SPEARFISH - The first weekend Hills Horizon hosted "Market in the Park" this summer, there were only three stands.

"It's been going five weeks now, and we have watched it grow and helped it grow," vendor Talli Nauman said.

"The second week, there were five booths. The next week, there were nine booths, and the next week there were 13."

The market opens in Spearfish City Park every Saturday at 9 a.m. and closes at noon. The last market this year will be Oct. 10.

"The market is really catching on," Nauman said.

By 10 a.m., she had already sold out of strawberries and raspberries. She still had a few multicolored carrots, snap peas, onions and peppers, as well as teas, dill, thyme and other herbs.

She said the trend is to get back to natural and local foods, but what she likes about the markets is the vendors and other community members get to know each other - "and around food."

Kathy and Andre Ager have a large garden and had a large assortment of produce and canned goods.

"We played around with the idea of marketing our produce last year. Over the winter, we decided to try it," Andre Ager said.

"Then, this market came up, and everything fell into place. We were wondering what we were going to do with all this stuff."

Traci Wangen of Spearfish said on Saturday it was her first time selling at the market, but she had been involved in the market in other ways.

"I co-authored a grant with Hills Horizon executive director Josh Krueger," Wangen said.

The grant, which she estimated would be for about $69,000, would pay salaries and buy a used truck that could be converted to run on biodiesel and could haul produce for vendors and recyclable goods. Another part of the grant would make it possible for food-stamp recipients to buy fresh products at the market.

The Market in the Park has a recycling truck - it runs on used vegetable oil from restaurants - every Saturday until noon. The public is welcome to bring glass, paper, cardboard, plastic and aluminum to be recycled..

Jared "Cappie" Capp of Hills Horizons said the goal with the Market in the Park is to show there is an interest among the people in recycling and the environment.

"We're just trying to get people to think about recycling again," he said.

"Vendors must come from within a 100-mile radius of Spearfish," market executive director Krueger said.