Cupid’s Market coming Feb. 8
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 8 months AGO
Rosalinda Delgado, left, and her daughter Yvette Ramirez, 9, offer hand-crocheted plushies, scarves, and hats at last year’s Valentine’s Market. This year’s market, dubbed Cupid’s Market, is Feb. 8.
FILE PHOTO
Sheena Cameron, left, and James Allen check out a potential laptop bag at Roy’s Custom Leather Work & Repair’s booth at Moses Lake’s spring market last year.
Arturo Morando puts out handmade garden figurines while his wife Luz Morando looks on at last year’s spring market at the Grant County Fairgrounds. Morando has been creating the figures since he was 9 years old, he said.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | January 31, 2025 3:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — Love, as well as a whole lot of crafts and food, will be in the air Feb. 8 at the Moses Lake Farmers Market’s Cupid’s Market.
“I have 68 stalls and they’re full, with two vendors outside,” said Market Manager Chris Haguewood.
Cupid’s Market, which debuted in 2017, is one of five off-season events the farmers market stages to fill the time between the regular market’s closing in October and its reopening in May. It will take place in the Commercial Building at the Grant County Fairgrounds, where it moved in 2021 because the previous venue, the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center, became unavailable.
The move seems to have been beneficial, as the Commercial Building offers a good open space. There was a possibility the market could outgrow that building and have to carry over into the 4-H Building next door, but Haguewood said there weren’t quite enough vendors to make that necessary.
“I’ve got 10 on the waitlist,” she said. “That’s not quite enough to sell another building.”
Of course, the fresh in-season produce found at the regular farmers market won’t be in quite such supply at Cupid’s Market, but there will be plenty of food and crafts. It’s an event for the whole family, Haguewood said.
“We have some face painters, some balloon-tying vendors and kids’ activities,” she said. “We have lots of bakeries, lots of Valentine's sweets.”
With gardening season rapidly approaching, the WSU Grant-Adams County Master Gardeners will have their plant clinic at the market as well, she said, dispensing advice and answering questions on all the intricacies of gardening.
“They’re very knowledgeable people,” she said. “It’s a great resource.”
Cupid’s Market
Feb. 8, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
Grant County Fairgrounds
3953 Airway Drive NE, Moses Lake
Sheena Cameron, left, and James Allen check out a potential laptop bag at Roy’s Custom Leather Work & Repair’s booth at Moses Lake’s spring market last year.
Arturo Morando puts out handmade garden figurines while his wife Luz Morando looks on at last year’s spring market at the Grant County Fairgrounds. Morando has been creating the figures since he was 9 years old, he said.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake author’s book, “A Christian Woman Striving to Live Her Faith in a Man-Controlled World,” takes aim at the role to which many churches relegate the female half of their congregations. “It’s to encourage women in the faith,” Linda Curran said. “A lot of churches say, ‘Teach Sunday school, do this, do that, but don’t (evangelize.)’" In her book, Curran recounts a time when she moved to a new community and joined a church there. She was surprised to learn that, as a new female member, she had been automatically assigned church cleaning duties. When she questioned it, she wrote, she was met with condescension and her objections were brushed aside. In other churches, she said, women who were capable of teaching were relegated to “women’s ministry.”