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The Keyport Farmers Market is a new market in Kitsap for 2009. It is planned for Fridays but we have no current information on time or location. Stay tuned for more information.

Monica Phillips, A Critical Link From Farm To Table

Last modified on 2009-05-12 18:08:14 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Fortunately for local farmers and food consumers, Monica Phillips is just one of those people who can’t say no…to farmers’ market management that is.  She’s the only local market manger who manages two farmers markets – one on Fridays in Keyport and the other on Tuesdays in Silverdale.

Monica Phillips ( on right) helps out Helen Patterson

Raised on a rural 10-acre farm in the San Joaquin Valley in California,  Phillips says she grew up in the days when the family went down to the local dairy with gallon-size containers to fill them up with fresh milk directly from the cow, then skimmed the top cream to make butter.

“I just thought it was all too much work and could hardly wait to get off the farm  and go to college in San Luis Obispo,” says Phillips, who currently owns an herb farm.

“Now look at me,” she says with a laugh. “We’re looking for more property for a bigger  farm and a permanent location for the Silverdale Farmers Market – it’s  limited now to only 32 vendors in it’s present location in the parking lot at the Silverdale Beach Hotel.

But Phillips says she went back to appreciating her roots pretty early on. While earning an undergraduate degree in social science at San Luis Obispo and graduate school at Azusa Pacific, she found that fresh produce wasn’t as available in town so she began frequenting local farmers markets.

Eventually she helped put herself through three years of law school by becoming a farmer’s market vendor.  She had to drop out her final quarter, but all of the skills she learned selling and observing how the farmers market was run were put to use after she, her husband and two kids moved up here in 1994 when he was transferred by the Navy.

Phillips began selling her herbs first as a vendor at different established farmers markets but says she realized that there weren’t any mid-week farmers market so she began collecting names of other farmers, food providers and crafts people.  In 1999 she opened the Silverdale Farmers market on Tuesdays – it’s now in its 11th season.

“I thought it would provide a service to both the farmers and the community to have a mid-week market,” Phillips says. “During the height of the growing season, a lot of the farmers could pick at the end of the week for the Saturday markets but they also had to pick mid-week so a lot of their product had to be given away or went to mulching.”

Phillips also talked about how much her kids and other “market kids” learn about life skills from harvesting to marketing to math skills while waiting on customers.

“When my son was in kindergarten, his teacher said he was the only child who knew all the denominations of currency and coins and could make change,” says Phillips.

Currently she has others, such as crafter Helen Patterson, selling her herbs at the two markets while she manages and sells beverages like flavored espresso, water and two popular concoctions she makes – Mexican hot chocolate and lavender lemonade.

This past January, Phillips started up the Keyport Farmers Market on Fridays inside the Island Jamz Caribbean restaurant because she feels the community needs a winter market too.  On sunny days, it moves outside to the restaurant’s parking lot.

As though she doesn’t have enough else to do, Phillips also manages another “market” this spring.  When her son’s school’s PTA couldn’t find someone to chair the concessions for track meets, Phillips stepped up to the plate to do that too.

“I guess I just can’t say no to doing this type of thing but at least this will end pretty soon,” chuckled Phillips.

The Silverdale Farmers Market is on Tuesdays from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. at the Silverdale Beach Hotel ;  the Keyport Market is on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Island Jamz restaurant.  For more market or vending information, call Monica Phillips at (360) 830 9565.