Saturday Market opens for summer in Havre

Vendors and customers were out and connecting this weekend with each other for the first Saturday Market of the summer in Havre's Town Square.

In addition to the fresh fruits, vegetables and breads sold primarily by different Hutterite colonies, there were also crafts such as beadwork and crochet, knives and signs, and cold water being sold.

Gifford Sharp and Mikki Nuewerth, who said they had been coming to the market as vendors for 11 years, usually offer fresh produce from their farm. But by Saturday they were still waiting for their produce to ripen. So they brought Nuewerth's beaded necklaces and cold bottles of water. The water was a hot sell, they said. The temperature was nearing 90 degrees by 11 a.m.

Dave and Diane Anderson's pig on a pole - hot sausage on a stick - may have seemed like a risky product to try and sell on such a sizzling day, but it wasn't, they said. Saddle Butte Custom Smoking was selling pigs on pole, "even with the heat," Dave Anderson said, adding they were just about sold out by 11:15 a.m.

The Havreites said they started their smoking enterprise in the 1990s and the market has been good to them for as long as they've been coming.

Jerry Waldner was helping staff one of the three Hutterite stands. People looked at and bought from two foldout tables of radishes, peas, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, onions, and more.

"It's pretty tough," Waldner said. "You don't want to miss out on sales."

Waldner said he'd been coming to the Market ever since it had been established.

Mercedes Lodge was one of the vendors who was offering something other than food - handmade beadwork and crochet. Together with her father, Leon Lodge, who was not at the market, the two had crafted all the colorful beaded and crocheted items on her table.

Mercedes Lodge said she had been selling at the market many years.

Jarred and Andreya Taylor were two of the many customers in The Square. They moved from Texas a few weeks ago for work, they said.

They heard about the market from flyers they'd seen around town, Jarred Taylor said, and

came to buy some fresh produce.

"There's a good selection of greens," he said, adding there is more than just produce at the market.