We're talking about the Racine Farmers Market on the Lake Don Carrillo.
Carrillo or Carrillo?
Depends who you ask, but for me, it's always been Carrillo.
Carrillo?
Okay.
Carrillo.
That's how I'll use them.
That's how I'll use them.
Carrillo.
Carrillo.
Carrillo.
Carrillo.
I can never do that.
People can, my wife can do it.
Your roller are.
I can't do that.
Don Carrillo is here.
We're going to talk about a brand new thing coming to the lake front and it's at the Festival
Park area.
This will be outside, right?
Correct.
Nothing inside.
It's all outside.
All outside.
Okay.
It's the Racine Farmers Market on the lake and wins the kickoff date.
Saturday.
This Saturday.
Yeah.
We're very excited.
Yep.
Oh, get right.
You just came back from a big trip, didn't you?
I did.
I was in Spain for a couple of weeks, but I'm ready to go now.
Did you say your name was Carrillo when you were in Spain?
I did.
Yes.
I knew you would.
Okay.
So tell me about this.
Why is this different?
Because there was like a farmer's market on a market square, a monument square.
That's just different.
Correct.
So this is a Saturday morning market, nine o'clock in the morning.
We start.
Nine o'clock.
I know we load in at six a.m.
So I get up at four thirty in the morning, so you can help us load in that.
Thank you.
So it's going to be every Saturday.
And this is a true farmer's market.
Everyone who is selling has grown or made the food.
So you can talk directly to your farmers.
We will have over 60 vendors, everything, all the kind of produce and proteins as well
as handmade items, breads, people coming from all over southeastern Wisconsin to sell
at the market.
Local honey.
Local honey.
My wife's big into local honey, and she's right in a way because honey makes you, what's
that word I'm looking for, your immune to certain diseases.
Absolutely.
And did you know, honey is the only food on this planet that has no expiration date.
You could hold it for thousands of years.
It's still going to be good.
Yeah.
And we have some great vendors who sell local honey.
Yeah.
She likes that stuff.
I mean, honey is honey, but I use it in tea when I'm sick.
I put it in there rather than sugar.
Absolutely.
All right.
So let's talk about it.
So it's opening days this Saturday.
Now, what if the worst possible thing happens where you get a little drizzle right now,
it looks good.
Sunny.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nice weekend.
What if it rains a little bit?
It is rain or shine.
And the vendors know that I have a lot of experience in farmers market management.
And I know that when a customer, even if it's raining, a customer wants that fresh produce,
they will come out in the rain.
And if any of you mentioned that because occasionally, there's these little bit pop up
stands on, I think Stuart Avenue, I'm trying to figure out where it is.
And my wife always buys the vegetables from those stands when she passes by the way
from home from church.
We see the stand that we buy.
It's probably going to pop down there Saturday morning and load up.
What's different than just a stand is we have, we have nine farmers coming in with their
produce every market.
And so then you have a choice of different things that you can buy based on the different
farmers that will be there.
And so they grow a wide variety of items.
So every farmer is going to be a little different, but we're lucky enough to wear a lot of
farmers markets have one or two farmers will have nine that come from farms every morning.
I'm looking at the postcard you gave me here, live music too, huh?
We do.
We do.
Live music every Saturday as well as different kind of children's programming.
We'll have sprouts activity which this week will have RKC third coast come in and do soccer
clinics for all ages, kids and adults in the big green space that we have at the festival
park.
We'll have kids coins so that every kid, a school, a child can have $2 free educators
credit union is sponsoring that so that we're growing the next generation of farmers market
lovers.
And you'll be able to speak to a farmer with your coin and ask for $2 worth of your favorite
snack.
If we're going to farm, I have not.
That looks like the hardest job in the world.
I wouldn't want that for any of them.
Thank goodness there are people to do it, but we went to they do it at different spots
every year.
And when they did it, the nursing county fairgrounds was a farmer's day.
I think what they call it, a farmer's breakfast or whatever it was and it went down and I was
talking to some of the farmers, I wouldn't do that for anything.
