June 17, 2025 • 59 mins
In this episode of Curry Café, Linda Stimson, manager of the Brookings Harbor Farmer’s Market, sheds light on the challenges the market faces due to county permit issues and potential rezoning that threaten its agricultural status. Despite the building’s prior approval, the county’s sudden demands, including a $1,000 fee to discuss the permit, have disrupted […]
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Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Well, hello again, KCIW
listeners, and welcome to Curry Cafe,
and happy Father's Day to all you daddies
out there.
I'm producer and volunteer Rick McNamer.
Every Sunday from three to four, your host,
Ray Gary, puts together a panel of guests
to discuss topics of interest in our community.
Listeners can participate
(00:25):
by texting in questions or comments to
(541)
661-4098.
Again, that's (541)
661-4098.
Now here's Ray to tell us about today's
show.
Well, as I say, every week, we search
every nook and cranny of the community
(00:46):
to find guests who have interesting things to
talk about. But this week, we didn't have
to search because
this guest came to us.
So I'll, turn the mic over to her,
and she can introduce herself, tell you all
about herself,
and we'll go from there.
Well, hey. Thank you guys for having me.
I really appreciate it.
(01:07):
Just a little bit about me. I've raised
sheep and chickens here. I've been here for
twenty three years.
Currently,
you know, with the economy, we're getting problems
with, prices of everything.
But I'm really here to speak about what's
going on with the farmers market. I've been
the manager of the farmers market for many
(01:28):
years.
I started selling as a vendor myself around
02/2008.
We were we started out at the Grange
Hall,
but the Grange Hall was too small
for us. That was in about, 02/2008.
Anyway, the Yoke family,
they used to vend with me because they've
grown vegetables
(01:49):
for many years. So so Sylvia Yoke and
and her husband would bring their vegetables there.
Well, when we decided that the Grain Tour
was just gonna be way too small, I
had more vendors and I had space for
customers. I mean, it was crazy.
So,
that property that we're now in
is a three acre property with a church
(02:10):
on it. And Richard said to me,
well, come down and have a look. And
I I looked at it, and the church
was just not gonna work. So he said,
no. No. No. I'm gonna buy you a
marquee tent.
And he and I set the perimeters where
it was gonna go, and it was 80
by 40. I don't know how much it
cost him,
but it was quite quite the thing.
(02:32):
And, anyway, we moved in that, and pretty
soon within a year or so, we realized
we didn't have enough room.
So he put another 40 by 40, made
it an l shape.
Which is a good thing that you had
to grow. Yeah. We were growing and growing
and always had more people. When do you
have space? When do you have space?
(02:52):
So anyway, then he finally he said he
would make he was gonna build a building.
02/02
2020
when COVID
was here. Oh, boy.
It affected a lot of stuff. It affected
the price of everything. It affected
everything. But we didn't close. We stayed open
through throughout COVID. We didn't have
(03:14):
any reason to close. In fact, I felt
like it was a safer environment than a
lot of other places.
We are talking, by the way, to the
manager of Linda Stimpson.
So the building was difficult, and Richard
York built that him with his own money.
He built it himself with one other person
(03:35):
building it, so it took a long time.
We went through the prices of timber going
up and
lumber, I should say.
Anyway, we now have this building. It's got
concrete floors, wide aisles,
people
with wheelchairs,
strollers,
walkers
come around now. It's huge. I mean, I'm
(03:55):
sure most of the listeners have been there.
If they haven't, they should. They should. I've
been there, and it's it's wonderful. Yeah. Wonderful.
Anyway,
it's a long cry from the tent for
sure.
But we finally have this wonderful building, and
we've been in that it'll be three years,
I think, this January that we've that we
finally got rid of the tent and moved
in. And it's been there's still work to
(04:17):
be done for sure.
But the
kind of fast forwarding to this mess that
we're in at the moment, the,
the fire marshal had come in to to
look over the building and,
and had put you know, few things that
she came up with, which were nothing, really.
We we took care of taking out the
heaters.
(04:37):
We took care of the the signs
so that everybody knew how to get out.
We're we're open ten hours a week in
daylight hours.
But, anyway, we have, we have these great
big doors that are open.
But the thing that she didn't like was
the extension cables.
So Richard was working on the extension cables
(04:59):
and got about halfway through the building,
doing
what she said.
And we thought we had until August to
do it.
Richard had been going through some medical issues
as well at the time, and his daughter,
took a job at TSA and was doing
training. So everybody was busy.
But, anyway, then all of a sudden, the
(05:20):
county said, no. Stop stop work. We don't
want you to do anything else because we
want you to do a new permit.
Well, back in 2014,
the building,
in the county gave him all the necessary
instructions on how to build the building, and
he had it engineered.
Everything was done according to what they wanted
(05:43):
him to do, and it's signed off. Everything
was signed off. The the fire department,
the electrical company, everybody signed off on the
building. So we're good to go.
But the new,
people that are running
the building
department in the county,
they want him to change
(06:05):
everything.
Changing the zoning, I'm not sure how they
would do that, but he's talking about
making the zoning into a commercial,
which will put our agricultural building
that's built on agricultural
land
in noncompliance.
And that one really throws me off. And
I'm sure it throws all you guys off
(06:26):
to it. But so
why would
that why would they do something like that
in a in a wonderful community
Mhmm. Farmers market?
Why do they
change the requirements after you've already been signed
off with requirements? I don't think anybody Generally,
when something like that happens, like,
(06:46):
I don't know, a building code change or
something. If you've already built and
and taken care of, your grandfather. Uh-huh.
Well,
I'd dropping a name here.
Betty Becky Crockett,
was the building
supervisor at the time,
has looked over the paperwork, and and she
says
(07:07):
it was done correctly.
So we don't know.
We're not sure. So we're currently we're looking
for an attorney. If anybody out there has
any suggestions on an attorney Yeah. We are
reaching out to the community for sure. Mhmm.
Because
it's a it's a wonderful place for the
community. Uh-huh. It it it certainly is. But
we have a red tag on the building
(07:27):
that says they were dangerous. It's a dangerous
building.
And
it's like
Wow. Wow.
So,
but we have the we have, finally got
an appeal in.
It took took a bit to get the
information to do an appeal, and it's complicated
when you when you look at all the
steps you have to take to do an
(07:48):
appeal. It's certainly not as easy as it
was for them to put a red tag
notice on the on the door.
And we're waiting to see if we can
get a hearing.
K. But we've been told when you get
a hearing, you really should
have an attorney to represent you at a
hearing. Yes. Yeah. So what are what are
the problems that they say
that there was no you say you've upgraded
(08:09):
the the electric?
Well, he was
the electric was was okay, but they didn't
like the extension cables. Okay. So, like, for
instance, if, like, I've got a 10 by
40,
and my my freezers have this long of
a cable. Mhmm. So we it has to
be plugged into an extension cable.
(08:30):
So apparently, that extension cable needed to be
changed to to one that has,
A higher rating. Like a higher rating Yes.
Or or a switch on it or something.
That's a that's a common thing at crib
shows. It's it's common everywhere in your house.
You have extension cables everywhere. You know, we
we would set up and it'd be sometimes
a 100 vendors or more than that and
(08:51):
and this cable, and then they're going into
the into the booths, and then there's all
kinds of strange stuff. I can recall putting
together stuff with duct tape. Yeah. And I
know there's drummer people in the knees. So
Well, but we had we have what we
have I mean, every every booth the booths
in the in the market are 10 by
10, and every booth has its own designated
(09:13):
two two outlets. Mhmm.
So but, you know, people say, oh, I
need a string of lights, and I need
to plug my radio in, and I need
to plug this in, and they don't all
fit in what two things. Yeah. Right. So
you're gonna have extension cables. But but he
was working on that, and and it doesn't
seem to me like that was that big
of a deal for it to to then
come and say that we were red tagged
(09:35):
dangerous building,
get out. It was basically
what they did to us on on the
weekend at Memorial weekend. I was gonna say
this came as like a big shock to
almost everybody there. Mhmm. Right?
Mhmm. And and still no explanation from the
county
No. Why exact yeah. This there's a a
(09:56):
lot of a big gray area here that
was lot not not understanding.
Wasn't the power per booth
designated before
you put the power in? I mean, you
have a cable running down that does all
the booths? No. It's all it's all, conduit,
all the way around. Right. And each and
(10:17):
it drops down to each booth.
And each set of,
duplex outlets
has its own,
switch in the Right. Yeah. In the breaker
box.
But they should have told you beforehand,
what what
what sounds like yeah. They've what they've done
is code probably, and then their problem is
(10:40):
extension cords do that. Yes. And you say
you have a couple of refrigerators?
I have, like, seven.
Oh. Oh. Well, because I could see where
that would get them upset.
Well, because well, yeah. But I have, my
my particular booth, I've got four ten foot
spaces. Mhmm. And I've got Oh, okay. Seven
refrigerator
freezers for my lamb.
(11:02):
So the you know, I'm I've got allocated
to me. I have, like, eight outlets.
So it's not like I I was short
of power. I was short of cable. Oh,
my gosh. Well, yeah. So and again, anybody
out there, I hope there's gotta be a
lot of people hopefully listening that have gone
to that farmers market, and it's a wonderful
(11:23):
place to go for a plethora of reasons.
I've got a bunch written down, but text
in, please, at (541)
661-4098.
And, also, if you could offer any assistance
to any possible
legal help
that,
that we might have. And we did
get
a text, and I'm gonna sometimes I have
(11:46):
a little trouble with these. Let me see
if I can read this one.
Okay. I this text says,
Family Mobile, we'd love to hear from you.
Please help us improve your service plan
oh, gosh.
Never mind.
Are we getting what do they call that?
Fishing or CRM? Or just You just did
(12:08):
a commercial for whoever that was. Well, hey.
If I contact you, can you send us
some legal help? We'll go from there. Okay.
Sorry about that, folks.
Well Anyway
So maybe I can
just,
go into
the the general people that we
the the public that comes into to the
market Please do. How how they are benefiting
(12:31):
You bet. From that because
this is huge, and I think people don't
realize how it is.
I've been able to take SNAP, which is
food stamp card, since 2013.
And
people come with their food stamp card and
swipe their card with
me. I have triple
(12:51):
the money that I give out. So everybody,
if they take for example, it's hard to
understand, but they take $20 out of their
card,
that's their money to spend on any food.
They get an extra $20 in protein
to spend, and they get an extra $20
in produce to spend.
Last year,
(13:11):
I took in
42,000
from Food Stamp cards
that was spent.
I took I had AllCare Health gave me
40,000,
which I spent every penny and some
to give out to people to spend on
protein.
And then I also had well, it was
(13:32):
a little more than 40,000. I didn't know
the exact amount, but that that went to
vegetables.
In addition to that,
we have there's a a thing that's given
out by WIC
that's they they mail out these $4 coupons.
The $4 coupons that go to people
for produce.
(13:52):
It's a program that runs from June till
November.
Sylvia is my my only person that can
take those
because they have, like, a special code on
them, and she she qualified
to take these coupons.
That was 13,500.
So the money
that went to people that in need Yes.
(14:13):
That we Right. We spent And there are
more these days. Yes. This is last year,
Was over a $135,000
that I that was spent in our market
for food for people that are
on low income.
Yeah.
So many benefits to the whole community. Do
do you
(14:35):
I'm I'm trying to come up with why
why are they,
coming after you for lack of a better
word. We don't know anybody. Do you in
any way
assist the homeless people? Well, I'm looking for
some reason that they're mad at this Well
at the farmers market, and that could be
a No. I think no. No? Okay. I
I've I we've we we haven't
(14:58):
That's that's not an issue at all. Yeah.
Okay. Well, go go ahead with what you
were saying. No.
But then then I that's that's what we've
the a huge amount of money. It's a
huge amount of money. And a lot of
it, I have to do paperwork
to to back all of that stuff. Yes.
Yes.
But,
anyway, the,
(15:19):
going on to vendors that are having problems
because of of what
is going on. Right. And the vendors depend
on this. Yes. I have a lot of
people for their living. Yes. I have a
lot of people that do that. And I'll
just get touch on a few. Please.
