Each week at the market you can always expect to see the smiling faces of Karen (the farmer’s daughter) and her family from their Darmstadt farm set up with lots of beautiful produce. They grow a variety of tomatoes, grape tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, peppers, eggplant, okra, onions, green beans, cantaloupe, watermelon, and more!
Karen’s father, Jim, started raising strawberries and had several “U-PICK” strawberry patches when she was young. She and her two sisters worked in the fields and helped sell while growing up.
Once they were all grown up and had families of their own, their dad decided to expand his strawberry business to include fresh vegetables. He also added a farm stand at their home. While they no longer have the strawberry fields around town, some of you may remember the farm stand they had across the road from the Homestead Restaurant in Newburgh.
Karen’s sisters moved away, but she stayed close. Her kids started helping at the farm just like she and her sister’s did from a very young age. They helped Papa (Jim) with planting, pulling weeds, picking vegetables, and even driving the tractors!
In 2007 they started taking extra produce to the markets as a family. Now they’re a standard at all the markets in our area. They love meeting new customers and seeing old friends at the market each week.