The Arbol Market, now in its fifth season, is a project of the Paonia-based Learning Council, a multi-pronged non-profit encompassing arts, health, and education. Executive Director Alicia Michelson talked about the origins of the year-round market.
“In 2020, when the pandemic hit, we realized the farmers were really struggling with accounts closing, restaurants closing, a lot of questions about where the food would go in the season and how should they carry on,” said Michelsen. “And so that sort of fast-tracked us into realizing that it needed to happen. It was a real community effort to make it happen but the Learning Council had the bandwidth and the chutzpah to take on the leadership role. And for us it was really important to have the cultural aspect of music and being able to come and hang out, the food, the meals, and then also in collaboration with Valley Organic Growers Association, to be able to offer classes and enrichment that put a spotlight on the farms and the farmers.
“It's so heartening to see farms being able to really directly serve the community that they live in in a way that hopefully is mutually beneficial to them.”
The shady Paonia Town Park is the setting for the weekly market. Carol Sikora's farm is on Pitkin Mesa and she was bagging up the last of her sweet cherries as we spoke.
“I do about an acre in flowers, berries, I have some fruit trees, grapes, table grapes,” Sikoro said. Her flowers include “peonies and sunflowers and dahlias of course, and some flox…half of this is perennial. So the mix really makes beautiful bouquets, kind of like an earthy but elegant touch.”
Sikora has also sold at other markets, and from her farm as well, but she admires the Arbol’s approach. “I think there's great variety here for such a small little town market. I'm really hoping people will support it. All these hard working farmers, I don't do as much food now, but it's really hard to make a living off farming, so it's really important that you can stay local.”
Each farmer has a unique product, and their stories, too, are unique.
“My name's Bill, and I've been coming to this market since the first one, and I bake bread, three day sourdough fermentation. People seem to like it. It's something for me to do at 82. It's good nutrition. What the whole mission is to try to get the kids' school lunches healthier. And 92% of the ingredients served in the Colorado school lunch program are genetically modified. I find that totally unacceptable. I've been on this since 2017. Over in the Roaring Fork Valley I am here and so it's a passion.”
“I’m Stephanie Matlock, Cobblestone Farm. I have 20 different varieties of garlic and then I also sell tomatoes and scallions and onions and peppers and a lot of mix of other things too. It's such a great community market. I just like being part of the community. We also accept SNAP here, and I love being able to feed people who need to be fed. I also do Carbondale and sometimes I do Ridgeway, and those are a little more affluent communities, and I just feel like this one serves people.”
“My name is Sonia Treece, and I dye yarn. My business is called Woolly Colorado. Most of the yarn I get from New Zealand and Australia, it's merino, but I do get some local fibers when they have it available. And I run the local fiber shed also, which is all about local yarns and wools. And that is our big goal, like our long-term goal is to bring a wool mill here.”
“My name is Preston Williams with Fire Mountain Ranch. This is our first time coming to the Arbol Farmer Market here in Paonia. We sell bison meats and bison products.
We have a little under 50 head right now on our property out in Hotchkiss on Redlands Mesa. So far we love it here. It's a great market. We also sell in Aspen and Telluride as well.”
“My name is Kristi Lloyd and my husband and I grow microgreens. Grow them for 10 days and then we harvest them. Wonderful nutrition. We have arugula, broccoli, cantaloupe, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, peas, radish, sunflower microgreens. We sell at other markets. It’s fun to be in our local community though, because we're from Hotchkiss.”