I have a a young man who, maybe
(15:39):
a lot of the community knows that's, in
a wheelchair from an accident back in 2020,
and he pretty much broke his back.
And, they had a fundraiser for him in
the park in 2021.
That money that he they raised for him,
he used that to make shalom coffee.
So that that
(16:00):
went to it's it's kind of a lot
of money to actually get a license to
do coffee beans, get them organically certified,
packaging,
roasting, all the equipment that you need. It's
quite a lot of money. But he did
that with the intention of having an income
for himself and his brothers.
Mhmm.
(16:21):
And currently,
they're not able to sell their coffee.
They can just they we are currently working,
in the parking lot.
Right. Because I keep saying, you know, with
COVID didn't shut us down. This isn't gonna
shut us down. We're gonna keep going no
matter what. But, he he has trouble doing
that. So they they come a little bit
for an hour or so and sell their
(16:42):
bag to coffee, but it's,
they're trying to come up with a way
of doing iced coffee and trying to make
that a thing that they can do. Okay.
But,
pretty pretty amazing
people.
And then I have, I don't know, a
lot of people might might know Jamie,
who started Zola's.
And Zola Zola is now it was a
(17:04):
hole in the wall when I first used
to go there. I witnessed that. I was
just there the other day, and it's a
big change. It's a big thing. Yes. Well,
Jamie wonderful place to take family and friends
when they come here. And just me. Jamie
and And the food state is good. That's
the thing I was worried about. Mhmm. Well,
Jamie and her husband started that. And, I
remember going, and they had the pizza boxes
on the wall and Mhmm. How much fun
(17:25):
it was. Well,
the Jamie,
Jamie was battling,
breast cancer.
Mhmm. And, and I did verify with her
that it was okay for me to say
this. Okay.
And that this past year, she lost her
husband and her brother.
And she is,
she is
full circle pizza at the market.
(17:47):
Yeah. And Yeah. I think it's quite quite
a fitting title that she put, and she
works really hard. That is her only income.
Oh my.
Wow. And I've
purchased a few of those full circle
pieces.
And she's she is pretty amazing, and her
her mother works with her too.
(18:07):
And then also,
what's interesting about the farmers market and, you
know, that a lot of people maybe realize
is that it's a launching pad for a
lot of businesses.
If you if you
wanna,
let's trial balloon a business, let's go to
the Farmers Market and see if my product
is
gonna work. I know some people in Fairbanks
(18:29):
who did just that.
They had things they sold at the Farmer's
market and eventually opened restaurants.
That's right. Or or or stores. Mhmm. And
and I can tell you a few that
we've helped
on that Okay. Way.
Karen, sweetly British,
I don't know if you know her.
She has she she started at the Farmer's
(18:49):
Market with a booth. Okay. And she buys
in British chocolate
and and
chocolate from other countries too. Well, then I'll
be well, I'll be eating that up pretty
soon. Okay.
Well, then she she got a little a
little shop going over there by the
by the rice bowl.
(19:09):
Oh. She opened a little place.
And then she got she got so big,
she's now in another place in the shopping
center.
Okay.
So but she started with us. And then
another one that started with us is Vince
at Whimsical Griffin.
Oh. He started with us,
(19:30):
when we were in the tent. And he
pretty soon realized he didn't have enough room.
So he's Another good problem. Yeah. I guess.
So he he's been there now for quite
a few years.
And another one that is interesting, Ophelia.
She started selling tamales
on a shoestring
(19:51):
in the in the tent,
and then she she developed,
a following. And she's now she owns and
runs La Playa,
which is down there on the boardwalk.
Oh, that place
is is awesome. Boy Uh-huh. I tell you,
I hope my doc isn't listening.
But
(20:13):
wonderful. Yeah. And she and she actually sends
her tamales down to the market, and we
still have her tamales.
But unfortunately, the girl that helps her to
sell them, she doesn't wanna be sitting outside
in a tent. Oh. So we're currently without
tamales. Oh my.
So hopefully oh, another new one. I almost
(20:35):
forgot. I have to mention this. Little Miss
Mary's Bakery.
They started with us when we had the
tent, a table outside
with, just a few baked goods. Mhmm. She
now just opened Wells Head restaurant.
That is
I used to go well, I used to
go when it was operated by somebody. That
is a wonderful one of the most beautiful
(20:57):
spots around here Mhmm. To have a meal.
Mhmm. And
that's good news for me because the other
lady shut down quite a while back. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. So so little miss Mary is, she
she plans to come back to our market
when the market opens. But she tried to
do it outside
one day, and she said, you know, it's
so dusty with the cars Yeah. In the
(21:19):
parking lot that we just we're gonna wait.
We'll wait until we're back in the building
and come back.
So at the moment, she's just we're operating
out of Welleshead, but she's she's gone from
a table with a few baked goods to
a full on breakfast, lunch, and dinner restaurant.
So good.
We we are set up now is what
(21:39):
used to be parking for customers. Right? Mhmm.
Well, partially. I mean, partially. We have we
have kind of made barricades so that the
cars can't come zooming into way. That's another
improvement that they've made.
The parking at one time I've only been
going, I think, for the past three years
maybe, but it was wonderful when I discovered
that. I've been here about six and a
half years. But the park they've got, lines
(22:02):
marked now because before it was pretty helter
skelter. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's a it's
It was almost fun.
Yeah. Almost. Like, what do you call those
bumper cars?
No. But, yeah, they've done so many improvements,
and it's Mhmm. You know,
like what you're talking about, it's not just
about the food. It's about the other vendors
that have
arts and crafts.
We have local people,
(22:24):
entertaining
there while you're shopping and having fun. Mhmm.
It's so it's such a positive for the
community that I'm still
flabbergasted
that the county
is the county is hassling
Mhmm.
For I don't know what reason. I I
maybe money. I don't know. Well, boy. Well,
(22:45):
they they want you to close down. So
does how does that benefit somebody?
It sounds like you're you've you've taken care
of all the fire
hazards and things like that. We we we
can I mean, what what what he has
to finish up with would only take him
less than a week,
But they've told him to stop doing anything
(23:06):
until they've got it ironed out? I don't
know. Because they don't they they are saying
pretty much that the,
the permit that we have is not
right.
Oh, and I, that was another little issue.
They he paid for the permit. Is that
correct? For a thousand dollars. No. No. No.
They wanted him they they said it was
(23:28):
a thousand dollars just to sit down and
talk to them
and figure out if a permit was how
they were gonna go about doing a permit.
This is the county.
But
and I thought we had emailed each other
or texted each other about this, I think.
But, yeah, the thousand dollars was for just
Yeah.
(23:48):
To look into it further Mhmm. For the
permit. Yeah. I mean That's just what I
understand. What do they call it? Double jeopardy?
I don't know. Double jeopardy. Okay. We have
a text. Well, I'm gonna look at this
Yeah. Look at it. Before I get this
again. Hold on, folks.
And remind me, if it's the only thing
I think it is, just
say no. I'm not interested.
Yeah. But anyway, yeah, it's such a like
(24:09):
I said with the the people there, it's
I've met people. I've met friends there. Uh-huh.
Oh, yeah. You know?
Just overall having a a wonderful time. And
there's so many other benefits.
All the the produce, it's nice to go
to get produce that actually tastes good,
doesn't have the little
plastic stickers
(24:30):
all over it that is
I mean, it's just such a such a
positive. And it's it's kind of a social
thing as well. Like you say, you made
friends there. It's not like walking around Freddy's
No. Something you know. Yeah. But also, another
thing, you you brought up the produce.
People there's 10 or 15 people or so
people in town
(24:51):
that like to grow things,
and they have or or they have an
orchard or they have, you know, a garden,
and they'll have an abundance. And they'll they
don't wanna sell at the market, but they
bring it down to Sylvia.
She weighs it out. She pays them for
it, and then she resells it. Oh, yeah.
So that stuff is helping it's helping
the people that are growing, giving them a
little bit of money.
(25:12):
It's helping the people that are buying because
they're buying local stuff. I mean, she gets
lemons,
Jerusalem artichokes recently.
Oh, god. You know? I saw So Yeah.
So many things. Yeah. Unique stuff that you're
not you're not gonna see in boy, I
I
there's no way, I don't think, that sounds
like conspiratorial,
(25:34):
but that the like, Freddy's and Grocery Outlet,
they wouldn't be against the farm. No. Absolutely
not. I can't imagine. But what is it
typical when you're applying for a permit
to be charged to to just to look
at the permit? Or just to look I
don't know. To look
Yeah. If that would, I don't know. I've
(25:54):
never
I've got permits to build. An application
charge.
Yeah. I think that that what they do
is,
you like, if I wanted to go to
this the county, for example, and find out
if I could
build something, and you go and you you
you have to pay a fee to go
and talk to them. They don't talk to
(26:16):
you for nothing.
Oh, that I didn't know.
I mean, I'm in California. It's a little
different, but, you know, you'd think that would
be
the way to do it there. But, no,
I wasn't aware of that. You ever heard
of that? Mhmm. Wow.
Not quite. So so somewhere, there must be
a
a a book or something in the in
(26:36):
in the county
offices,
for what requirements you need for such and
such a thing. Like, you need two by
six, two by fours in the wall, all
that,
and kinda run down the whole thing. It
doesn't seem like that would cost
a a thousand dollars. I don't think it's
that particularly, but they they want to look
(26:56):
at your
your lot and your zoning and your,
the rules for your particular area, if you're
rural residential
or if you're residential
duplex or whatever you are, and you you
go and you you you present to them
what you wanna do. But they don't do
that for nothing.
(27:17):
Okay. But they've already given you the permit
and said you were okay to to No.
I'm not saying to start to start with
it, for you to go in to to
discuss before you even do a permit, to
discuss what you want to do. Like a
consultation fee Yes. Or something. So I was
under the impression you already had it approved
and We we do. We are approved.
(27:37):
We are totally approved, and everything is was
signed off in 2014.
But the new people, it's the new whoever
the new people are that are in the
county Well, how vague.
They they want they want us to
change it.
Yeah. And I have to go back real
quick. Now has it all bit already
(27:58):
been officially rezoned as the commercial okay. So
that's in the works. They want to do
that. But yeah. But we we are currently
agricultural land
with an agricultural building
that was
approved as a farmer's market.
Boy,
are we still kinda I it looks like
(28:18):
we're the whole thing is missing. So do
you have an individual that you're dealing with,
or is there
a
Not not really. Supervisor that's Not really. Well,
so with all this crazy confusion,
I'm gonna go back to the I hope
whatever this other texter is, stop. But our
number is (541)
661-4098.
Anybody out there that knows where
(28:41):
Linda and the farmers Linda Stimpson in the
Farmers Market could get some pro bono help,
representation for a lawyer to figure out all
this crazy
stuff that's going on, please give us a
text or,
or you can even go on kciw.org
after the after the program and give us
any information you might have. Because that's what
(29:02):
we need. This this community needs to keep
this farmers market, man, in my opinion. Oh,
yeah.
Yeah. We just need to to do that,
need some help. We we do have, we
have filed an appeal,
and we're waiting for a hearing.
So we don't we don't know anymore after
that. I mean, we we've come, like, stuck,
really. Okay. Okay. So
(29:25):
that is where you're at right now, just
waiting to hear
about the when the appeal will take place.
Have Yeah. I'm not Have you tried going
to a supervisor's meeting? And
that's
been offered as another option that we could,
we could see if we could get a
meeting.
But it's kind of Well, the the
I don't know how often they meet, but
(29:45):
the supervisors meet periodically. You could go to
to one of those, and it would be
an open forum. Yeah. I I don't know.
I don't know when that would be. I
don't know. That
I don't know. That's actually a good idea.
Yeah. That's I mean Sounds like an option.
Because it it's really not something that's up
to me, personally. I mean, I'm I'm just
the manager of the people in the market
(30:07):
itself. I don't own the property. I don't
I'm not, you know, the person that
And that's doing all that. Who's the supervisor
for this area? Is is that the way
they
the supervisor's broken up to where each one
is in a certain area or what? California
night.
Elected at large?
Okay. That's what I would
(30:28):
I would start petitioning them
to see whether or not they even know
this is going on. I don't yeah. I
don't know. And as for a petition,
I do have an a petition that I'm
putting together that will be available on Wednesday,
for people to sign. Apparently, we have to
try and gather a thousand signatures.
