Downtown Farmers Market is open for the 2024 season
Jun 1, 2024, 5:36 PM | Updated: 5:44 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — It is a sure sign of summer.
The Salt Lake City Downtown Farmers Market is back and opened Saturday for the 2024 season.
It means Jorge Fierro is back, too.
The Salt Lake City Downtown Farmers Market is back and opened Saturday for the 2024 season. It means Jorge Fierro is back, too. (Mark Less, KSL TV)
“I never thought that I would be selling so much rice and so many beans,” Fierro said.
Of the 33 years the Downtown Farmers Market has been around, Fierro has been a vendor here for 26 of them.
He couldn’t wait for this day to do it all over again.
“The reason why I love this market is because it allowed me to create a business,” Fierro said.
His Rico Brands food have become a big deal in Utah thanks to the Downtown Farmers Market.
It is exactly what Rob Gilmore is hoping for his small business.
Gilmore and his wife, Emily, own Twigs and Branch Gardens and this is their first time selling at the Downtown Farmers Market.
“We’re small. We grow our food on borrowed land in Holladay. Two different homeowners who have large plots of land. They let us grow food on their land,” Rob Gilmore said. “We grow organic, no pesticides or herbicides and it is all human powered. So, we do not have any tractors. We’re doing everything by hand.”
A dream come true
Starting their own farm and selling their product is also a dream of theirs.
“I worked for Amazon until about a couple of weeks ago and quit and now we are doing this full-time and we are going to try and make it work this season,” Rob Gilmore said, with the kind of confident smile that lets you know he loves what he is doing.
Twigs and Branch Gardens is exactly the kind of local vendor the market itself loves.
Local products mean a lot to the Downtown Farmers Market, which is the largest of its kind in Utah.
“Everything here at the farmers market is made, raised, or grown within 250 miles of the Downtown Farmers Market,” said Carly Gillespie, deputy director of the Downtown Farmers Market.
More than 250 vendors selling produce, baked goods, meats, crafts, music, and plenty of lunch options brought thousands of people to Pioneer Park.
“We are thrilled to be here,” Rob Gilmore said.
“My wife keeps asking me, babe, when is it going to be your last year and I have no idea,” said Fierro. “I love this. I love this.”
