SCRANTON, Pa. — If you want to know anything about the vegetables at Hopkins Family Farm - the best way to cook them, what recipes they work with - Samantha Hopkins will have the answer.
She's been working behind the Hopkins Family Farm stand at the Scranton Co-Op Farmers Market for as long as she can remember.
"I started out very little and sleeping underneath the truck because, you know, what little kid wants to work at the table and deal with money? But I learned how to count money here," Hopkins said.
Hopkins is part of the 5th generation working on the family farm near Falls.
Her great-grandfather, Harry Hopkins, started the operation decades ago, and they've been regulars at the farmers market in Scranton since the beginning.
"He was one of the first that was here when this opened," Leanne Hopkins said. "And then my father-in-law, of course, got into the tradition, and then we've always helped on the farm; our kids have always helped on the farm, and now we own the farm!"
A tradition running just as strong as the market itself, which first opened in 1939. Leanne Hopkins now pulls double duty, working her family's stand and acting as the farmers market's secretary.
"I like the people. I like talking to people, I always have. So it's nice to interact with a lot of different people," she said.
And the farmers here, like Samantha Hopkins, are customers themselves as well.
"I like to buy the apple cider doughnuts from Brace's Orchard. I like to get the bread from Beta Bread, and wine, of course, everybody loves wine. And then just vegetables that we don't grow, but we can get at the other stands," she said.
The Scranton Co-Op Farmers Market is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from noon to 6 p.m., now through Thanksgiving.
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