I will be there for sure. Oh, I'm
usually there for sure anyway. Mhmm. Good. Okay.
(30:50):
Good point, Linda. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Awesome.
I hope there's somebody out there who can
who can,
Yeah.
Bring us up on this, but having to
give a thousand dollar,
fee just to have the hermit discussed. Right.
I won't mention the name, but with person
we I I am gonna contact the other
(31:11):
lady we were talking about Okay. After this
and see if she might have some ideas
because she's really, really strong at that kind
of thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What else did I have here?
I can tell you
about some of our other vendors that are
in the market Right.
(31:32):
That have thriving businesses actually.
That's pretty amazing
that,
you know, they they haven't moved on to
other pastures. They're still staying with us.
I've got a local beekeeper
who keep
all by herself, she takes care of the
bees and
collects the honey and
(31:52):
sells the honey.
Okay. And that's
the way that the bee population in this
country Yeah. Is under
great danger. Yeah. It's a tough business right
now. Yeah. Yeah. Good for her. Yeah. So
she's she's been in in business for a
while. And then I've got
Dean and Susie Brookings Pickled Goodies. I mean,
you can't even believe
(32:12):
it cost him $2,000
for a permit. Not a permit, a license
to do pickled goods because pickled anything pickled
is a little bit dangerous. You have to
you have to have certain pH levels, and
you have to have certain
anyway, they, it costs them $2,000
just to get a pickling license.
(32:34):
And then every time he does a new
recipe, like if he does
cauliflower, pickled cauliflower, pickled pickled carrots, whatever, he
has to pay another $100 and have them
test it and make sure his pH levels
are right. Wow. There's
a lot of money invested for them.
But they're currently in the in the church
building. We've we've got in the building there,
(32:56):
in the dining room, I've got, like, five
vendors that that couldn't really work on the
in the parking lot.
So they're inside. That's a good question because
yeah. The
but so they're all legal
Mhmm. In the church inside with the Yeah.
Commercial
zoning, so to speak? Well, no. The church
is on agricultural, so they're they're just inside
(33:17):
the building. There's nothing wrong with the church.
Oh, I see. Okay. But,
I don't know. Maybe they'll they'll come up
with something.
I'm not sure. That's right. I know there's
a little offshoot
of that. So I've got my my watch
repair guy in there and the honey guy
girl is in there, the pickle people. I
got a couple of people that are selling
clothing that isn't really suitable to be out
(33:39):
in the parking lot. Okay.
Well, so Linda, how about,
our silent guest just handed me a note.
Thank you. Okay. What about what about contact
info? Can people get a hold of you
or
anybody there to help out? Yeah. We have
a a a possible attorney that might help.
How would we do that? Well, my phone
(33:59):
number, and I'm happy to have anybody call
me, is (541)
661-3860.
And then I can pass that on to,
whoever
would be appropriate person. Okay. Great. Great. So
there's actually as far as the farmer's market,
there's no, like, email
site or anything like that? No. You can
(34:20):
people can also find us on Facebook.
Oh, okay. Because we got Facebook is,
Facebook,
Brookings Harbor Farmers Market.
Okay.
I've got, I don't know, about 4,000 followers
on that. So I Okay. Few people. Alright.
Yeah. Facebook. Here we go. Yeah. But but
the trouble with Facebook is there's so many
people on it. I'll post something on Facebook,
(34:41):
and then next time, five minutes later, you're,
like, disappeared
because there's so many
so many people that are posting. I don't
know. I wish I could find a better
alternative
method of getting in touch with people.
Or for for heaven's sake, just, yeah, come
by and start
participating in all the wonderful stuff that the
(35:01):
Parkland Market has. Yeah. It was funny because
the other day, you know, we had all
this stuff going on, and then all of
a sudden we get an official truck came
into the parking lot and said, you gotta
take your flags down.
Okay. That thank you for bringing that up.
What was the deal with that again?
Well, the apparently,
(35:23):
the,
they
I don't know. The roadways
own the the road and some. Right? On
the roadways. Yeah. Usually a 150 feet from
the center line. So our flags were on
that property. Right away.
Which have been there for years. Right.
And we thought, no. Somebody else targeting us,
(35:44):
you know. Wow. Sounds like it. Yeah. A
little weird. But but no. They also they
were targeting everybody up and down the 101.
It wasn't just us.
Again, I'm
what a
I'm speechless, man, that all this stuff.
The flags, that was always a a wonderful
(36:04):
sign to see. Wednesdays and Saturdays, you get
to the farmers market, it was there. Mhmm.
Colorful flags blowing in the wind.
And the,
the county wants to get rid of that?
Well, apparently,
he said,
that to somebody I don't know this I
don't know who would complain, but somebody complained
about flags in general on the highway.
(36:24):
And so he
took it upon himself to go up and
I've had my signs stolen not stolen, but
taken taken
custody of. If I've if I clapboard signs
or anything, they just come and take them.
They don't say, look here. You can't have
that sign there. They just take them. Oh,
be darned. Okay.
Okay.
There was a sign on the,
(36:47):
right side of the road if you're coming
to town that
Somebody advertising that they had coffee or something
at some point. That's a good idea to
let people know that, evidently, he's gone as
well. Yeah. I I I don't know. But
we we we've moved our flags back onto
the next door house, which is private property.
Yeah. But it doesn't give people that same
No. Oh, no. It was a I to
(37:08):
me, it was such a positive. Mhmm. Oh,
yeah. Wow. Yeah.
It's kinda funny. I I don't mean to
be too negative about the the wonderful the
humane store that's,
not too far from there, but they had
those no parking signs along there because it
was kind of hard for people to see.
Nobody pays attention to that. Right. They let
them park there, but they're gonna take sign
(37:30):
flags down. I don't know. I know. That's
well, we felt like we were being picked
on that day, but I think it wasn't
just us. It was just a good The
farmers market is definitely being picked on, it
sounds like to me. Yeah. I think I
would definitely make a complaint to the county
supervisors. Well, that is a good area.
To go to that, the board of supervisors.
Board of supervisors. Yes. Once once a month?
(37:51):
Find out when they have the meetings or
maybe I don't know. You could probably
Oh, you could Google it. Get a a
free appointment with one of them outside the
meeting either. Just go on.
Mhmm. Well, one little avenue, anyway. Yeah. Another
little open door, hopefully. I made that.
I know there had been
problems a while back with people getting building
permits that
(38:11):
weren't
really very good buildings or they weren't inspected
and things like that, but that doesn't sound
like what you have here at all. I
think our building is safe, and I feel
like it was well built. It's,
Worked for quite a while. Well As as
that was going up, I I drive by
it every day, and I don't know how
long it took to build, but I think
(38:32):
Well, it was just Richard and one guy.
Well, that's what I was thinking. Wouldn't they
have one guy built on that? Well, yeah.
Yeah. That's what I was. Because he he
did it with his own money, and he
had to it just had to take a
long time, and it was, it I was,
extremely grateful to them to do that because
That's amazing.
I don't know where else we would be.
(38:53):
Yeah.
But, but I can tell you a little
bit also about,
Richard
York and his family. I mean, when I
first met them,
they they they
they do hydrangeas, but also he had cattle.
Okay. Because they've got a 160,
I think, acres over there.
(39:14):
And, he was just his cattle were being
slaughtered, and they were they were doing
halves and quarters,
which isn't very much money when you're raising
cattle, when you're selling for 2 or $3
a pound like that
because that was just what they were doing.
Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I I have
to take my lamb USDA. I can't sell
(39:34):
individual cuts of lamb without having it properly
inspected.
K. You can sell a whole lamb, but
you can't sell bits of a lamb without
getting an inspection.
Okay.
I know. It's crazy.
But anyway, so then, now,
that what they do now is they take
their cattle to the USDA butcher, and they've
(39:55):
they've got now eight or nine freezers where
that they keep their
beef. And it's local beef that's raised right
there in the next
lot to us.
You can't get any closer. You can't get
any more local.
No. And here again, gosh, I think I've
eaten almost everything at the farmer's market, but
(40:17):
I've I've purchased a few rib eye steaks
from them. Uh-huh.
They're pretty awesome. Uh-huh.
And but but what happened was,
at the end of last year,
we had this message that was from,
eureka,
what's it called? Redwood Meats Mhmm. Going out
of business.
So Redwood Meats was our closest
(40:38):
slaughter facility. Oh. And then everybody's scrambling
because
what are you gonna do? Where are you
gonna send them? Mohawk was,
is in Eugene, and that's where I send
my sheep.
It was a five hour drive up and
a five hour drive back. Plus then you
would go get the meat.
Yeah.
So he was he was without a butcher
(40:59):
for a while, but they've opened a new
one,
Montgomery Meats in,
Central Point.
K. So he's been taking his cattle there
now. Still a waste. Wasn't that, the one
you're talking about, was that in Humboldt County?
I guess it was Eureka. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
I remember reading the local paper about that
work. Yeah. A lot of people even down
(41:20):
there, they were were are bugged out. Is
it they can't take their cow there? No.
It's I mean, there's cows everywhere. You when
you're driving, there's cows everywhere. What do you
need to do? Wow. So that was, that
was a blow. Yeah. But, you know, and
then so then, what are you doing? You're
feeding cows longer than you wanted to feed
them, and
(41:40):
you haven't got things to sell that you
wanted to sell. And it's just it was
just all these things. And it's regulations
is what it is. I think I think
that, Redwood Meats just couldn't
Couldn't keep her?
I'm not I should I think I think
he was trying to sell it, was unable
to sell it, and just just gave up.
I mean, it's it is very difficult.
(42:01):
Anything that you wanna do, you know, it's
I mean, you jump through hoops. Yeah. Yeah.
A lot a lot of hoops seem like
that have been out there for the farm
market. Mhmm. Boy.
Well, they're just like I said, almost
just about every community seems to have one.
And
I came from, Yuba City down there North
(42:22):
Of Sacramento,
and
it's,
it's flat and hot, but it's great for
a lot of produce. That was when Yuba
City first opened theirs, and it was done
by a a local rancher there.
It just it was
amazing. He he did a real good job
about setting it up and made sure not,
(42:42):
that it was all local pro produce. Mhmm.
And if it was organic and he just
did a wonderful job, and it really was
the best one of the best things about
Yuba City Uh-huh. I always thought. Yeah. Yeah.
It's difficult. And it's difficult here because we
have we don't have the best growing conditions.
True. Okay. Yeah. But,
(43:03):
now at one time,
Sweet Kron Yeah. Used to have a little
booth there, but they I guess they don't
come there anymore. Well, yeah. They,
they're getting older
and Okay. Aren't we all? Yeah. But,
but,
Linda Linda Nelson is the wife, and she
was very ill for a couple of years.
(43:24):
Okay. They didn't have any help.
Okay. It's a small little outfit because every
time I go in Grants Passer Bedford, I
swing in there because there's always good stuff.
Yeah. And she's doing she's doing some. I've
seen posts for her, but it's it's tough
to come
to load up if you haven't got much.
Oh, I remember seeing yeah. Yeah. I I
talked to them when I when they were
there about, you know, coming down. It's a
(43:46):
it's quite a little trek. Yeah. Good drive.
But, yeah, it is.
Well But that's another thing, like you said,
maybe we're not this particular area, but we
still service other communities, outline communities like that.
Right. And I think at one time, I
bought some, apples there that were from somewhere
out of,
in the foothills above Grants Path. My point
(44:06):
is they're Mhmm. They might not be local
here, but they're
not too far away.
We're we're helping those people too. Well, yesterday,
I had,
I had, the
the Czech Co. Blueberries were vending at the
market. Oh, I I saw. They had they
had the most amazing
blueberries, and they'll be here ever she's gonna
(44:27):
try and come every weekend until their blueberries
are just not producing anymore. Yeah.
I've got a I've got a couple more,
people that are growing,
will be there in the summer
as as, you know, as we get a
little bit further into the summer.
But it it is difficult. I mean, like,
they had this really nice farmer's market in
Crescent City
(44:48):
that was in the parking lot at the
fairgrounds.
