Tower Square kicks off farmers market

6/15/2017 | G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.com

Category: June

Reminder Publications photo by Chris Maza

Tower Square kicked off its season of farmers market events with its annual environmental fair on May 18.

The farmers market will be every Friday in the park area across from Tower Square on Main Street from 11:30 a.m to 3:30 p.m. Besides a selection of vegetables, fruits, meats, eggs and baked goods, there will be special events.

Among the vendors at the market will be Jennifer Cruz who has started Springfield Macarons, a specialty bakery producing the French cookies.

She told Reminder Publications she could not find them in Springfield and decided to bake them herself.

“They’re not in Springfield. They are hard to find,” she said.

It took Cruz months to master baking the confection made of almond flour and sugar. The trick is for the cookies to have a crunch on the outside, while still being “a little soft.”

“They are very difficult to make,” she added.

The cookies come in a wide variety of flavors including mint, vanilla coconut, chocolate and raspberry to name a few.

She has been in business for a year and has been selling the cookies on-line as well as at three locations.

Businesses at the environmental fair ranged from several solar energy companies to an all-natural odor treatment to inexpensive LED light solutions.         Another Springfield business featured at the fair was Treaty LLC, a biotech company that will soon be moving into the innovation center being completed on bridge Street.

CEO and co-founder Marc Gammell was displaying the company’s first product, FogKicker. It looks like a highlighter, but applying the liquid it contains to glass makes its fog-free.

Gammell explained the initial sales push has been aimed at the diving community. He said when applied to a face mask there is no condensation.

“The reception has been crazy,” he said.

He added the company is planning to develop an applicator designed to treat larger glass surfaces such as windshields, windows and mirrors and will be also working on a version to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use on optical tools used in surgery.