Homemade salsas and jams at the Zanesville farmers market

ZANESVILLE, Ohio-  Hundreds of people, and about 20 vendors, came out to the Zanesville Farmers Market despite the cold and the rain.

Farmer’s market vendor, Sharon Bauer, sells her homemade jams and salsa nearly every week. She has been selling her various jams, salsas, and other condiments for five years now. She is not only a vendor at the farmers market. She is also a customer there. She likes to make her jams with locally grown produce.

“Fred’s Market, I get a lot of produce from Fred,” said Bauer. “I get all of my berries from him. I use Cherries Orchard as well as Cooper Produce. My peaches all come from local (farms.)”

Bauer said her best seller is apple butter. She laughingly said selling her jam and  salsa isn’t the hard part. She said the hard part is making the homemade product. Making a jar of jam takes much longer than people would expect.

“You have to get the fruit, and you have to process it,” said Bauer. “Some fruits easily crush and other fruits have to be chopped. You cook it and then you put it in hot jars. It’s time-consuming.”

A half pint of her jams or salsas are four dollars while a full pint jar is 7 dollars. She said she plans on being at the farmers market until it closes at the end of October.