I remember. Yes. And I I had never
been is is that still going on? No.
They they they
they they moved it to be on Front
Street by the ocean k. Where it's windy.
Yes. Very cold. Very cold. Very cold. Place.
Yeah. And the person who was running it
decided to change it into a California
(45:08):
certified
market, which put Kron
couldn't be there because they're
They just have easy ups set up on
the in the parking lot on Yeah.
So I I think it's mostly a craft
a craft thing now. I don't think it's
Yeah. And it used to be so great
when it was at the It it fairgrounds.
(45:29):
The fairgrounds would be perfect for that. Yeah.
Yeah. But they don't they don't run it
out. That doesn't make sense there either, does
it? No. But I think it was, something
to do with, the way they stopped cars
coming in, and they didn't want like this,
and they didn't like that. And then they
ended up
changing the manager and Okay.
Yeah. You know, I do have my little
(45:50):
quirky funny story, if you wanna call it
that. It's when I first came I moved
here in, like I said, about six and
a half years ago. And coming down on
the U Haul and
passing for the first time, I I was
in the U Haul. My buddy was driving
my car behind me, and I saw the
sign, sweet Kron. Uh-huh. And we pulled up
Everybody thinks well, okay. And I pull up
(46:10):
I said, boy, a bunch of hillbillies up
here. That's how you spell court. Anyway In
fact, you know you know, on the and
and
in your cell phone every now and then,
you get the the thing a list of
funny signs.
Oh, yes. I've seen that in there more
than once.
Anyway, I was wrong, and,
I it's a great little place. It's it's
fact the first time when I came back
through going to Gramps Pass one day and
(46:32):
I pulled in there, and they have the
the you pull in and about three or
four dogs at the time would come and
reach you, and I just I love that
stuff. Maybe some people don't like it, but
I do. Yeah. She she had a thing
about how that sign came about. I don't
know if you know how that I don't.
They hired somebody to paint
sweet corn.
(46:52):
Okay. And he spelt it wrong. Oh, well,
there's that. Right? And so instead of saying,
take it down, do it again, they said,
oh, leave it.
I probably I always thought that was their
name. No. Their name's Nelson.
That's cool. Yeah. Okay. That was a bad
speller.
Well, you know, sometimes you're concentrating on on
the letters. Yeah. I guess But it was
(47:14):
artistically
done properly.
But it's not about spelling. It's about the
good fresh produce, man. And they have that
and so do the farmers so does the
farmers' market. Mhmm. Yeah. We do. We're not
and like I say, COVID didn't close us.
We're not gonna close. So Yeah. Yeah.
Well, again, work in progress, and, hopefully, somebody
(47:35):
out there that does have some info.
Again, the text line here, (541)
661-4098.
And we could,
certainly use anybody's help that's that's out there
that might know an attorney or somebody that
want to to do the work pro bono
or
to
even not, somebody that could help the Farmers
(47:56):
Market. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And if, if anybody's around
on Wednesday and Saturday, I don't know how
long it'll take me to get a thousand
signatures, but
we'll have our petition ready.
Well, I know I'll be there. There's one
signature.
Wow. What what exactly is the petition for?
It's she wrote up a whole thing. Jessica
(48:17):
York, who's,
Richard's daughter, she wrote up a whole thing
about, you know, keeping the market open and
we support the market, you know, kind of
thing. Yeah.
God, the local paper should, have something about
that too. That should our
two minute thing
that we do on one set. Soapbox. Just
soapbox. Hello.
(48:39):
Yeah. We have a a soapbox that we,
every Wednesday, we open the studio from two
to three.
And anybody out there that has anything they
wanna talk about, complain about, sing a song,
whatever, you can come in, two minutes of
airtime.
I'm well, I'm gonna work one up now
for that, and we'll put it out on
the air as a soapbox.
Okay. So That sounds good. You bet. Okay.
(49:01):
You bet we'll do that for sure Wednesday.
And when do you have to have the
petition
submitted by? I don't know. I don't know
that. And you're gonna be pretty much doing
it, I guess, exclusively at the Farmers Bank
or no? I'm not sure. I thought I
would, gonna leave here and go and get
some clipboards,
and I thought I'd get, like, maybe four
or five. And we'll put the signature papers
(49:22):
on them, and
I can give them around.
I'm sorry. And the market go ahead, Ray.
Make sure you follow the rules exactly.
Yeah.
I I don't remember what they are, but
you have, you know, have to verify this
and that and everything. Right. Yeah. I've I've
got that in Jessica's hands. Yeah.
And, again, the market opens it well, I
(49:43):
I'm usually there by 09:30 and people are
already selling, but officially ten. Officially
ten till three. But Officially. Yeah. I've got
people that come in really early Yeah.
And buy stuff because there's some people that
don't like the crowds. I was like Well,
yeah. I don't think you moved here because
you like crowds. So
(50:04):
Right.
Yeah. Well, like I said, man. Yeah. Wednesday,
10AM.
Be there to sign the petition and enjoy
all the good the good stuff that's there.
And, again, there's just so many
benefits,
a lot we've already talked about, but it,
it does enhance the community,
brings kind of the community together. Uh-huh. Keeps
(50:25):
the money here. Yes. Keeps the money here.
Yeah. And that's one of my my things.
I mean, I don't know if this is,
an appropriate opinion. But, you know, they have
all these big events in town
all summer.
Yeah. And and they charge a lot of
money, and the vendors come from out of
town
bringing their stuff. And all those vendors that
you see
(50:45):
at the port, most of them anyway, and
the ones that at that by the bank,
you know, by Goodwill, they have all those
vendors now. Oh, yeah. Right. Right. They're out
of town vendors, and they so our tourists
come here and spend their money,
and those vendors take our tourist money
out.
Well, another little nuance that, you can put
(51:05):
in there.
I had
well, again, just
and there's also on all the local produce,
they
there's a benefit of
I'll go even to climate change. It might
be a big jump for some, but there's
less transport transporting the Oh, I would do
(51:26):
that. To and from. That's right. I'm gonna
hit the my little bugaboo is these stupid
little plastic stickers that I hate. I try
that's that's very environmentally damaging,
those things.
You're not gonna see that at a farmer's
market. Right. That's for sure. And people bring
their baskets.
They bring their their their shopping baskets. They
don't. Oh oh, and I do that too.
(51:48):
I feel like the little not
fairy tale, but lady that just get a
task at whatever. I bring my basket too.
Yeah. Because I'm proud of that. People,
people like to shop, you know,
minimally. I mean, why why
Yes. Not to roll out the 100
plastic bags Yes. Get everything. Yeah.
(52:10):
Now that you mentioned that, I, ordered some
fabric bags,
lace fabric bags from Amazon to do that,
put your apples in and all that. I
accidentally ordered two, so I'll bring one in
for you. I will accept that. It's about
15 bags in each one, different size. Okay.
K.
But I I've I'd if for some reason
(52:32):
or other, I don't have them, I literally
won't buy apples that day or anything. This
is Okay.
Okay. Goes against my grain. It'll like I
say, pull those stupid plastic bags off.
Well, again, yeah, it's just,
nothing I can't there's no there's no negatives
about the farmers market. To me, it's all
positive. Mhmm.
(52:53):
Mhmm. So and we're down to about
five minutes. So, please, again, if anybody knows
any way that you can help the Linda
Stimpson and the Farmers Market,
give us a well, go on the website.
We're almost out of time, but I'll give
the text number number one more time. Maybe
there's one lone voice waiting.
(53:13):
(541)
661-4098
or kciw.org.
And,
and then you can come in if you
have any ideas. You can come into the
station and,
want to be a guest on this show
to talk more about it,
to offer any help.
We'll we'll certainly do that.
(53:35):
Or as long as you're saying that, if
you sign if you have something you want
to discuss on this program, we're open to
Oh, you bet. Those suggestions too if you're
out there and you have Yeah. Something you
need to talk about. Yeah.
Well, I really appreciate you,
Oh, Linda, we're glad to glad to have
you. Like I said, it's a big deal
(53:55):
for for me, I know, and most everybody
else. There's that place is always crowded, which
is a good thing.
Uh-huh.
Yeah. You know?
Yeah. It's, it's definitely,
grown exponentially
since we were four people at the Grange.
And actually,
another person that, I didn't mention was Kathleen
(54:17):
Dixon. She started the farmers market right at
the very beginning.
Oh, I And she had you know, she
decided that she want to go a different
direction. And she now she does
delivery
of local
produce, otter bees.
Otter bees. That's right. Uh-huh. Yeah. The odd
(54:37):
odd thing is she they seem to be
coming at you aggressively.
Not not
not in a friendly manner at all. Right.
Very strange. Well and, yeah, like I said,
it's,
has anybody actually tried to go directly? Oh,
yeah. Yeah. I think you mentioned that. To
to talk to them directly. Hey. What what's
(54:59):
going on? Why is this really happening? Yeah.
Richard and Jessica went up to the county
and, wanted to know how to do the
the the,
appeal.
And, they were told, no. You can't do
an appeal. You've,
ex extended your time.
But he proved to them that he had
sent an email requesting
(55:20):
this appeal
Okay.
Within the time, but they didn't get back
to him.
If if I were you, I would contact
some of the county supervisor.
Well, hopefully not. Either either at one of
their open meetings. You know, you just go
there and you
you you put on there that you wanna
speak, and they don't know what you want.
But you have an agenda. Right? Agenda. Yeah.
Get on the agenda and
(55:42):
plead your case. They
probably have a five minute limit or something.
Either that or I would just go and
knock on their door or however it is
you get to talk to a counselor.
Bang on the door. Yeah. Well, yes.
I was I was being Bang on the
door like in banging on your guys' door
for Yeah. I don't know if they're in
their office all day or what the what
the story is, but get a hold of
(56:03):
one of them somehow. Yeah. It's very difficult
because a lot of these places,
they only work four day work weeks. Yeah.
Four day work. Yeah.
So Fridays, you can't get a hold of
anybody.
Right.
But they can sure get a hold of
you if they wanted to discuss I wouldn't
do it by letter, and I wouldn't do
it by phone. I would go and actually
speak to them in person sitting across from
(56:24):
their desk.
That's where you get the best results. Okay.
Okay.
Well, Linda, I tell you, I I'm I'm
glad you,
came to our show today and discussed all
these issues, and
I'm still out there.
People come by the Farmers' Market,
Wednesdays and Saturdays, and especially this Wednesday.
(56:45):
Will that be the only day they have
the petition? I'll have it until we get
enough signatures. Oh oh oh, good. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, like I said, I know I'll be
there for sure.
Yeah. If you could
I think they've started having the Sunday concerts
again, haven't they? Yeah. I believe so. Get
some of your people to circulate with the
Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. And
(57:07):
they could probably
I would imagine the concert would make an
announcement.
We're gonna be coming through a petition soon.
I guess they would. I don't know. Mhmm.
Okay. Yeah. I know. I I've is it
Dave that runs that now? I don't know
what that was. I just went out there.
Scott ran it. The The concert? Yeah. Park?
Yeah.
Oh, Scott. We could get that info.
(57:28):
Yeah. I have to make that make an
announcement a couple times. There'd be people coming
through with, and give a little talk about
why they wanna do that. Yeah. Good idea.
Well because you're gonna need
to get signatures any way you can, not
just people coming into the market. Yes. Well,
I I I would certainly bet the amount
of people that I see at the farmers
market all the time. It wouldn't surprise me
(57:50):
that you get all that you need
pretty quick. The first hour. There you go.
Have you have you ever done a count
or have any way of No. How many
people come in there a day? It's very
difficult because I've got three different doors in
and Yeah.
Some people drive by and take a look.
And and some people Yeah. I know. Some
people come in and they fill that basket
with one vendor, and then they go out
(58:10):
to their car and then they come back
with that empty basket and fill it with
another You bet. Vendor. Yeah.
Yeah. And people bring their coolers with them,
and
it's it's
it's a pretty big deal. It is a
big deal.
Looks like we're about ready to sign off
here,
y'all. Well, thank you very much, Linda. Hope
to have you back maybe
(58:32):
with a better story next time. News. Yeah.
Great. And we will put together a spot
on on Wednesday. Yes. We will have our
mailbox.
