Reconnecting with our roots

On Saturday, September 27, the Narrowsburg Farmers’ Market hosted Harvest Roots: A Taste of Byway Agriculture, a pop-up event celebrating the agricultural heritage of the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway while showcasing today’s local farms. 

“After Labor Day, market traffic naturally slows, so an event like this helps us draw people back, keep them engaged and remind them why buying local matters,” says Danielle Gaebel, market manager at the Narrowsburg Farmers’ Market. “By offering free tastings, sips and history displays, we give people a chance to not just shop but to really connect with the food, the stories and the farmers who bring it to the table.” 

The Upper Delaware Scenic Byway (UDSB) provided a $1,000 UDSB Culture and History Grant to the market for the event. While The Farmers’ Daughter & Friends band played folk music, visitors read “Then & Now” displays with fun agricultural facts and sampled goods from Trapani Farms, Calkins Creamery, Journey’s End Farms, Willow Wisp Organic Farm, Sprouting Dreams Farm and Two Creek Farm. 

“We’ve seen through our cooking demos and tastings that when people experience food in this way, it sparks pride, curiosity and a stronger commitment to eating local year-round,” says Gaebel. 

“When we talk about the ‘foods that shaped life along the Byway,’ we’re pointing to the staples that sustained people here for generations—apples, corn, root vegetables, dairy, honey, maple and wild fruits like blackberries,” she says. These foods have been central to the Lenape people, to canal workers, to railroad-era farming and to families who relied on the land to get through long winters.

“Today, those same foods are still at the heart of our local agriculture,” she says, “with farms like Trapani continuing the apple tradition, Calkins Creamery carrying forward the region’s dairy legacy and many of the area’s small farms growing the same root vegetables that have always thrived here.”

“By showcasing these ingredients in tastings and displays, Harvest Roots helps people see the thread that ties past to present — resilience, resourcefulness and community sustained by local food,” she says.  

To help share their stories, participating vendors had signs describing the history and mission of their local businesses. Owner and grower Andrea Ramirez of El Colibri Flowers, a new vendor at the market this year, was one of the stands showcasing a sign. 

“I always like the farmers’ market as a customer, but I find it to be so compelling as a seller as well, getting to know farmers and… getting to know the neighbors,” says Ramirez. “I am more a fan than I was even before.”

Bobby Skotch has been working for Willow Wisp Organic Farm for about 10 years, focusing on working both city and local farmers’ markets. He says this was the first time he’s participated in something like Harvest Roots. “I think it’s pretty cool,” says Skotch. “It lets people know that some of the things that we’re eating today we were eating long ago.” 

Sylvia Pryzant of Four Story Hill Farm has been a vendor at the Narrowsburg Farmers’ Market for five years. “Each farmer had a placard with a biography of the history of one’s farm—from humble beginnings to challenges along the way,” says Pryzant, which in her case included health issues, a barn collapse, and the pandemic. 

“The Harvest Roots Festival was lovely because it brings the community together and it highlighted the goal of each farmer, which is to bring fresh and healthy homegrown products to the community as a way of caring and sharing with its people,” she says.

This inaugural event was just the beginning, says Gaebel. “We hope it turns into something we expand and do annually.”