For the past 21 years, Joni Wengerd has been getting up at 1:30 in the morning on Saturdays to drive three and a half hours to the Peekskill Farmers Market to sell the vegetables he grows on 22 acres of the Rolling Ridge Farm he and his family cultivate. Saturday was his final trip, handing off the business to his friend David Fischer who will continue to bring fresh produce from Pennsylvania to the market with his two sons, Steve and Benji.   

Regulars to the Peekskill Farmers Market will recall that Wengerd’s dad started coming to the Farmers Market when it opened in 1991 and have watched family members grow through the years. “It was time to retire from the business,” said Wengerd on Saturday at the opening day of Peekskill’s Farmers Market. His farm is for sale and he’ll be concentrating on working at a farm market in Pennsylvania that has a deli and a bakery. 

There were many challenges, not the least of which was dealing with the  weather on the farm. The price of gasoline and tolls along with the cost of organic farming all added up to help him make the decision. “It was a hard decision,” he said and added that it was getting tougher to find help. 

The friendliness of people in Peekskill is what he will remember the most from his time here. “People here were so appreciative of what I was bringing, they helped me make my living,” he recalled with a smile. Every year, before New Year’s Day, he was ordering seeds to start growing in his greenhouse to have in time for the beginning of the Market in June. He began talking to his friends the Fishers last year and they came to the Peekskill Farmers Market in September and October to get a sense of it. 

Fisher and his sons are no strangers to the market business. They run a successful six-day-a-week Farmer’s Market near Lake Ariel, PA. and plan on carrying the same type of produce that Wengerd brings. They also intend to add salsas and pickled goods along with pies, cider donuts and jellies and jams.