We'll be plugging that. Appreciate it. Thank you
all. Thanks for listening. You bet. KCIW
one hundred point seven, beautiful Brookings, Oregon.
Well, hello again, KCIW
listeners, and welcome to Curry Cafe,
and happy Father's Day to all you daddies
out there.
I'm producer and volunteer Rick McNamer.
Every Sunday from three to four, your host,
Ray Gary, puts together a panel of guests
to discuss topics of interest in our community.
Listeners can participate
(00:25):
by texting in questions or comments to
(541)
661-4098.
Again, that's (541)
661-4098.
Now here's Ray to tell us about today's
show.
Well, as I say, every week, we search
every nook and cranny of the community
(00:46):
to find guests who have interesting things to
talk about. But this week, we didn't have
to search because
this guest came to us.
So I'll, turn the mic over to her,
and she can introduce herself, tell you all
about herself,
and we'll go from there.
Well, hey. Thank you guys for having me.
I really appreciate it.
(01:07):
Just a little bit about me. I've raised
sheep and chickens here. I've been here for
twenty three years.
Currently,
you know, with the economy, we're getting problems
with, prices of everything.
But I'm really here to speak about what's
going on with the farmers market. I've been
the manager of the farmers market for many
(01:28):
years.
I started selling as a vendor myself around
02/2008.
We were we started out at the Grange
Hall,
but the Grange Hall was too small
for us. That was in about, 02/2008.
Anyway, the Yoke family,
they used to vend with me because they've
grown vegetables
(01:49):
for many years. So so Sylvia Yoke and
and her husband would bring their vegetables there.
Well, when we decided that the Grain Tour
was just gonna be way too small, I
had more vendors and I had space for
customers. I mean, it was crazy.
So,
that property that we're now in
is a three acre property with a church
(02:10):
on it. And Richard said to me,
well, come down and have a look. And
I I looked at it, and the church
was just not gonna work. So he said,
no. No. No. I'm gonna buy you a
marquee tent.
And he and I set the perimeters where
it was gonna go, and it was 80
by 40. I don't know how much it
cost him,
but it was quite quite the thing.
(02:32):
And, anyway, we moved in that, and pretty
soon within a year or so, we realized
we didn't have enough room.
So he put another 40 by 40, made
it an l shape.
Which is a good thing that you had
to grow. Yeah. We were growing and growing
and always had more people. When do you
have space? When do you have space?
(02:52):
So anyway, then he finally he said he
would make he was gonna build a building.
02/02
2020
when COVID
was here. Oh, boy.
It affected a lot of stuff. It affected
the price of everything. It affected
everything. But we didn't close. We stayed open
through throughout COVID. We didn't have
(03:14):
any reason to close. In fact, I felt
like it was a safer environment than a
lot of other places.
We are talking, by the way, to the
manager of Linda Stimpson.
So the building was difficult, and Richard
York built that him with his own money.
He built it himself with one other person
(03:35):
building it, so it took a long time.
We went through the prices of timber going
up and
lumber, I should say.
Anyway, we now have this building. It's got
concrete floors, wide aisles,
people
with wheelchairs,
strollers,
walkers
come around now. It's huge. I mean, I'm
(03:55):
sure most of the listeners have been there.
If they haven't, they should. They should. I've
been there, and it's it's wonderful. Yeah. Wonderful.
Anyway,
it's a long cry from the tent for
sure.
But we finally have this wonderful building, and
we've been in that it'll be three years,
I think, this January that we've that we
finally got rid of the tent and moved
in. And it's been there's still work to
(04:17):
be done for sure.
But the
kind of fast forwarding to this mess that
we're in at the moment, the,
the fire marshal had come in to to
look over the building and,
and had put you know, few things that
she came up with, which were nothing, really.
We we took care of taking out the
heaters.
(04:37):
We took care of the the signs
so that everybody knew how to get out.
We're we're open ten hours a week in
daylight hours.
But, anyway, we have, we have these great
big doors that are open.
But the thing that she didn't like was
the extension cables.
So Richard was working on the extension cables
(04:59):
and got about halfway through the building,
doing
what she said.
And we thought we had until August to
do it.
Richard had been going through some medical issues
as well at the time, and his daughter,
took a job at TSA and was doing
training. So everybody was busy.
But, anyway, then all of a sudden, the
(05:20):
county said, no. Stop stop work. We don't
want you to do anything else because we
want you to do a new permit.
Well, back in 2014,
the building,
in the county gave him all the necessary
instructions on how to build the building, and
he had it engineered.
Everything was done according to what they wanted
(05:43):
him to do, and it's signed off. Everything
was signed off. The the fire department,
the electrical company, everybody signed off on the
building. So we're good to go.
But the new,
people that are running
the building
department in the county,
they want him to change
(06:05):
everything.
Changing the zoning, I'm not sure how they
would do that, but he's talking about
making the zoning into a commercial,
which will put our agricultural building
that's built on agricultural
land
in noncompliance.
And that one really throws me off. And
I'm sure it throws all you guys off
(06:26):
to it. But so
why would
that why would they do something like that
in a in a wonderful community
Mhmm. Farmers market?
Why do they
change the requirements after you've already been signed
off with requirements? I don't think anybody Generally,
when something like that happens, like,
(06:46):
I don't know, a building code change or
something. If you've already built and
and taken care of, your grandfather. Uh-huh.
Well,
I'd dropping a name here.
Betty Becky Crockett,
was the building
supervisor at the time,
has looked over the paperwork, and and she
says
(07:07):
it was done correctly.
So we don't know.
We're not sure. So we're currently we're looking
for an attorney. If anybody out there has
any suggestions on an attorney Yeah. We are
reaching out to the community for sure. Mhmm.
Because
it's a it's a wonderful place for the
community. Uh-huh. It it it certainly is. But
we have a red tag on the building
(07:27):
that says they were dangerous. It's a dangerous
building.
And
it's like
Wow. Wow.
So,
but we have the we have, finally got
an appeal in.
It took took a bit to get the
information to do an appeal, and it's complicated
when you when you look at all the
steps you have to take to do an
(07:48):
appeal. It's certainly not as easy as it
was for them to put a red tag
notice on the on the door.
And we're waiting to see if we can
get a hearing.
K. But we've been told when you get
a hearing, you really should
have an attorney to represent you at a
hearing. Yes. Yeah. So what are what are
the problems that they say
that there was no you say you've upgraded
(08:09):
the the electric?
Well, he was
the electric was was okay, but they didn't
like the extension cables. Okay. So, like, for
instance, if, like, I've got a 10 by
40,
and my my freezers have this long of
a cable. Mhmm. So we it has to
be plugged into an extension cable.
(08:30):
So apparently, that extension cable needed to be
changed to to one that has,
A higher rating. Like a higher rating Yes.
Or or a switch on it or something.
That's a that's a common thing at crib
shows. It's it's common everywhere in your house.
You have extension cables everywhere. You know, we
we would set up and it'd be sometimes
a 100 vendors or more than that and
(08:51):
and this cable, and then they're going into
the into the booths, and then there's all
kinds of strange stuff. I can recall putting
together stuff with duct tape. Yeah. And I
know there's drummer people in the knees. So
Well, but we had we have what we
have I mean, every every booth the booths
in the in the market are 10 by
10, and every booth has its own designated
(09:13):
two two outlets. Mhmm.
So but, you know, people say, oh, I
need a string of lights, and I need
to plug my radio in, and I need
to plug this in, and they don't all
fit in what two things. Yeah. Right. So
you're gonna have extension cables. But but he
was working on that, and and it doesn't
seem to me like that was that big
of a deal for it to to then
come and say that we were red tagged
(09:35):
dangerous building,
get out. It was basically
what they did to us on on the
weekend at Memorial weekend. I was gonna say
this came as like a big shock to
almost everybody there. Mhmm. Right?
Mhmm. And and still no explanation from the
county
No. Why exact yeah. This there's a a
(09:56):
lot of a big gray area here that
was lot not not understanding.
Wasn't the power per booth
designated before
you put the power in? I mean, you
have a cable running down that does all
the booths? No. It's all it's all, conduit,
all the way around. Right. And each and
(10:17):
it drops down to each booth.
And each set of,
duplex outlets
has its own,
switch in the Right. Yeah. In the breaker
box.
But they should have told you beforehand,
what what
what sounds like yeah. They've what they've done
is code probably, and then their problem is
(10:40):
extension cords do that. Yes. And you say
you have a couple of refrigerators?
I have, like, seven.
Oh. Oh. Well, because I could see where
that would get them upset.
Well, because well, yeah. But I have, my
my particular booth, I've got four ten foot
spaces. Mhmm. And I've got Oh, okay. Seven
refrigerator
freezers for my lamb.
(11:02):
So the you know, I'm I've got allocated
to me. I have, like, eight outlets.
So it's not like I I was short
of power. I was short of cable. Oh,
my gosh. Well, yeah. So and again, anybody
out there, I hope there's gotta be a
lot of people hopefully listening that have gone
to that farmers market, and it's a wonderful
(11:23):
place to go for a plethora of reasons.
I've got a bunch written down, but text
in, please, at (541)
661-4098.
And, also, if you could offer any assistance
to any possible
legal help
that,
that we might have. And we did
get
a text, and I'm gonna sometimes I have
(11:46):
a little trouble with these. Let me see
if I can read this one.
Okay. I this text says,
Family Mobile, we'd love to hear from you.
Please help us improve your service plan
oh, gosh.
Never mind.
Are we getting what do they call that?
Fishing or CRM? Or just You just did
(12:08):
a commercial for whoever that was. Well, hey.
If I contact you, can you send us
some legal help? We'll go from there. Okay.
Sorry about that, folks.
Well Anyway
So maybe I can
just,
go into
the the general people that we
the the public that comes into to the
market Please do. How how they are benefiting
(12:31):
You bet. From that because
this is huge, and I think people don't
realize how it is.
I've been able to take SNAP, which is
food stamp card, since 2013.
And
people come with their food stamp card and
swipe their card with
me. I have triple
(12:51):
the money that I give out. So everybody,
if they take for example, it's hard to
understand, but they take $20 out of their
card,
that's their money to spend on any food.
They get an extra $20 in protein
to spend, and they get an extra $20
in produce to spend.
Last year,
(13:11):
I took in
42,000
from Food Stamp cards
that was spent.
I took I had AllCare Health gave me
40,000,
which I spent every penny and some
to give out to people to spend on
protein.
And then I also had well, it was
(13:32):
a little more than 40,000. I didn't know
the exact amount, but that that went to
vegetables.
In addition to that,
we have there's a a thing that's given
out by WIC
that's they they mail out these $4 coupons.
The $4 coupons that go to people
for produce.
(13:52):
It's a program that runs from June till
November.
Sylvia is my my only person that can
take those
because they have, like, a special code on
them, and she she qualified
to take these coupons.
That was 13,500.
So the money
that went to people that in need Yes.
(14:13):
That we Right. We spent And there are
more these days. Yes. This is last year,
Was over a $135,000
that I that was spent in our market
for food for people that are
on low income.
Yeah.
So many benefits to the whole community. Do
do you
(14:35):
I'm I'm trying to come up with why
why are they,
coming after you for lack of a better
word. We don't know anybody. Do you in
any way
assist the homeless people? Well, I'm looking for
some reason that they're mad at this Well
at the farmers market, and that could be
a No. I think no. No? Okay. I
I've I we've we we haven't
(14:58):
That's that's not an issue at all. Yeah.
Okay. Well, go go ahead with what you
were saying. No.
But then then I that's that's what we've
the a huge amount of money. It's a
huge amount of money. And a lot of
it, I have to do paperwork
to to back all of that stuff. Yes.
Yes.
But,
anyway, the,
(15:19):
going on to vendors that are having problems
because of of what
is going on. Right. And the vendors depend
on this. Yes. I have a lot of
people for their living. Yes. I have a
lot of people that do that. And I'll
just get touch on a few. Please.
I have a a young man who, maybe
(15:39):
a lot of the community knows that's, in
a wheelchair from an accident back in 2020,
and he pretty much broke his back.
And, they had a fundraiser for him in
the park in 2021.
