La Familia Growers Market wraps up in the South Valley

SOUTH VALLEY, N.M. — Tracy Aragon and her family love the La Familia Growers Market in the South Valley.

“This year was awesome, it started out with the monsoon – we got rained out in the first one which was exciting,” Tracy said. “Since then, they’ve had a lot more going on, which is really fun.”

They made sure to make it out one last time this season.

“Just being able to support the community and farmers, there’s always great things to taste and fresh produce and stuff, so it’s fun, and he has a nice place to run around in the park so it’s good times,” Carlos Aragon said about bringing their son out to the market.

There is fresh produce like apples and honey from Montoya’s Farm.

Sabina Montoya said her family has been selling at markets for almost three decades now.

“My father started off doing the honey, he’s the beekeeper, the green thumb in everything,” she said.

Friday’s golden hour lit up local sellers’ booths, from handmade jewelry to New Mexican favorites like beef jerky and red chile.

Longtime resident and vendor Robert Lujan said he’ll keep coming back to sell chile as long as the people come back to buy it.

“We’ve been selling for four years going on five. The jalapenos, they call them pickled jalapenos and the red chile from Hatch, and we’ve been doing real good,” he said. “As long as we keep doing good, we’re going to keep selling every year.”