Hurricane - Preparations are underway for the Putnam County Farmers' Market.
Vendors and board members held the farmers' market's annual meeting Tuesday night. The market will be open every Saturday at Valley Park from May 6 to Oct. 28. Vendors include farmers who sell produce and meat, and people who sell handmade crafts.
This is the farmers' market's seventh year of operation.
"People don't have to go to Charleston or Huntington to buy fresh food," said Dina Foster, the farmers' market board member and a local jewelry designer. "I think we serve a need."
Their main goal for the year is to attract more visitors, and produce more products.
"I want the farmer's market to be big," Jarrod Dean, Putnam County's parks director, told vendors Tuesday. "There's going to be a lot of people coming in this park."
Foster said attracting more vendors was a priority.
Vendors must live in West Virginia, or be within a 100 mile radius of the Putnam County administration building. In previous years vendors had to live within a 50 mile radius of the administration building.
"We have the possibility of attracting a lot of people, but we have to make it attractive," Foster said.
Dean said he was working out deals with a few local restaurants to pay for leftover vegetables that vendors do not sell.
Multiple vendors said they plan on taking credit cards this year. Some vendors still will be cash-only.
For Foster, her summers selling her jewelry at the farmers' market have brought her closer to local small businesses and helped her grow pride in her home.
"I just love what it stands for," Foster said. "It gives us a place for our farmers' to sell their products."
When the Valley Park renovations are completed, the farmers' market will move to a more permanent space at the park. Foster said the renovations will give the market a chance to grow, and the county a chance to gain tourism opportunities.
"People deserve a place to go and do all the activities they may have had to go other places to do," Foster said.
For more information about the market, or to apply as a vendor, call (304) 300-8995.
Reach Ali Schmitz at ali.schmitz@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4843 or follow @SchmitzMedia on Twitter.