locally sourced tomatoes and other ingredients, she said.
As a result, residents get local produce and the area’s farmers get more local customers.
“It's pretty, pretty interesting. It gets the community together.Cherelynn Reiss of Coopersburg
“When we heard the Coopersburg Farmers Market was coming back, we got excited about the possibility of having an outlet to really sell our stuff, because it's hard to find people to buy veggies sometimes,” said Carolyn Marotta, who with Ken Marotta owns Dreamland Farmstead.
“I mean, I know half the people hear just like from my community."
Many of Sunday’s attendees, such as Emmaus resident Tracy Hausknecht and Trumbauersville resident Katie Hausknecht, were taking the pulse of the new event.
“Katie saw the ad today for the farmers market and saw some of the cute little stands that they had, which really brought us out here today to come and see what was going on,” Tracy Hausknecht said.
“It’s very cute, great location. Needs a few more vendors.”
Diane Leister, of Center Valley, said, “I really didn't know what it was all about, what they had, so we're coming to see what they’ve got.”
Added Cherelynn Reiss, of Coopersburg: “It's pretty, pretty interesting. It gets the community together.
“I would come back. I think they should get more vendors out here.”
The farmers market will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Sunday through October along State Street, beside Coopersburg Borough Hall.
