Staff photo by Fritz Busch Juan, left, and Dalia Cervantes of Fairfax sell onions, cucumbers and other vegetables at the New Ulm Farmers Market at the A to Zinnia parking lot on Broadway Saturday.

NEW ULM — The New Ulm Farmes Market, held in the A to Zinnia Park Lot Saturday was attended by several vegetable growers, each with their own way to deal with recent heavy rainfalls.

In the last month, farmers big and small had to contend with with a foot of water dumped in only a few weeks.

Many of the experienced planters had a plan for the rain.

“We’ve been coming to the New Ulm Farmer’s Market for 24 years. Muskmelon, watermelon, sweet corn, tomatoes, and cucumbers are our biggest sellers,” said Darrell Platz of Comfrey. “The rain has bothered us to a point, but everything is irrigated. We haven’t flooded. After 24 years, you know where to plant stuff. A lot of our gardens are indoors.”

Dalia and Juan Cervantes of Fairfax embranced the wet season, growing what was available. They said this season has resulted in a lots of beans.

“The beans are pretty good,” Juan Cervantes said. “We’ve got pickles, garlic and make salsa too.”

The Cervantes said they will have tomatoes this season, but they are coming slowly due to the heavy rainfall.

Mariah and Josh Hurley of Happy Hens Farm near St. James grow pasture-raised chicken and produce. They also sell duck eggs, whole chickens, turkeys, freeze-dried candy and treats and sourdough baked goods.

Scones with chocolate chips, cranberries, lemon, blueberries, cranberries and oranges are their biggest sellers.

“We try to have a different flavored scone each week,” said Mariah Hurley.

“Our vine garden is pretty much done for this season. Our regular garden is doing pretty well this year. We put thick, black plastic down this year. It really helped a lot keeping the rain off,” she added.

Josh Hurley said “putting down plastic saved a lot of back-breaking, weed pulling. We heated up bean cans with a torch and melted holes in the plastic for plants. It worked nice.”

Becky Sellner of rural Sleepy Eye and her daughter Millie sold soap made from cow’s milk. The soap has skin oil from cows but no preservatives.

In the fall, the Sellner’s sell pumpkins and can vegetables. Their favorites are peas and green beans.

“Nothing tastes better than fresh peas and green beans out of the garden. You can’t beat it,” said Becky.

Holly Juni of rural New Ulm was selling vegetables. Her favorite is jalapeños because they’re spicy. She was also selling onions, tomatos, kohlrabi, frozen pizza dough, dutch bread, salsa, pickles, rhubarb, blueberry sauce and asparagus.

“My onion flatbread is selling best. I make nine different kinds of flatbread. I try to bring a different kind each weekend,” Juni said. “My garden is recovering from the heavy rain. My husband Lowell farms. His crops look great. We’ve gone for lots of rides looking at them.”

The New Ulm Farmer’s Market is held Thursdays and Saturdays at 15 S. Broadway in the A to Zinnia parking lot.

The market runs 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursdays and 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturdays.