This weekend is opening day at the summer market and we're welcoming some new folks to our robust community of food vendors, artisans, farmers and formulators.
Prepared Food
Two new food vendors are bringing more variety to our lineup with a mix of international flavors, spices, and culinary delights.
Taza Afghan Foods and Catering Perhaps you have already seen Taza’s Afghan naan at the local CO-OP in Brattleboro and Putney, VT. Taza was started by Shaima Aslami Hussain Zada in
2023, but she has been cooking for most of her adult life in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. In 2021 she became a refugee from Afghanistan and resettled in Brattleboro the following year.
Try a traditional Afghan dish like Mantu, dumplings stuffed with ground beef, onions and herbs, topped with her signature sauce and yogurt.
802 Soul Kitchen The name says it all, but
this is how owner Marcel Maxwell puts it in his own words, “44 years old from Boston, Massachusetts, pursuing my dreams of owning the 802 Soul Kitchen. I started this business from the ground up. Now here, a year later, at the next tear and continuing to grow. I have a true passion for making people happy through my food. We are so excited to start this journey with the farmers’ market this year!”
Marcel’s menu is sure to satisfy your soul and belly with fried chicken, mac and cheese, shrimp, candied yams, and collard greens.
Specialty Items
I'm sweating and salivating thinking about these next couple of dailies that will be bringing their homemade hot sauce concoctions to market. Be sure to stock up when they come!
Jamaican Jewelz If you haven’t seen and tried the food from Jamaican Jewelz’s super cool food truck around Southern Vermont, you’re missing out! Julian Johnson (“Chef Jewelz”) was born and raised in Jamaica where she began cooking at the age of nine with her grandmother. She has been rockin’ it in Vermont for over ten years. Now she collaborates with her husband Duane and together they offer the market a chance to try the traditional flavors of Jamaica in their hot sauces.
Silk City Hot Sauce Jeff and Enid Levine, another husband and wife team, and self-proclaimed hot sauce fanatics, prepare their homemade products from fresh, local peppers. Every sauce is 100-percent natural, gluten-free, vegan, and contains no chemicals, fillers, or dyes. Silk City likens their production to an orchestra, “each ingredient is there to support the next, and together they create magic!”
Growers and Formulators
Earthen Co. creates herbal essences, sprays, and other natural body-care products. On her website, Nichole Crouch Diaz writes, “As the founder and formulator, I have taken this love and passion for the earth and herbal healing and put it into the products we make. We grow and sustainably wild harvest over 70% of the herbs we use in our products.” Her flower essences are made using both lunar and solar infusion methods, purified water, and energetically purified alcohol. Each one is then potentized with sacred energy and a blessing. Earthen Co. will also be selling healing herbs for both physical and mental well-being when they come as another one of our daily vendors. Don’t miss your chance to check out her products.
Sylvan Moon A family of farmers, husband and wife Willow and Jay Uth (pronounced 'youth') started a new, certified organic farm in Putney, VT after moving from Oregon at the end of 2022. They chose the name Sylvan Moon Farm, describing the moon in one of their posts as, “Steadfast and steady, she creates our seasons and nurtures our innermost being within our phases and cycles of life. Sylvan means a pastoral wooded or forested place and honors this land. We dwell here, in the woods, under the constant cycle of the moon. Our name Sylvan Moon Farm is holding us accountable to our interdependence within ourselves and this forested land throughout our own cycles and phases.” They're selling a variety of veggies and farm-fresh eggs from happy hens.
Sabine Farm also comes each week with a variety of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers grown in Westminster, VT. Fresh fruit from a farm is an especially wonderful addition to the market and beautiful flowers brighten everyone’s day.
Here’s this year’s market layout to help you find our vendors. Come early and bring your bags!
