BILLINGS— Yellowstone Valley Farmers Market is providing a way for one family in Billings continue beekeeping.
“It is the majority… of our sales and a lot of years we sell out,” said Erika Strecker, seller for Magic City Apiary.
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Her family has sold honey at the farmers market for six years.
“We don’t change or add anything. It's just raw honey. It's lightly strained and it's very local right here at West Billings,” she said.
Strecker often sells alongside her mother, Jackie Swiesz.
“It seems to us that once people taste the honey and they take it home and use it, that we have repeat customers coming back,” said Swiesz.
The vendor also sells beeswax and honeycomb and gives free samples.
Support from the community allows the family to buy necessary equipment for their growing hobby.
“A lot of what we use our profits for is reinvesting into more beekeeping equipment. It can be anything from more bee-hive boxes to some of the equipment that we use for extracting and bottling,” said Swiesz.
The market provides important revenue for some vendors, but for others, they come to the market mostly to connect with the community.
“It's a good way to bring fresh produce every week to get customers to come and make everybody happy,” said Travis Kleinsasser, with Mountain View Colony.
He sells produce and baked goods at the market every week, but it is just one of the places people can purchase the products.
“I’m not doing this for my benefit,” added Shobha Parekh. She shares books about spirituality and meditation at the market for free and teaches out of the Bhagavad Gita from her home.
More than 60 vendors line the streets of downtown Billings every Saturday from 8 a.m.-12 p.m.
Yellowstone Valley Farmers Market will continue through October 4.
