Heat Deters Farmers' Market Customers

Temperatures hovering around 97 degrees may have been the culprit for low turnout at the on Tuesday.

The market, which boasts a healthy supply of locally made jewelry, produce, fruit and handmade crafts, is open Tuesdays and Saturdays through October.

“It’s been a little slower today,” Eunice Hicks of Ann Arbor said.

Hicks and her son, Sam, have been attending the farmers’ market for the past five years and sell everything from fresh blueberries to corn and crocheted dishtowels.

“We grow some of the items we sell and others we get from local markets,” Sam Hicks said.

At any given time, the Hicks sell cabbage, corn, peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, rhubarb, honey, sugar snap peas blueberries and an assortment of handmade jewelry.

Each week, customers can checkout the Hicks’ items for sale by following the Twitter account @SFTHICKSENT.

“We post updates with a list of what we will have for sale that week,” Hicks said.

Like other area farmers, Hicks said the weather has played a cruel hand on his produce selection this year.

“It seems like everything is coming in later,” he said. “This year because of the heat, we’ll have beets but the tops will not be good enough to sell. Some people like the tops.”

Hicks acknowledged that the recent heat wave in Michigan has made farming the crops particularly difficult.

“We try to get out in the fields early in the morning before the heat sets in,” he said.

For more information on Hicks, or to visit other local vendors, stop by the Dexter Farmers’ Market on Alpine Street off of Main Street in downtown Dexter, on Tuesdays from 3-7 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m.-1 p.m.