That money that he they raised for him,
he used that to make shalom coffee.
So that that
(16:00):
went to it's it's kind of a lot
of money to actually get a license to
do coffee beans, get them organically certified,
packaging,
roasting, all the equipment that you need. It's
quite a lot of money. But he did
that with the intention of having an income
for himself and his brothers.
Mhmm.
(16:21):
And currently,
they're not able to sell their coffee.
They can just they we are currently working,
in the parking lot.
Right. Because I keep saying, you know, with
COVID didn't shut us down. This isn't gonna
shut us down. We're gonna keep going no
matter what. But, he he has trouble doing
that. So they they come a little bit
for an hour or so and sell their
(16:42):
bag to coffee, but it's,
they're trying to come up with a way
of doing iced coffee and trying to make
that a thing that they can do. Okay.
But,
pretty pretty amazing
people.
And then I have, I don't know, a
lot of people might might know Jamie,
who started Zola's.
And Zola Zola is now it was a
(17:04):
hole in the wall when I first used
to go there. I witnessed that. I was
just there the other day, and it's a
big change. It's a big thing. Yes. Well,
Jamie wonderful place to take family and friends
when they come here. And just me. Jamie
and And the food state is good. That's
the thing I was worried about. Mhmm. Well,
Jamie and her husband started that. And, I
remember going, and they had the pizza boxes
on the wall and Mhmm. How much fun
(17:25):
it was. Well,
the Jamie,
Jamie was battling,
breast cancer.
Mhmm. And, and I did verify with her
that it was okay for me to say
this. Okay.
And that this past year, she lost her
husband and her brother.
And she is,
she is
full circle pizza at the market.
(17:47):
Yeah. And Yeah. I think it's quite quite
a fitting title that she put, and she
works really hard. That is her only income.
Oh my.
Wow. And I've
purchased a few of those full circle
pieces.
And she's she is pretty amazing, and her
her mother works with her too.
(18:07):
And then also,
what's interesting about the farmers market and, you
know, that a lot of people maybe realize
is that it's a launching pad for a
lot of businesses.
If you if you
wanna,
let's trial balloon a business, let's go to
the Farmers Market and see if my product
is
gonna work. I know some people in Fairbanks
(18:29):
who did just that.
They had things they sold at the Farmer's
market and eventually opened restaurants.
That's right. Or or or stores. Mhmm. And
and I can tell you a few that
we've helped
on that Okay. Way.
Karen, sweetly British,
I don't know if you know her.
She has she she started at the Farmer's
(18:49):
Market with a booth. Okay. And she buys
in British chocolate
and and
chocolate from other countries too. Well, then I'll
be well, I'll be eating that up pretty
soon. Okay.
Well, then she she got a little a
little shop going over there by the
by the rice bowl.
(19:09):
Oh. She opened a little place.
And then she got she got so big,
she's now in another place in the shopping
center.
Okay.
So but she started with us. And then
another one that started with us is Vince
at Whimsical Griffin.
Oh. He started with us,
(19:30):
when we were in the tent. And he
pretty soon realized he didn't have enough room.
So he's Another good problem. Yeah. I guess.
So he he's been there now for quite
a few years.
And another one that is interesting, Ophelia.
She started selling tamales
on a shoestring
(19:51):
in the in the tent,
and then she she developed,
a following. And she's now she owns and
runs La Playa,
which is down there on the boardwalk.
Oh, that place
is is awesome. Boy Uh-huh. I tell you,
I hope my doc isn't listening.
But
(20:13):
wonderful. Yeah. And she and she actually sends
her tamales down to the market, and we
still have her tamales.
But unfortunately, the girl that helps her to
sell them, she doesn't wanna be sitting outside
in a tent. Oh. So we're currently without
tamales. Oh my.
So hopefully oh, another new one. I almost
(20:35):
forgot. I have to mention this. Little Miss
Mary's Bakery.
They started with us when we had the
tent, a table outside
with, just a few baked goods. Mhmm. She
now just opened Wells Head restaurant.
That is
I used to go well, I used to
go when it was operated by somebody. That
is a wonderful one of the most beautiful
(20:57):
spots around here Mhmm. To have a meal.
Mhmm. And
that's good news for me because the other
lady shut down quite a while back. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. So so little miss Mary is, she
she plans to come back to our market
when the market opens. But she tried to
do it outside
one day, and she said, you know, it's
so dusty with the cars Yeah. In the
(21:19):
parking lot that we just we're gonna wait.
We'll wait until we're back in the building
and come back.
So at the moment, she's just we're operating
out of Welleshead, but she's she's gone from
a table with a few baked goods to
a full on breakfast, lunch, and dinner restaurant.
So good.
We we are set up now is what
(21:39):
used to be parking for customers. Right? Mhmm.
Well, partially. I mean, partially. We have we
have kind of made barricades so that the
cars can't come zooming into way. That's another
improvement that they've made.
The parking at one time I've only been
going, I think, for the past three years
maybe, but it was wonderful when I discovered
that. I've been here about six and a
half years. But the park they've got, lines
(22:02):
marked now because before it was pretty helter
skelter. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's a it's
It was almost fun.
Yeah. Almost. Like, what do you call those
bumper cars?
No. But, yeah, they've done so many improvements,
and it's Mhmm. You know,
like what you're talking about, it's not just
about the food. It's about the other vendors
that have
arts and crafts.
We have local people,
(22:24):
entertaining
there while you're shopping and having fun. Mhmm.
It's so it's such a positive for the
community that I'm still
flabbergasted
that the county
is the county is hassling
Mhmm.
For I don't know what reason. I I
maybe money. I don't know. Well, boy. Well,
(22:45):
they they want you to close down. So
does how does that benefit somebody?
It sounds like you're you've you've taken care
of all the fire
hazards and things like that. We we we
can I mean, what what what he has
to finish up with would only take him
less than a week,
But they've told him to stop doing anything
(23:06):
until they've got it ironed out? I don't
know. Because they don't they they are saying
pretty much that the,
the permit that we have is not
right.
Oh, and I, that was another little issue.
They he paid for the permit. Is that
correct? For a thousand dollars. No. No. No.
They wanted him they they said it was
(23:28):
a thousand dollars just to sit down and
talk to them
and figure out if a permit was how
they were gonna go about doing a permit.
This is the county.
But
and I thought we had emailed each other
or texted each other about this, I think.
But, yeah, the thousand dollars was for just
Yeah.
(23:48):
To look into it further Mhmm. For the
permit. Yeah. I mean That's just what I
understand. What do they call it? Double jeopardy?
I don't know. Double jeopardy. Okay. We have
a text. Well, I'm gonna look at this
Yeah. Look at it. Before I get this
again. Hold on, folks.
And remind me, if it's the only thing
I think it is, just
say no. I'm not interested.
Yeah. But anyway, yeah, it's such a like
(24:09):
I said with the the people there, it's
I've met people. I've met friends there. Uh-huh.
Oh, yeah. You know?
Just overall having a a wonderful time. And
there's so many other benefits.
All the the produce, it's nice to go
to get produce that actually tastes good,
doesn't have the little
plastic stickers
(24:30):
all over it that is
I mean, it's just such a such a
positive. And it's it's kind of a social
thing as well. Like you say, you made
friends there. It's not like walking around Freddy's
No. Something you know. Yeah. But also, another
thing, you you brought up the produce.
People there's 10 or 15 people or so
people in town
(24:51):
that like to grow things,
and they have or or they have an
orchard or they have, you know, a garden,
and they'll have an abundance. And they'll they
don't wanna sell at the market, but they
bring it down to Sylvia.
She weighs it out. She pays them for
it, and then she resells it. Oh, yeah.
So that stuff is helping it's helping
the people that are growing, giving them a
little bit of money.
(25:12):
It's helping the people that are buying because
they're buying local stuff. I mean, she gets
lemons,
Jerusalem artichokes recently.
Oh, god. You know? I saw So Yeah.
So many things. Yeah. Unique stuff that you're
not you're not gonna see in boy, I
I
there's no way, I don't think, that sounds
like conspiratorial,
(25:34):
but that the like, Freddy's and Grocery Outlet,
they wouldn't be against the farm. No. Absolutely
not. I can't imagine. But what is it
typical when you're applying for a permit
to be charged to to just to look
at the permit? Or just to look I
don't know. To look
Yeah. If that would, I don't know. I've
(25:54):
never
I've got permits to build. An application
charge.
Yeah. I think that that what they do
is,
you like, if I wanted to go to
this the county, for example, and find out
if I could
build something, and you go and you you
you have to pay a fee to go
and talk to them. They don't talk to
(26:16):
you for nothing.
Oh, that I didn't know.
I mean, I'm in California. It's a little
different, but, you know, you'd think that would
be
the way to do it there. But, no,
I wasn't aware of that. You ever heard
of that? Mhmm. Wow.
Not quite. So so somewhere, there must be
a
a a book or something in the in
(26:36):
in the county
offices,
for what requirements you need for such and
such a thing. Like, you need two by
six, two by fours in the wall, all
that,
and kinda run down the whole thing. It
doesn't seem like that would cost
a a thousand dollars. I don't think it's
that particularly, but they they want to look
(26:56):
at your
your lot and your zoning and your,
the rules for your particular area, if you're
rural residential
or if you're residential
duplex or whatever you are, and you you
go and you you you present to them
what you wanna do. But they don't do
that for nothing.
(27:17):
Okay. But they've already given you the permit
and said you were okay to to No.
I'm not saying to start to start with
it, for you to go in to to
discuss before you even do a permit, to
discuss what you want to do. Like a
consultation fee Yes. Or something. So I was
under the impression you already had it approved
and We we do. We are approved.
(27:37):
We are totally approved, and everything is was
signed off in 2014.
But the new people, it's the new whoever
the new people are that are in the
county Well, how vague.
They they want they want us to
change it.
Yeah. And I have to go back real
quick. Now has it all bit already
(27:58):
been officially rezoned as the commercial okay. So
that's in the works. They want to do
that. But yeah. But we we are currently
agricultural land
with an agricultural building
that was
approved as a farmer's market.
Boy,
are we still kinda I it looks like
(28:18):
we're the whole thing is missing. So do
you have an individual that you're dealing with,
or is there
a
Not not really. Supervisor that's Not really. Well,
so with all this crazy confusion,
I'm gonna go back to the I hope
whatever this other texter is, stop. But our
number is (541)
661-4098.
Anybody out there that knows where
(28:41):
Linda and the farmers Linda Stimpson in the
Farmers Market could get some pro bono help,
representation for a lawyer to figure out all
this crazy
stuff that's going on, please give us a
text or,
or you can even go on kciw.org
after the after the program and give us
any information you might have. Because that's what
(29:02):
we need. This this community needs to keep
this farmers market, man, in my opinion. Oh,
yeah.
Yeah. We just need to to do that,
need some help. We we do have, we
have filed an appeal,
and we're waiting for a hearing.
So we don't we don't know anymore after
that. I mean, we we've come, like, stuck,
really. Okay. Okay. So
(29:25):
that is where you're at right now, just
waiting to hear
about the when the appeal will take place.
Have Yeah. I'm not Have you tried going
to a supervisor's meeting? And
that's
been offered as another option that we could,
we could see if we could get a
meeting.
But it's kind of Well, the the
I don't know how often they meet, but
(29:45):
the supervisors meet periodically. You could go to
to one of those, and it would be
an open forum. Yeah. I I don't know.
I don't know when that would be. I
don't know. That
I don't know. That's actually a good idea.
Yeah. That's I mean Sounds like an option.
Because it it's really not something that's up
to me, personally. I mean, I'm I'm just
the manager of the people in the market
(30:07):
itself. I don't own the property. I don't
I'm not, you know, the person that
And that's doing all that. Who's the supervisor
for this area? Is is that the way
they
the supervisor's broken up to where each one
is in a certain area or what? California
night.
Elected at large?
Okay. That's what I would
(30:28):
I would start petitioning them
to see whether or not they even know
this is going on. I don't yeah. I
don't know. And as for a petition,
I do have an a petition that I'm
putting together that will be available on Wednesday,
for people to sign. Apparently, we have to
try and gather a thousand signatures.
