The Sedona Greenhouse Project launched its Vision Farmers Market on the patio at ChocolaTree in West Sedona on Tuesday, May 16.

The market is intended to increase both access to locallygrown produce and awareness of SGP’s mission to build a collaborative network of local food producers who can decrease Sedona’s reliance on imported food.

“We’re sourcing all local products and doing our best to have everything from Arizona,” SGP’s program director Karina Cole said.

“These are all from our gardens,” Cole added, looking over the racks of fresh produce. “Right now we have like six different gardens. The number has gone up and down.”

The early-season vegetables on display included kale, radishes and chives so potent you could smell them when you walked in, plus a wide selection of fresh herbs. The rue was of particular interest to some visitors, who had never come across it before, and SGP staff were eager to offer them samples.

One of the market’s highlights was Adam Arp’s selection of raw honey sourced from hives across the state, which showed the variations possible in unfiltered honey depending on the origins of the nectar from which it is made. Arp’s orange blossom honey from the Phoenix area was hazy but still translucent and liquid.

By contrast, his camelthorn honey from Winslow, made from the nectar of the camelthorn shrub, an introduced species from southern Africa, was crystallized and almost solid. The Flagstaff wildflower honey was thinner than the camelthorn but thicker than the orange blossom, with its origins apparent in its floral scent.

The market also provided an opportunity to introduce locals and visitors alike to foodstuffs they may not be familiar with, such as the tepary bean. Domesticated and grown primarily in northern Mexico, tepary beans are among the most drought-resistant and heat-resistant of staple crops.

Next to the bags of tepary beans were sacks of red cornmeal and both wheat and corn pinole. The latter is somewhat analogous to jerky; it combines cornmeal with additional ingredients such as cocoa, agave or spices for increased nutrient and energy density and can be used in baked goods or beverages.

On display with the cornmeal was a sampling of bottles of olive oil from the Queen Creek Olive Mill, Arizona’s only operating olive farm, a reminder of the variety of crops that can take hold in the state’s diverse climate zones. Other offerings included pickled yucca, which Cole said has a taste similar to that of artichokes, creosote tinctures and homemade beeswax salve. The essential oils used in the salve are produced by a Cornville farmer who does his own distilling.

“We’re trying to keep it in the middle of the ballpark,” Cole said with regard to pricing. The vegetables and herbs were going for $4 or $5 per bundle, while the honey was priced at $12 per jar.

Live music beneath the patio’s central tree was supplied by local reggae artist Grant “Prezence” Ellman on electric guitar and keyboard. His selections were in the standard Sedona new-age vein, featuring repeated references to transcendence, mindopening and the simultaneous need for and imminence of social progress.

SDP plans on bringing the market back every Tuesday through October and expects additional exhibitors to join them to present their own food- and wellness-related creations. Opening day was already drawing a much younger crowd than most events in Sedona, especially families with young children.

“It’s going to grow a lot over the summer,” Cole predicted.