I know.
I mean, you're so dependent on the weather, you're so dependent on animals, you know, being
healthy or so dependent on diseases for animal crop diseases.
Right.
And so you'll see the market change over the course of the weeks for just those reasons
because of the weather.
We will see additional farmers joining us or with of course, with different produce based
on on what we have in the weather coming up and they hand these farms down for the generations
of generations.
What really I do get upset though that when I when I go to church, and there were like
three or four farms, they sold them and that was all housing on it.
And that bothers me.
I don't know why because, you know, there's still plenty of farms out there, but the
farmers, there's now the fuel charges now they're dependent on that and the fertilizer
and all those kind of things.
But to have a carrot that comes from the grocery store, that's probably been picked a
month ago versus the carrot that was picked that morning or the night before really makes
a difference in the taste and the nutritional value and all the things that make a farmer's
market worth the effort to go and get the great produce.
We talked to Don Carillo and she is representing the Racine Farmers Market on the lake and
that begins this Saturday and runs every Saturday through the end of October.
Boom.
Right through the harvest season.
24 weeks.
Yeah, that's going to get the fresh stuff right in October and it runs 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
And it's not just vegetables and fruits, it's a lot of other stuff in there.
All right.
They'll be prepared foods.
You can come and have breakfast or lunch as well as all the other homemade home-baked
items, lots of breads, plus all your dairy, your cheeses, your eggs, all those kind of
things.
Wow.
One stop.
How many vendors you have?
We will have in the heart of I have designed it for 60 vendors.
Whoa.
So they'll be a handful.
What if somebody wants to come in and they're 61?
Right.
It depends what you're selling.
Squeeze them in.
I will squeeze them in.
Okay.
I believe that park is big enough for probably 200 vendors.
That is a big enough for more than that.
It's a beautiful space.
I have been to hundreds of farmers markets across the country.
I don't know of a better space.
I think it started in the farmers market business.
You know, it was, it's kind of odd.
I retired from METC after 30 years and kind of found this new passion was asked by the city
of Oak Creek to start a market there.
Oak Creek?
And when I left, we had generated $1.2 million on Saturday morning sales.
So I'm taking all the things that I learned and loved and bringing them to receive.
Slopping them down to receiving.
I am.
That's good.
Yeah.
Talk about it.
You mentioned you were talking about the food share program you have.
Yes.
I'm very excited about the food share.
You know, food share is what is the state name for the SNAP and WIC programs.
And I understand that the city of Racine is in a food desert in downtown Racine.
And so we're going to be able to feed the people that live in that area that might not
have access to fresh produce.
So we will be running the SNAP program.
But even more important is we have been chosen by the state to be a representative of the
double up food box, which will be supporting the market in Racine.
So that program will start in June and where you will take $20 off your SNAP card.
And we will give you, we will match $20 so you'll give $40 to buy the freshest produce
in the state.
That's a term I never heard of before until last week food desert.
Yeah.
And they used it in Milwaukee with the supermarkets are closing up in certain neighborhoods.
And now pharmacies are starting to close up so they're calling it a pharmacy desert now.
I never heard that term before.
What was I in a coma?
I never heard of it.
You know, it's a USDA term that it that doesn't evaluation of an area and where the need
for fresh produce is.
And so Racine, downtown Racine is one of those because there's not a walking grocery
star.
And we hope that on Saturday mornings we can provide that food.
Now, the fourth of July parade this year is on a Saturday.
Correct.
Look at your face.
I know.
She's so excited.
I hear there's a lot of people that go to that.
And you are right there and you're going to take advantage with extended hours.
We are.
We're going to go to three o'clock so that you can watch the parade and walk down the block.
We have the police department getting us a locate or an access to get the farmers.
I was about to say we're directing traffic out of the downtown area right to the farmers
market.
Correct.
And what a great place to you know, you've parked already.
You've attended the parade and then you can walk down to festival park and have lunch.
We have a cash bar.
We have all the things that you can continue your fourth of July celebration with.
All right.
So throw out some things here.