I will be there for sure. Oh, I'm
usually there for sure anyway. Mhmm. Good. Okay.
(30:50):
Good point, Linda. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Awesome.
I hope there's somebody out there who can
who can,
Yeah.
Bring us up on this, but having to
give a thousand dollar,
fee just to have the hermit discussed. Right.
I won't mention the name, but with person
we I I am gonna contact the other
(31:11):
lady we were talking about Okay. After this
and see if she might have some ideas
because she's really, really strong at that kind
of thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What else did I have here?
I can tell you
about some of our other vendors that are
in the market Right.
(31:32):
That have thriving businesses actually.
That's pretty amazing
that,
you know, they they haven't moved on to
other pastures. They're still staying with us.
I've got a local beekeeper
who keep
all by herself, she takes care of the
bees and
collects the honey and
(31:52):
sells the honey.
Okay. And that's
the way that the bee population in this
country Yeah. Is under
great danger. Yeah. It's a tough business right
now. Yeah. Yeah. Good for her. Yeah. So
she's she's been in in business for a
while. And then I've got
Dean and Susie Brookings Pickled Goodies. I mean,
you can't even believe
(32:12):
it cost him $2,000
for a permit. Not a permit, a license
to do pickled goods because pickled anything pickled
is a little bit dangerous. You have to
you have to have certain pH levels, and
you have to have certain
anyway, they, it costs them $2,000
just to get a pickling license.
(32:34):
And then every time he does a new
recipe, like if he does
cauliflower, pickled cauliflower, pickled pickled carrots, whatever, he
has to pay another $100 and have them
test it and make sure his pH levels
are right. Wow. There's
a lot of money invested for them.
But they're currently in the in the church
building. We've we've got in the building there,
(32:56):
in the dining room, I've got, like, five
vendors that that couldn't really work on the
in the parking lot.
So they're inside. That's a good question because
yeah. The
but so they're all legal
Mhmm. In the church inside with the Yeah.
Commercial
zoning, so to speak? Well, no. The church
is on agricultural, so they're they're just inside
(33:17):
the building. There's nothing wrong with the church.
Oh, I see. Okay. But,
I don't know. Maybe they'll they'll come up
with something.
I'm not sure. That's right. I know there's
a little offshoot
of that. So I've got my my watch
repair guy in there and the honey guy
girl is in there, the pickle people. I
got a couple of people that are selling
clothing that isn't really suitable to be out
(33:39):
in the parking lot. Okay.
Well, so Linda, how about,
our silent guest just handed me a note.
Thank you. Okay. What about what about contact
info? Can people get a hold of you
or
anybody there to help out? Yeah. We have
a a a possible attorney that might help.
How would we do that? Well, my phone
(33:59):
number, and I'm happy to have anybody call
me, is (541)
661-3860.
And then I can pass that on to,
whoever
would be appropriate person. Okay. Great. Great. So
there's actually as far as the farmer's market,
there's no, like, email
site or anything like that? No. You can
(34:20):
people can also find us on Facebook.
Oh, okay. Because we got Facebook is,
Facebook,
Brookings Harbor Farmers Market.
Okay.
I've got, I don't know, about 4,000 followers
on that. So I Okay. Few people. Alright.
Yeah. Facebook. Here we go. Yeah. But but
the trouble with Facebook is there's so many
people on it. I'll post something on Facebook,
(34:41):
and then next time, five minutes later, you're,
like, disappeared
because there's so many
so many people that are posting. I don't
know. I wish I could find a better
alternative
method of getting in touch with people.
Or for for heaven's sake, just, yeah, come
by and start
participating in all the wonderful stuff that the
(35:01):
Parkland Market has. Yeah. It was funny because
the other day, you know, we had all
this stuff going on, and then all of
a sudden we get an official truck came
into the parking lot and said, you gotta
take your flags down.
Okay. That thank you for bringing that up.
What was the deal with that again?
Well, the apparently,
(35:23):
the,
they
I don't know. The roadways
own the the road and some. Right? On
the roadways. Yeah. Usually a 150 feet from
the center line. So our flags were on
that property. Right away.
Which have been there for years. Right.
And we thought, no. Somebody else targeting us,
(35:44):
you know. Wow. Sounds like it. Yeah. A
little weird. But but no. They also they
were targeting everybody up and down the 101.
It wasn't just us.
Again, I'm
what a
I'm speechless, man, that all this stuff.
The flags, that was always a a wonderful
(36:04):
sign to see. Wednesdays and Saturdays, you get
to the farmers market, it was there. Mhmm.
Colorful flags blowing in the wind.
And the,
the county wants to get rid of that?
Well, apparently,
he said,
that to somebody I don't know this I
don't know who would complain, but somebody complained
about flags in general on the highway.
(36:24):
And so he
took it upon himself to go up and
I've had my signs stolen not stolen, but
taken taken
custody of. If I've if I clapboard signs
or anything, they just come and take them.
They don't say, look here. You can't have
that sign there. They just take them. Oh,
be darned. Okay.
Okay.
There was a sign on the,
(36:47):
right side of the road if you're coming
to town that
Somebody advertising that they had coffee or something
at some point. That's a good idea to
let people know that, evidently, he's gone as
well. Yeah. I I I don't know. But
we we we've moved our flags back onto
the next door house, which is private property.
Yeah. But it doesn't give people that same
No. Oh, no. It was a I to
(37:08):
me, it was such a positive. Mhmm. Oh,
yeah. Wow. Yeah.
It's kinda funny. I I don't mean to
be too negative about the the wonderful the
humane store that's,
not too far from there, but they had
those no parking signs along there because it
was kind of hard for people to see.
Nobody pays attention to that. Right. They let
them park there, but they're gonna take sign
(37:30):
flags down. I don't know. I know. That's
well, we felt like we were being picked
on that day, but I think it wasn't
just us. It was just a good The
farmers market is definitely being picked on, it
sounds like to me. Yeah. I think I
would definitely make a complaint to the county
supervisors. Well, that is a good area.
To go to that, the board of supervisors.
Board of supervisors. Yes. Once once a month?
(37:51):
Find out when they have the meetings or
maybe I don't know. You could probably
Oh, you could Google it. Get a a
free appointment with one of them outside the
meeting either. Just go on.
Mhmm. Well, one little avenue, anyway. Yeah. Another
little open door, hopefully. I made that.
I know there had been
problems a while back with people getting building
permits that
(38:11):
weren't
really very good buildings or they weren't inspected
and things like that, but that doesn't sound
like what you have here at all. I
think our building is safe, and I feel
like it was well built. It's,
Worked for quite a while. Well As as
that was going up, I I drive by
it every day, and I don't know how
long it took to build, but I think
(38:32):
Well, it was just Richard and one guy.
Well, that's what I was thinking. Wouldn't they
have one guy built on that? Well, yeah.
Yeah. That's what I was. Because he he
did it with his own money, and he
had to it just had to take a
long time, and it was, it I was,
extremely grateful to them to do that because
That's amazing.
I don't know where else we would be.
(38:53):
Yeah.
But, but I can tell you a little
bit also about,
Richard
York and his family. I mean, when I
first met them,
they they they
they do hydrangeas, but also he had cattle.
Okay. Because they've got a 160,
I think, acres over there.
(39:14):
And, he was just his cattle were being
slaughtered, and they were they were doing
halves and quarters,
which isn't very much money when you're raising
cattle, when you're selling for 2 or $3
a pound like that
because that was just what they were doing.
Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I I have
to take my lamb USDA. I can't sell
(39:34):
individual cuts of lamb without having it properly
inspected.
K. You can sell a whole lamb, but
you can't sell bits of a lamb without
getting an inspection.
Okay.
I know. It's crazy.
But anyway, so then, now,
that what they do now is they take
their cattle to the USDA butcher, and they've
(39:55):
they've got now eight or nine freezers where
that they keep their
beef. And it's local beef that's raised right
there in the next
lot to us.
You can't get any closer. You can't get
any more local.
No. And here again, gosh, I think I've
eaten almost everything at the farmer's market, but
(40:17):
I've I've purchased a few rib eye steaks
from them. Uh-huh.
They're pretty awesome. Uh-huh.
And but but what happened was,
at the end of last year,
we had this message that was from,
eureka,
what's it called? Redwood Meats Mhmm. Going out
of business.
So Redwood Meats was our closest
(40:38):
slaughter facility. Oh. And then everybody's scrambling
because
what are you gonna do? Where are you
gonna send them? Mohawk was,
is in Eugene, and that's where I send
my sheep.
It was a five hour drive up and
a five hour drive back. Plus then you
would go get the meat.
Yeah.
So he was he was without a butcher
(40:59):
for a while, but they've opened a new
one,
Montgomery Meats in,
Central Point.
K. So he's been taking his cattle there
now. Still a waste. Wasn't that, the one
you're talking about, was that in Humboldt County?
I guess it was Eureka. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
I remember reading the local paper about that
work. Yeah. A lot of people even down
(41:20):
there, they were were are bugged out. Is
it they can't take their cow there? No.
It's I mean, there's cows everywhere. You when
you're driving, there's cows everywhere. What do you
need to do? Wow. So that was, that
was a blow. Yeah. But, you know, and
then so then, what are you doing? You're
feeding cows longer than you wanted to feed
them, and
(41:40):
you haven't got things to sell that you
wanted to sell. And it's just it was
just all these things. And it's regulations
is what it is. I think I think
that, Redwood Meats just couldn't
Couldn't keep her?
I'm not I should I think I think
he was trying to sell it, was unable
to sell it, and just just gave up.
I mean, it's it is very difficult.
(42:01):
Anything that you wanna do, you know, it's
I mean, you jump through hoops. Yeah. Yeah.
A lot a lot of hoops seem like
that have been out there for the farm
market. Mhmm. Boy.
Well, they're just like I said, almost
just about every community seems to have one.
And
I came from, Yuba City down there North
(42:22):
Of Sacramento,
and
it's,
it's flat and hot, but it's great for
a lot of produce. That was when Yuba
City first opened theirs, and it was done
by a a local rancher there.
It just it was
amazing. He he did a real good job
about setting it up and made sure not,
(42:42):
that it was all local pro produce. Mhmm.
And if it was organic and he just
did a wonderful job, and it really was
the best one of the best things about
Yuba City Uh-huh. I always thought. Yeah. Yeah.
It's difficult. And it's difficult here because we
have we don't have the best growing conditions.
True. Okay. Yeah. But,
(43:03):
now at one time,
Sweet Kron Yeah. Used to have a little
booth there, but they I guess they don't
come there anymore. Well, yeah. They,
they're getting older
and Okay. Aren't we all? Yeah. But,
but,
Linda Linda Nelson is the wife, and she
was very ill for a couple of years.
(43:24):
Okay. They didn't have any help.
Okay. It's a small little outfit because every
time I go in Grants Passer Bedford, I
swing in there because there's always good stuff.
Yeah. And she's doing she's doing some. I've
seen posts for her, but it's it's tough
to come
to load up if you haven't got much.
Oh, I remember seeing yeah. Yeah. I I
talked to them when I when they were
there about, you know, coming down. It's a
(43:46):
it's quite a little trek. Yeah. Good drive.
But, yeah, it is.
Well But that's another thing, like you said,
maybe we're not this particular area, but we
still service other communities, outline communities like that.
Right. And I think at one time, I
bought some, apples there that were from somewhere
out of,
in the foothills above Grants Path. My point
(44:06):
is they're Mhmm. They might not be local
here, but they're
not too far away.
We're we're helping those people too. Well, yesterday,
I had,
I had, the
the Czech Co. Blueberries were vending at the
market. Oh, I I saw. They had they
had the most amazing
blueberries, and they'll be here ever she's gonna
(44:27):
try and come every weekend until their blueberries
are just not producing anymore. Yeah.
I've got a I've got a couple more,
people that are growing,
will be there in the summer
as as, you know, as we get a
little bit further into the summer.
But it it is difficult. I mean, like,
they had this really nice farmer's market in
Crescent City
(44:48):
that was in the parking lot at the
fairgrounds.
I remember. Yes. And I I had never
been is is that still going on? No.
They they they
they they moved it to be on Front
Street by the ocean k. Where it's windy.
Yes. Very cold. Very cold. Very cold. Place.
