The Friends of the Market, a group supporting the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, started a composting program seven years ago. The program started small but quickly had overfilled bins, and for years it was hosted by Jim Carlson and Himanee Gupta of Squash Villa Farm. Jim brought and hauled the bins back to their farm and incorporated the material into their compost piles, helping rejuvenate soil at their former Greenfield Center site.
In 2022, Gupta received an award through Empire State University’s Foundation that gave her funds to develop projects tied to her scholarly and mentoring work as a professor with Empire State; by that point, Squash Villa had moved to a larger site in Easton. Running the growing farm required more time and effort, and Gupta had hoped the compost collection could evolve into something new. That is how the Scraps to Soil program began.
“I always had had a dream to close the loop on the compost project and bring bags of soil back to market customers; soil created from the food scraps they brought to the market,” explained Gupta.
The market contracted with Hope LaBonty, owner of Loving Earth Compost, who brought bins to the market every Wednesday and Saturday during the outdoor market season. As part of the agreement, Loving Earth Compost turned the scraps into soil and then brought the soil bags to the market, where they were sold in October 2023. The program was popular, and frequent shoppers looked forward to this weekly service.
Recognizing the community’s support of the program, the board voted to take the profit from the soil sale and apply it to continue contracting with Loving Earth Compost for the winter market. Due to a shortage of funding, the market could only contract for one small bin at the indoor/winter market, which is commonly overflowing.
In an effort to continue to provide and expand this service to the community, the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, a 501(c)3 organization, is planning a series of fundraising efforts to support the composting program, along with educational outreach and activities, a summer kids club and community festivals. One of our upcoming events to help fund these services will be in June with a Festival of Lanterns. You can support the market with a $25 donation or amount of choice by visiting the market on Saturday or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information on how you can contribute to the market.
The Saratoga Farmers Market is 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Saturdays in the food court of the Wilton Mall. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for previews of what’s fresh.
