Every Saturday the Heart of the Hudson Valley Farmers Market opens at 9 a.m. and runs until 2 p.m. at the Cluett Schantz Park in Milton. The market offers a wide selection of organic fruits and vegetables, baked goods, honey, eggs, essential oils and even flower creations.

Brent Van Zandt, of Katie Rose Bakery, brings an assortment of freshly baked breads along with coconut macs, crumb pies, cookies, apple turnovers, and biscotti to sell at the market.

Van Zandt said his daughter starts baking at 2 a.m. in her bake shop, located at 107 Route 376 in Hopewell Junction. He loads up his car at 8 a.m. and, “They send Dad off to man the tent,” adding that she is “big on gluten free and vegan breads.”

Gerry Greco, of Hepworth Farms, said they have started an online program that allows people to order and pay for a box of vegetables and greens by Thursday and they simply come to the market on Saturday to pick it up. This week each box contained artisan lettuce, swiss chard, cabbage, zucchini/summer squash, carrots, arugula, beets, potatoes, onions, scallions, garlic scrapes, herbs, cherries and greenhouse tomatoes, all for $25/box.

“We usually put a newsletter in it that tells you what you’re getting and how to cook it sometimes,” she said. “This was the first week and we had about 12 people and I think it’s going to be fine. People who don’t want to shop can come and pick something up and leave; it’s a quick and easy thing.” Greco noted that those who came for the boxes this week were new customers who saw the program online.

People can order online at farmbox.us/ and then pick it up at the farmers market in Milton.

Greco said having the farmers market in Milton, “has been great for us. We do it for the community and we do it so people in our area have access to our tomatoes and vegetables and this is the way they can do it.”

Greco said the produce they have at the farm is either picked the night before or the morning of the market, sometimes starting at 5 a.m. Each week what is in the boxes can be slightly different.

Greco said they will soon be offering tomatoes, which she calls a “big deal” because they grow about 100 varieties. In addition, they will soon have corn, eggplants, zucchini, melons, “everything that’s in season that we can grow. We have about 300 to 400 line items.”

Greco said 2020 is the second year they are growing hemp, with some going into pharmaceutical grade, high quality, CBD oil.

Lou Gangemi, of Windwood Farm in Clintondale, has been a vendor at the market for six years.

“We do homemade mozzarella and pickles, baked good and eggs, so we have a good spread and everything on the farm is brought here,” he said. “We’re a small independent egg farm, that’s it, nothing big.”

Johna George, of Creations Jubilations in Wallkill, came to the market for the first time last Saturday. She sells a variety of colorful flower arrangements.

“It’s all good and there are good people here,” she said. “I look for local events and I am just starting going out.”

Derek and Jeannine Grant and their young daughter Emilie came down from Highland to shop.

“I’ve been here before,” with Derek adding, “It’s nice.”

Sheila Mannese, of the Meet Me in Marlborough agri-tourism organization, was selling fruit from the Kent’s Locust Grove Fruit Farm in Milton.

“The market is a community market and was put together for Meet Me in Marlborough to make it convenient for people to support local,” she said. “The initial idea was to let people know about our farms, our businesses and our organizations. Now fast-forward to 2020, it’s also serving as a way for people to be able to acquire all local produce, fruit, baked goods and specialty items.”

Sean Henry represented Quimby Farm, an institution in the Milton-Marlborough farming community. It is 64 acres up on Mt. Zion Road.

“My wife makes homemade jams and jellies from the fruit from the farm and me and my daughter raise grass-fed beef,” he said. “Then when we have berries and grapes in season we bring the fruit. We’ve been here from the very beginning of the market.”

Patricia Cifone is a wellness advocate for DoTERRA Essential Oils.

“These are basically herbs and are CPTG, which is Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade,” she said. “They are a medicinal grade and are an ingest-able essential oil and not all companies are; that’s their big plus.”

Cifone said the oils may help with many different types of ailments.

“I had a lot of inflammation in my body and now I am drug-free,” she said. “That’s why I am a sharer and that’s why I am a wellness advocate today.”

Cifone said the oils also help with digestive issues, stress and anxiety.

“They’re safe because they are pure, there is nothing added to them and nothing taken away, they are just pure extracts from trees, the roots and leaves,” she said.

Cifone said this was her second time at the market.

“I just want to get the word out and I want people to know that this is here and what I can offer,” she said.

Cifone can be found at mydoterra.com/eosandyou.