Yeah. And the person who was running it
decided to change it into a California
(45:08):
certified
market, which put Kron
couldn't be there because they're
They just have easy ups set up on
the in the parking lot on Yeah.
So I I think it's mostly a craft
a craft thing now. I don't think it's
Yeah. And it used to be so great
when it was at the It it fairgrounds.
(45:29):
The fairgrounds would be perfect for that. Yeah.
Yeah. But they don't they don't run it
out. That doesn't make sense there either, does
it? No. But I think it was, something
to do with, the way they stopped cars
coming in, and they didn't want like this,
and they didn't like that. And then they
ended up
changing the manager and Okay.
Yeah. You know, I do have my little
(45:50):
quirky funny story, if you wanna call it
that. It's when I first came I moved
here in, like I said, about six and
a half years ago. And coming down on
the U Haul and
passing for the first time, I I was
in the U Haul. My buddy was driving
my car behind me, and I saw the
sign, sweet Kron. Uh-huh. And we pulled up
Everybody thinks well, okay. And I pull up
(46:10):
I said, boy, a bunch of hillbillies up
here. That's how you spell court. Anyway In
fact, you know you know, on the and
and
in your cell phone every now and then,
you get the the thing a list of
funny signs.
Oh, yes. I've seen that in there more
than once.
Anyway, I was wrong, and,
I it's a great little place. It's it's
fact the first time when I came back
through going to Gramps Pass one day and
(46:32):
I pulled in there, and they have the
the you pull in and about three or
four dogs at the time would come and
reach you, and I just I love that
stuff. Maybe some people don't like it, but
I do. Yeah. She she had a thing
about how that sign came about. I don't
know if you know how that I don't.
They hired somebody to paint
sweet corn.
(46:52):
Okay. And he spelt it wrong. Oh, well,
there's that. Right? And so instead of saying,
take it down, do it again, they said,
oh, leave it.
I probably I always thought that was their
name. No. Their name's Nelson.
That's cool. Yeah. Okay. That was a bad
speller.
Well, you know, sometimes you're concentrating on on
the letters. Yeah. I guess But it was
(47:14):
artistically
done properly.
But it's not about spelling. It's about the
good fresh produce, man. And they have that
and so do the farmers so does the
farmers' market. Mhmm. Yeah. We do. We're not
and like I say, COVID didn't close us.
We're not gonna close. So Yeah. Yeah.
Well, again, work in progress, and, hopefully, somebody
(47:35):
out there that does have some info.
Again, the text line here, (541)
661-4098.
And we could,
certainly use anybody's help that's that's out there
that might know an attorney or somebody that
want to to do the work pro bono
or
to
even not, somebody that could help the Farmers
(47:56):
Market. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And if, if anybody's around
on Wednesday and Saturday, I don't know how
long it'll take me to get a thousand
signatures, but
we'll have our petition ready.
Well, I know I'll be there. There's one
signature.
Wow. What what exactly is the petition for?
It's she wrote up a whole thing. Jessica
(48:17):
York, who's,
Richard's daughter, she wrote up a whole thing
about, you know, keeping the market open and
we support the market, you know, kind of
thing. Yeah.
God, the local paper should, have something about
that too. That should our
two minute thing
that we do on one set. Soapbox. Just
soapbox. Hello.
(48:39):
Yeah. We have a a soapbox that we,
every Wednesday, we open the studio from two
to three.
And anybody out there that has anything they
wanna talk about, complain about, sing a song,
whatever, you can come in, two minutes of
airtime.
I'm well, I'm gonna work one up now
for that, and we'll put it out on
the air as a soapbox.
Okay. So That sounds good. You bet. Okay.
(49:01):
You bet we'll do that for sure Wednesday.
And when do you have to have the
petition
submitted by? I don't know. I don't know
that. And you're gonna be pretty much doing
it, I guess, exclusively at the Farmers Bank
or no? I'm not sure. I thought I
would, gonna leave here and go and get
some clipboards,
and I thought I'd get, like, maybe four
or five. And we'll put the signature papers
(49:22):
on them, and
I can give them around.
I'm sorry. And the market go ahead, Ray.
Make sure you follow the rules exactly.
Yeah.
I I don't remember what they are, but
you have, you know, have to verify this
and that and everything. Right. Yeah. I've I've
got that in Jessica's hands. Yeah.
And, again, the market opens it well, I
(49:43):
I'm usually there by 09:30 and people are
already selling, but officially ten. Officially
ten till three. But Officially. Yeah. I've got
people that come in really early Yeah.
And buy stuff because there's some people that
don't like the crowds. I was like Well,
yeah. I don't think you moved here because
you like crowds. So
(50:04):
Right.
Yeah. Well, like I said, man. Yeah. Wednesday,
10AM.
Be there to sign the petition and enjoy
all the good the good stuff that's there.
And, again, there's just so many
benefits,
a lot we've already talked about, but it,
it does enhance the community,
brings kind of the community together. Uh-huh. Keeps
(50:25):
the money here. Yes. Keeps the money here.
Yeah. And that's one of my my things.
I mean, I don't know if this is,
an appropriate opinion. But, you know, they have
all these big events in town
all summer.
Yeah. And and they charge a lot of
money, and the vendors come from out of
town
bringing their stuff. And all those vendors that
you see
(50:45):
at the port, most of them anyway, and
the ones that at that by the bank,
you know, by Goodwill, they have all those
vendors now. Oh, yeah. Right. Right. They're out
of town vendors, and they so our tourists
come here and spend their money,
and those vendors take our tourist money
out.
Well, another little nuance that, you can put
(51:05):
in there.
I had
well, again, just
and there's also on all the local produce,
they
there's a benefit of
I'll go even to climate change. It might
be a big jump for some, but there's
less transport transporting the Oh, I would do
(51:26):
that. To and from. That's right. I'm gonna
hit the my little bugaboo is these stupid
little plastic stickers that I hate. I try
that's that's very environmentally damaging,
those things.
You're not gonna see that at a farmer's
market. Right. That's for sure. And people bring
their baskets.
They bring their their their shopping baskets. They
don't. Oh oh, and I do that too.
(51:48):
I feel like the little not
fairy tale, but lady that just get a
task at whatever. I bring my basket too.
Yeah. Because I'm proud of that. People,
people like to shop, you know,
minimally. I mean, why why
Yes. Not to roll out the 100
plastic bags Yes. Get everything. Yeah.
(52:10):
Now that you mentioned that, I, ordered some
fabric bags,
lace fabric bags from Amazon to do that,
put your apples in and all that. I
accidentally ordered two, so I'll bring one in
for you. I will accept that. It's about
15 bags in each one, different size. Okay.
K.
But I I've I'd if for some reason
(52:32):
or other, I don't have them, I literally
won't buy apples that day or anything. This
is Okay.
Okay. Goes against my grain. It'll like I
say, pull those stupid plastic bags off.
Well, again, yeah, it's just,
nothing I can't there's no there's no negatives
about the farmers market. To me, it's all
positive. Mhmm.
(52:53):
Mhmm. So and we're down to about
five minutes. So, please, again, if anybody knows
any way that you can help the Linda
Stimpson and the Farmers Market,
give us a well, go on the website.
We're almost out of time, but I'll give
the text number number one more time. Maybe
there's one lone voice waiting.
(53:13):
(541)
661-4098
or kciw.org.
And,
and then you can come in if you
have any ideas. You can come into the
station and,
want to be a guest on this show
to talk more about it,
to offer any help.
We'll we'll certainly do that.
(53:35):
Or as long as you're saying that, if
you sign if you have something you want
to discuss on this program, we're open to
Oh, you bet. Those suggestions too if you're
out there and you have Yeah. Something you
need to talk about. Yeah.
Well, I really appreciate you,
Oh, Linda, we're glad to glad to have
you. Like I said, it's a big deal
(53:55):
for for me, I know, and most everybody
else. There's that place is always crowded, which
is a good thing.
Uh-huh.
Yeah. You know?
Yeah. It's, it's definitely,
grown exponentially
since we were four people at the Grange.
And actually,
another person that, I didn't mention was Kathleen
(54:17):
Dixon. She started the farmers market right at
the very beginning.
Oh, I And she had you know, she
decided that she want to go a different
direction. And she now she does
delivery
of local
produce, otter bees.
Otter bees. That's right. Uh-huh. Yeah. The odd
(54:37):
odd thing is she they seem to be
coming at you aggressively.
Not not
not in a friendly manner at all. Right.
Very strange. Well and, yeah, like I said,
it's,
has anybody actually tried to go directly? Oh,
yeah. Yeah. I think you mentioned that. To
to talk to them directly. Hey. What what's
(54:59):
going on? Why is this really happening? Yeah.
Richard and Jessica went up to the county
and, wanted to know how to do the
the the,
appeal.
And, they were told, no. You can't do
an appeal. You've,
ex extended your time.
But he proved to them that he had
sent an email requesting
(55:20):
this appeal
Okay.
Within the time, but they didn't get back
to him.
If if I were you, I would contact
some of the county supervisor.
Well, hopefully not. Either either at one of
their open meetings. You know, you just go
there and you
you you put on there that you wanna
speak, and they don't know what you want.
But you have an agenda. Right? Agenda. Yeah.
Get on the agenda and
(55:42):
plead your case. They
probably have a five minute limit or something.
Either that or I would just go and
knock on their door or however it is
you get to talk to a counselor.
Bang on the door. Yeah. Well, yes.
I was I was being Bang on the
door like in banging on your guys' door
for Yeah. I don't know if they're in
their office all day or what the what
the story is, but get a hold of
(56:03):
one of them somehow. Yeah. It's very difficult
because a lot of these places,
they only work four day work weeks. Yeah.
Four day work. Yeah.
So Fridays, you can't get a hold of
anybody.
Right.
But they can sure get a hold of
you if they wanted to discuss I wouldn't
do it by letter, and I wouldn't do
it by phone. I would go and actually
speak to them in person sitting across from
(56:24):
their desk.
That's where you get the best results. Okay.
Okay.
Well, Linda, I tell you, I I'm I'm
glad you,
came to our show today and discussed all
these issues, and
I'm still out there.
People come by the Farmers' Market,
Wednesdays and Saturdays, and especially this Wednesday.
(56:45):
Will that be the only day they have
the petition? I'll have it until we get
enough signatures. Oh oh oh, good. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, like I said, I know I'll be
there for sure.
Yeah. If you could
I think they've started having the Sunday concerts
again, haven't they? Yeah. I believe so. Get
some of your people to circulate with the
Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. And
(57:07):
they could probably
I would imagine the concert would make an
announcement.
We're gonna be coming through a petition soon.
I guess they would. I don't know. Mhmm.
Okay. Yeah. I know. I I've is it
Dave that runs that now? I don't know
what that was. I just went out there.
Scott ran it. The The concert? Yeah. Park?
Yeah.
Oh, Scott. We could get that info.
(57:28):
Yeah. I have to make that make an
announcement a couple times. There'd be people coming
through with, and give a little talk about
why they wanna do that. Yeah. Good idea.
Well because you're gonna need
to get signatures any way you can, not
just people coming into the market. Yes. Well,
I I I would certainly bet the amount
of people that I see at the farmers
market all the time. It wouldn't surprise me
(57:50):
that you get all that you need
pretty quick. The first hour. There you go.
Have you have you ever done a count
or have any way of No. How many
people come in there a day? It's very
difficult because I've got three different doors in
and Yeah.
Some people drive by and take a look.
And and some people Yeah. I know. Some
people come in and they fill that basket
with one vendor, and then they go out
(58:10):
to their car and then they come back
with that empty basket and fill it with
another You bet. Vendor. Yeah.
Yeah. And people bring their coolers with them,
and
it's it's
it's a pretty big deal. It is a
big deal.
Looks like we're about ready to sign off
here,
y'all. Well, thank you very much, Linda. Hope
to have you back maybe
(58:32):
with a better story next time. News. Yeah.
Great. And we will put together a spot
on on Wednesday. Yes. We will have our
mailbox.
We'll be plugging that. Appreciate it. Thank you
all. Thanks for listening. You bet. KCIW
one hundred point seven, beautiful Brookings, Oregon.
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