Tell me about them.
Special theme days.
Yeah.
So we'll have apple fest and you know, like things that we will get all excited about.
We have something called the salsa contest, well, we'll bring local salsa company.
Wait a second.
I got to tell you, I was involved at the Racine Public Library.
Once my wife dragged me to a hot sauce tasting contest salsa hot sauce.
And they were like maybe 15 people in the room and they had 10 different hot sauces for
you to taste.
And you would dip the chip in, don't double dip the chip, but you chip to put your chip
and you took a bite and you rated it how good it was.
We got to number eight and I thought I had to go to the hospital.
I thought my mouth was on fire.
Number 10, too.
But number eight was the worst.
I remember it.
There was one other person there.
We're banging on the wall.
We can't stand the pain.
It was so hot.
It turns out the yeah, you don't know what you're eating.
They're all covered.
So you don't know what it is.
They used a cooking hot sauce where you're supposed to put one little drop in your cooking
and it's not like regular hot sauce.
And so we took a big chip load of it.
No, no.
And I thought this is it.
This is how my life ends at the Racine Public Library.
It was really good.
I enjoyed it.
It was good until I got to number eight.
And this will be the same kind of premise.
We will divide up the salsa.
So everyone will get a bag of chips and the 10 different samples and then, right.
And then you'll have your, we'll bring in some chefs that will do some, you know, ratings
and then we'll award to the best salsa.
But they were smart at the library.
They bought a gallon of milk in.
Oh, yeah.
These will not be hot like that.
And they bought it again and say they poured you a cup of milk to put the fire out, which
is pretty smart because I wouldn't have thought that I would just take water and water
won't do it.
You got to have, but you're not going to have that super hot stuff.
We will not.
But we will also have cooking show as old Madrid, a manny from old Madrid will come in.
Oh, old Madrid.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes.
He'll come in every week or once a month.
I'm sorry.
And do a cooking show using the fresh produce that was at the market, you said once
a week.
I'm sorry.
I know.
Doesn't matter.
You're sorry.
But then he'll, what he'll do is he'll feature that what he made at the market at the restaurant
for that week as well.
That's pretty neat.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Getting the whole community together, being more than just a grocery store is kind of
our intent at Festival Park.
You know, I never had an apple in my entire life.
Still?
No.
Still.
No, I never have one in my life.
I just never have one.
Apple pie?
Nope.
Never taste it.
Apple pie.
Well, please come to the market.
Let me buy you.
The stage of the game.
Here's some things I never had.
Never had a cup of coffee in my life.
Never had a beer.
Never had a cigarette.
There's some vegetables that I've never had.
And I like vegetables.
I like salads.
I have a salad every single day.
But there are some things I won't put in it.
So what's kind of cute is that we have something called a taste attempt at the market?
No.
And then so what it is, is it's a tent that we will feature a produce or a protein
every week.
So that, you know, you or small children that haven't had the taste of a specific vegetable.
Let me tell you something.
Take a quick story.
When there's a little kid, I'm going to bet six, seven, maybe eight years old.
My mother made dinner for us.
And she put, she put the meat on the plate and then she put a scoop of peas on there.
Knowing I didn't need it.
She did it by mistake.
So quickly she tried to take my plate away to get the peas off.
My father said, leave them.
He's going to eat them.
And I said, I, it wasn't, I wasn't being defined.
I just know I couldn't keep them down.
And I don't want to, you know, do that at the table.
So he said, you're not leaving this table to eat the peas.
So my brother, my brother, my father went down to the rec room, watch TV.
This is in the early 60s, went down, watched for two hours, came up, I was sitting there
with the peas.
He said, go to bed.
I said, Dad, I'm not being mean to you.
I just, I know I can't keep them down.
No, I eat peas when they're in vegetable soup or in rice, you know, see them up, but
it played a piece.
I don't, I don't keep it down.
So I didn't eat it to this day.
I've never had to play the peas.
Oh, wait till you do.
That's a farmer's market.
No.
Oh, a whole different ballgame, one of the quick stories.
