LOGAN – It’s that time of year again when approximately 2,500 people spend their Saturdays strolling the booths and vendors at the Cache Valley Gardeners Market (CVGM) located behind the Historic Cache County Courthouse at 199 North Main Street in Logan.
Beginning this Saturday, May 10, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. 125 vendors will be selling locally-raised produce, trinkets, crafts and local musicians will be providing music for those in attendance.
Jonathan Meyer mans his boot at the Cache Valley Gardeners Market during the 2024 season.
“It kind of crept up on us this year,” said Mark Cowley, President of the sponsor organization The Sustainable Agriculture Association of the Bear River Area, a non-profit organization. “It’s kind of like having a party every weekend.”
Logan’s gardeners market is a hot spot for local vendors and shoppers alike.
“This year besides our locally-grown produce, there will be face painting, crafts, clothing, soap making, and food trucks with different ethnic foods,” he said. ”I think we’ve been doing the Gardeners Market for around 40 years.”
Food trucks and other cuisine booths will be open. It may seem a little too soon for some produce people might be looking for at the market, but some growers have plastic covered tunnels and green houses and have produce ready to sell.
“It is early, but we should have asparagus, onions, lettuce, spinach and maybe some other produce available,” Cowley said. “There should be plants available for people to buy and plant, like tomato plants, squash and pepper plants.”
Jonathan Meyer hold up a bottle of the King of Sting at the 2024 Cache Valley Gardeners Market.
One of the vendors at this year’s market is a local hot sauce maker, Jonathan Meyer, of Bear River Bottlings. Meyer is a climatologist with Utah State University and spends his weekends and spare time making sauces.
“It is a hobby, and it kind of took off. It spread by word of mouth. I was kind of pushed in to doing local markets,” Meyer said. “It is a passion of mine and it’s been a lot of fun.”
With the success of his hot sauces, he has diversified into other products.
“We do hot sauces, but we have expanded into sauerkraut for Providence’s Sauerkraut Days, we have barbeque sauces, rubs and other seasoning and even our own fry sauce.”
Bear River Bottling is expanding in some commercial settings as well.
“This is our seventh year at the CVGM, and it has been a wonderful experience,” he said. “It’s more fun doing it in our own backyard. We have done a lot of markets across the country and Utah, but the atmosphere and diversity of vendors here is great.”
Meyer is the founder, and he has others working on the marketing, sales and distribution of his products.
Bear River Bottling operates out of the Bridgeland Technology College’s incubator kitchen.
Cache Valleys Gardeners Market will have a variety of fresh locally grown produce throughout the summer.
“For a business like ours using the BTC incubator kitchen has been a wonderful way to go,” Meyer said. “If you don’t have the capital to build a commercial kitchen, this is a good way to go. “
The weather forecast for Saturday is sunny so come get some vitamin D and support the locals at CVGM.