On Tuesday night River Park was full of patronage and pickles. This week’s farmers market was even busier than usual, with the addition of their first Pickle Party.
Pickle Party was an added-on event using the usual vendors at the farmers market, but with a twist. It served as a way to get more people excited about the farmer’s market and get traffic into the event.
“We have these weekly themes [at the farmers market] and this week’s theme was pickles,” said Mustafa Mitchell, owner of Miracle Man Barbecue and a regular vendor at the farmers market. “I have a set menu, but they ask us to incorporate certain ingredients to go with the theme.”
Mitchell talked about how the pickle chili at his booth works as an exclusive flavor to bring in customers and depending on feedback could make a return after Pickle Party.
This week’s exclusive ingredient worked wonders at bringing guests to the event, with participating Pickle Party vendors having lines with wait times of up to 45 minutes to try various limited-time items.
The event ran from 6-9 p.m. with some vendors having long lines close to the event’s end.
A veteran vendor at the farmers market in River Park, Kari’s Aguas Frescas, said they had to refill their special pickle and cucumber juice, also known as agua fresca, three times to keep up with the demand.
“We have a total of 26 [aguas frescas] flavors and I had been thinking of doing a pickle one,” said Kari’s Aguas Frescas owner Jose Anaya. “I hadn’t executed it because I wasn’t too sure, but since today was the theme I said, ‘Let’s go for it.’”
Anaya said the flavor was a hit for his almost 17-year-old business, keeping them busy all night long.
Anaya was not the only vendor fighting to keep up with demand. While in line for a pickle lemonade at Teenies Lemonade, the vendor temporarily ran out of lemons to make their drinks. Luckily, they were able to get lemons delivered before they had to cut off customers.
Not every vendor was as lucky with their inventory. While in line for a bacon-wrapped pickle at 1320 Street Foods, customers were told that the vendor ran out of pickles entirely within the first two hours, and they were only able to sell their regular menu items.
With every busy event there are going to be snags but for the most part, the Pickle Party crowd was alive and well.
Peter DeYoung, the executive director of California Fresh Farmers Market Association (CFFMA) said that Fresno can look forward to another Pickle Party within the next year. The River Park Farmers Market was able to learn from this turnout and figure out how to improve the overall experience.
“[The vendors] will be ready in a different way,” said DeYoung.
In the meantime, customers can look forward to next week’s farmers market on March 18 from 5-9 p.m.
This farmers market will be Gobble and Cluck themed and will be centered around all things chicken. Some of the dishes making an appearance at the event will be hot chicken sandwiches, turkey legs, Thanksgiving egg rolls and more.
