With live music playing on three different street corners, NorthWest Crossing bustled Saturday morning with people walking along rows of vendors at the weekly farmers market.

The NorthWest Crossing Saturday Farmers Market started in 2008 as a relatively small neighborhood gathering, and has since grown into the largest farmers market in Central Oregon, with about 80 vendors lining NW Crossing Drive and NW Fort Clatsop Street.

It has expanded to offer master gardener and farm education programs, a petting zoo, live musical acts, food, beer and even gelato. It will continue into mid-September.

Brady Remsen and his wife, Anne, sat behind their booth at the market Saturday selling their vegetables, herbs and flowers.

The couple started their company, Highland Meadows, in 2005, and said this is the first summer they joined the NorthWest Crossing farmers market.

The couple is happy to add to the variety of the market with their popular herbs, which include rosemary, basil and thyme.

Remsen, who is completely blind, said he was drawn to the lively environment of the market — hearing families pushing their children in strollers or people walking with their bicycles.

“Just the ambiance of the crowd, and hearing people have fun, it’s better than just sitting at a desk,” he said.

Thai Lee, co-owner of Mountain View Farm in Ridgefield, Washington, has sold his array of flowers at the NorthWest Crossing market for the past three years.

Lee first came to the market to help his aunt, who was a vendor. Since then, he makes the 3½-hour trip each week in the summer to sell his flowers at the market.

Lee — who also sells at a farmers market in Vancouver, Washington, about 15 miles south of Ridgefield — said it is worth making the trip to Bend.

He stays busy selling his flowers and making money, but also enjoying the growing environment. In just the past three years, Lee said, he has seen a difference at the market.

“When we first came here, the only music was over there,” Lee said, pointing to one corner of the market. “But now there is music over there, over there and over there.”

Personally, Lee has found himself enjoying summer weekends in Bend.

“I would like to retire here one day,” he said.

Bend resident Mark South and his wife, Ashley Gish, walked their bicycles through the market Saturday as they checked out the vendors.

South, who will teach Spanish at Bend Senior High School in the fall, and Gish, a nurse practitioner, moved to Bend last year from Heber City, Utah, just south of Park City.

South said they only caught the last few weeks of the NorthWest Crossing market last summer, and have been enjoying it more this year.

“There’s a cool farmers market we would go to in Park City that reminds me of this,” South said. “I really do like the local feel of any farmers market, but especially here. It’s a fun atmosphere.”

Gish noticed this year’s market is even bigger than last year’s, with more local vendors, and entertainment.

“It is a good market,” Gish said. “They have a good mix of crafts and homemade, local things. It’s not store-bought stuff.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7820, 
kspurr@bendbulletin.com