Bath Farmers Market To Have Extended Hours During Harvest Moon Festival

Hot Springs, VA – The Bath County Farmer’s Market will hold it’s last market of the 2011 season on Saturday. And the market is wrapping up in a big way to coincide with Bath County’s Harvest Moon Festival and Century Metric Ride. Mary Hodges is one of the organizers of the Bath Farmer’s Market.

“Well, we’re going to have a lot more vendors than we normally do”, says Hodges. “With the extra vendors I’m anticipating anywhere from thirty to forty total. So that’ll expand the space in the parking lot a little bit.”

With so much to offer, the Farmer’s Market will be open extended hours on Saturday, from 9 until 4.

“We will have just a wonderful array of artisans, with jewelry, candles, brooms, birdhouses, all kinds of woodworking items, and then of course the usual produce vendors and the flowers and baked goods and honey and eggs,” says Hodges. “Mr. Puffenbarger will be there serving his barbeque and we’ll also have some folks demonstrating some crafts. We’re gonna have a weaver and Gary Robinson who makes his beautiful brooms will be at the market as well.”

And there will be activities for children along with live music all day long.

“We have quite a variety of folks,” says Hodges. “We have one of our local vendors, Don Henke and Cathy Tyler, they sing in a little group called Better Than Nothin’. They will be performing. And then the children in the Alleghany String Orchestra, they also will be performing. The Little Switzerland Cloggers, Darin Burkeholder and Eric Woodzell and Allison Kincaid.”

This special edition of the Bath County Farmer’s Market is part of Bath’s Harvest Moon Festival and Century Metric Ride. The Festival features activities all around Bath County in addition to the two long distance bike rides. The Century bike ride is 100 miles and the Metric is 66 miles.

There will also be activities at Valley Elementary School including a bazaar and a hay maze. A bike rodeo at Valley is scheduled from 9 to 1 where children will receive a bike helmet and a goodie bag. Hidden Valley Bed and Breakfast will hold house and farm tours from 2 to 4.

And the Millboro Preservation and Cultural Association will hold it’s tractor parade and hayride fundraiser. It leaves from Woodland Church in the Millboro area at 9am on Saturday. The festival wraps up with a performance by the John Jorgensen Quintet Saturday evening at Garth Newel Music Center.

“There’s so much going on in Bath that day,” says Hodges. “There’s the ride that goes through all parts of the county, which will bring a lot of extra visitors to the area. We have a whole different array of activities at the elementary school, at Hidden Valley Farm, some of the inns are offering special teas and meals. So this will just be one more activity that folks coming into the county for the festival could enjoy.”

Decorated hay bales are scattered throughout Bath as part of the Festival. The awards ceremony for the decorating contest will be held at 3 o’clock at the farmer’s market. The Bath County Farmer’s Market is located in downtown Hot Springs.