So I, my company I worked for in New York was, you're going to send me to do it from radio
station.
We bought in Atlanta.
So the manager down there wanted to meet me, took me out to a Southern cooking restaurant
and they're in front of me or the greasiest, oily vegetables I've ever seen in my life.
Deep fried, everything was deep fried, deep fried cauliflower, deep fried broccoli,
deep, and I'm looking at this plate.
There's nothing on this plate that I'm ever going to eat, especially deep fried.
The oil was a pool of oil in the plate and he said, no, come on, eat up.
I didn't want the job that badly, but I, I nitpicked at it and I said, I'm not going
to keep this down.
I'm not going to get it.
And I knew I didn't get one word he said for the full hour because I'm, I'm looking
at this plate of oily vegetables in front of me.
You know, everything in South is deep fried.
I'm looking at it and I said, I'm not going to make it.
So he's going to pick that and said, well, I'm not feeling that well today.
Holy Macro.
Completely different at the farmer's time.
I would hope so.
It will be.
It will be the best, freshest protein she can even imagine.
Not swimming in oil.
No, no, no, but you know, believe it or not, we do have an oil vendor that is,
that is bringing in olive oil to South.
So we are very excited about that as well.
But yeah, a little bit of everything, but the produce will be very fresh.
I have a salad every single night, every single night I have a salad.
I like green peppers in there.
I like it.
Well, let us obviously green peppers, right peppers too.
I put in there some other little things I put in.
So I'm not totally not I'm not a anti-vegetables, just some of them.
We're going to get you a whole new system.
I had experts from all over the world.
And you think some little lady from receiving from receiving Wisconsin is going to change that.
Yes.
I had people all over the biggest cities in America.
I thought they'd take on the Don Rotten Challenge and it never worked.
The power of a farmer's market manager though.
Although when I do eat from the paella, they have peas in there sometimes.
And I eat them.
I just can't eat a plate of peas.
Well, so my wife gets some stuff mushrooms and she says it's cheese and artichoke in there.
I said, forget it.
She said you won't even notice the artichoke.
Then why did they say it?
And I ate them and I didn't notice the artichoke.
No, no, no.
Because I look at it and she said artichoke.
No, I'm good.
Well, of course, these are all Wisconsin locally grown.
So we won't have, you know, we don't really have artichokes or we don't have citrus, but
I do love farmers markets and we go all the time.
Or why it just loads up with bags full of groceries from the farmers market.
And you know, on opening day, we will give away free bags.
So there's an insulated bag that Aurora has is providing to us so that it'll keep your
vegetables fresh and it'll keep your frozen food frozen.
And we're going to give those away on opening day.
Just keep getting better and better.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, quick review.
The recene farmers market on the lake.
It's at festival park.
You know, with that is plenty of parking and it's free to get in, right?
Correct.
Free to get in.
Just bring your appetite and come hungry.
And it's funny when you come hungry, you'll buy more.
Perhaps like at a supermarket too.
Exactly.
And it's from 90 into 1 p.m.
It runs starting this Saturday right through sometime in October.
Yeah.
Extended hours after the 4th of July parade.
I can't believe we're talking about the 4th of July parade already.
But we are live music kids coins.
We can cash them in.
Yeah.
That's good.
That will be have to be ages five through 12.
Oh, no, I can't do it.
No.
And their food share program, which is very nice.
Very nice you're doing that.
And they'll have once the when the salsa demos contest start.
We're scheduling that for August, so that when tomatoes are in season.
I can do that.
And you got cornfest.
Yeah, we have a little bit of everything.
Just to, you know, it gets everyone excited about something new
for cornfest and potato fast and apple fast will give away free products
so that everybody can enjoy.
Give them the website.
Recenefarmersmarket.com.
Oh, how did you get that one?
Yeah, nice and easy.
Nobody took that one.
No one had it.
Good for you, Dawn.
Thank you.
And you're going to come back and talk about other events said
festival park, right?
Correct.
Okay, sounds good.
Thank you, Dawn.
