Peace Garden hosts a People's Market for true Utah products

The People's Market is a clearinghouse for true Utah products.

Each Sunday between June and October, community members gather to sell locally produced food and wares to the people they say are most important — their neighbors. A quick stroll through the International Peace Garden at 900 W. 1000 South and visitors will find home-grown apples, peppers and cucumbers. Farther along, vendors sell plants and flowers, and handicrafts like jewelry, bars of soap and paintings.

"(The Peoples Market) has always been about building community and supporting local produce, art and sustainability," said Chris Isbell, treasurer of the board that oversees the market. "We're trying for a casual atmosphere where friends and neighbors can hook up with each other and connect."

Many in attendance agreed that a casual atmosphere has not only been achieved, it is why they flock to the market again and again.

Anne Watson, a resident of Salt Lake City, said she prefers the low-key digs at the People's Market to Saturday's Farmer Market at Pioneer Park because there is room to breathe.

"The market at Pioneer Park is so crowded it's tough to move around," Watson said. "Here, you get almost all the same things and I think it's cheaper."

For the past two or three years Watson said she has made an intentional effort to support growers and vendors at the People's Market because she can see and interact with the people directly benefiting from her business, a luxury big box stores such as Wal-Mart or Smith's could never accomplish.

"Shopping here is a way of supporting this community and that's important to me," Watson said.

When the market began four years ago, Isbell said, she and others were looking for a way to sell the surplus of fruits and vegetables their gardens were producing each season. Like those plants, the market continued to grow year after year and in 2007, Mayor Rocky Anderson helped secure funding to ensure it became a sort of perennial for west-side residents.

Dave Baldwin, of Sandy, oversees a two-acre farm where he grows fresh produce and raises chickens and lambs. He says it isn't a large scale operation, but the dirt caked into his palms and fingers illustrates the work it takes to make "growers' hands."

"Each year (the market's) gotten bigger with more stuff and also more opportunities to carry a conversation; it feels more personal here," Baldwin said. "I have regulars who give me hugs and even some who've made me birthday presents."

Community involvement is a cornerstone to the market's operation. Anyone with produce or handicrafts is encouraged to participate because it is a market for and by the people. Baldwin says he has helped people leave the market with new growing techniques and craft ideas because that is how the market has always been.

"Come enjoy and see what there is," Baldwin said. "You'll leave with a smile."

If you go...

The People's Market runs each Sunday through mid-October from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information or to become a vendor, visit www.slcpeoplesmarket.org.

e-mail: cnorlen@desnews.com