The Steilacoom Farmers Market opens its first market season at 3 p.m. Wednesday. Read my story here for background on the market.

Kelly Barkhurst, volunteer market manager, said the market will launch its first season nearly at vendor capacity. She and vendor coordinator Voraya Srisamang have booked 43 vendors. The site of the farmers market – the tennis courts at Lafayette and Wilkes –only has room for 50.

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Farmers markets in Puyallup and Key Peninsula open this weekend.

The Sunrise Village Farmers Market on Puyallup's South Hill opens its first season Saturday May 30. Market Manager Janie Morris told me last month that the market would start small, probably with fewer than 20 vendors, but would increase as the season progresses. Morris said a number of South Sound farmers have committed. They include the Sunrise Flower Farm, River Road Farmers Terry Carkner and Doug and Keith Chadd. Also, farmers Maria Alverez and Ramon Ayala will bring produce from Yakima to the market. Stone Ground Bakery from Yelm will sell bread at the market. Click here for hours and the location of Sunrise, as well as other South Sound markets.

Also opening this weekend is the Key Peninsula Farmers Market, which opens Sunday May 31. Chanetta Ludwig, who many will recognize as "The Bee Lady" will return to the market this year to sell her honey and flavored honey sticks, as well as produce from her Lakebay farm. Click "read more" to find out how Ludwig farms her honey and to find a list of other South Sound farmers markets where she sells her honey.

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Pictured here: Ewe Moon blue cheese

The Tacoma Broadway Farmers Market opens tomorrow (Thursday). Market hours will be 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on Broadway, between 9th and 11th.

Willapa Hills Farmstead Cheese will sell cow's milk blue cheese, sheep’s cheese, fresh ricotta, fresh yogurt cheeses tomorrow. Here's a look at their farm:

Who are the farmers? Stephen J. Hueffed and Amy Turnbull of Willapa Hills Farmstead Cheese, a 146-acre farm in Doty, west of Chehalis. The couple bought the farm in 2005 and live there with their three children, Willem, Lucas and Lillian. Hueffed’s mother, Marilyn, assists with cheese production and other grandma duties. They make cheese from sheep’s and cow’s milk. They tend a herd of 140 Lacaune-East Friesian cross ewes.

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Pictured here: Heirloom tomatoes, including brandywine, green zebra and cherokee purple, and others. Photo by Drew Perine/The News Tribune

Heading to the farmers market this week? Here's a look at what's fresh at the farmers market:

At the market this week: Heirloom tomato starts from Morgan Creek Farm, Saturday at the Gig Harbor Farmers Market, open 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays, 6808 Kimball Drive (Kimball Drive Park and Ride); 253-851-7397; www.gigharborfarmersmarket.com. Morgan Creek Farm also will sell at the Tacoma Broadway Farmers Market when it opens May 21 and the Key Peninsula Farmers Market when it opens May 31.

Who are the farmers? Steve and Donna White own Morgan Creek Farm, but they weren’t always farmers. The pair were flight attendants for American Airlines for 20 years. Then came a reassignment to Chicago in 2002. They missed each other, they missed their horses and their farm in Vaughn. They traded in grumpy passengers for growing flowers – dahlias, lilies and a few other varieties. Then they found they had a niche with heirloom tomato starts. This year, they planted nearly 10,000 tomato starts.

What?! Isn’t it too early for tomatoes? Of course, it’s way too early to plant fragile tomato starts, but now is a good time to buy. And here's why.

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Coming this summer to Steilacoom: A new farmers market.
The Town of Steilacoom’s farmers market will run Wednesdays from June 24 to Aug. 19.

The idea of the market spun from Kelly Barkhurst, a Steilacoom resident and caterer. In a town that is easy to navigate by foot and has many attractive amenities, she was surprised there wasn’t already a farmers market when she moved to Steilacoom from Puyallup a year ago.

She liked the idea of a market built around the notion of fresh, healthy produce.

“I was thinking we don’t have fresh produce available. It’s such a luxury to walk into town to buy fresh produce. Farmers markets are becoming such vital parts of a community, it just seemed something we could add to our community here,” she said.

She took the idea to town hall.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Farmers Market Fresh is a weekly series featuring farmers and food producers who sell at South Sound farmers markets. Each week in this space, we’ll write about a different farmer and the markets where they sell.

What’s at the market this week: A variety of fresh and aged cheeses, including fresh mozzarella, chevre and ricotta, from the River Valley Ranch Cheese Farm in Fall City. Available Saturday at the Proctor Farmers Market, open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays at North 27th Street and Proctor; 253-961-3666; www.proctorfarmersmarket.com.

Who’s the farmer: Julie Steil started her 20-acre Fall City farm in 2006. Before that, her cheesemaking was a hobby. But then a cheese buyer from Whole Foods tasted her homemade cheese at a parent-teacher meeting at the high school Steil’s children attend. With encouragement from the buyer, she ditched her high-pressure career in real estate property management, bought some cows and goats, purchased some land by her home and started River Valley Ranch Cheese Farm.

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