MEXICO — If you ask the Rev. Carl Cutting about the market he organizes Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. underneath the canopy across from the Chicken Coop, he’ll quickly tell you that it’s not a farmers’ market.

“It’s ‘The Market,’” Cutting said, “not the farmers’ market. That means we put anything here, not just food.”

Cutting and his wife, Gail, run Grandma’s House Bakery and Gardens on Roxbury Road and have been running a farmers’ market in one form or another since they moved to Mexico five years ago. However, Cutting said he has his sights set on events larger than just a farmers’ market.

“I want to try and have a different theme each month of the summer,” he said. “It’d be nice to have an antique car show like they do at the Dutch Treat on Route 2. Every Friday night, they have antique cars come, and they set them up on the lawn. Some of them are for sale, and some people just come to look at them.”

Cutting turned around and looked at the canopy, along with the parking lot beside it, and said, “I think that would be something fun to do here. We have plenty of space and plenty of parking. Each month, we could hold a new event.”

On the week of the Fourth of July, Cutting said the market will be open each day of the week with a variety of vendors, including items that do not fall under the food category.

“I’ve got a friend up in Madison, an 80-year-old man from Madison who is at the point where he wants to retire and slow down a little bit,” Cutting said. “He has a collection of every kind of thing you can think of. I told him, ‘Why don’t you get some of your stuff together and we’ll bring it down here, set it up on a table?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’m going to do it.’”

Cutting said Ink Plaza is donating posters so he can advertise the sale, and all proceeds will benefit the poor in Africa.

“My wife and I are missionaries and have tried to help people out in Africa for the last 20 or 25 years,” he said. “We’re going back to Africa in September for four months, in Rwanda, Congo, Burundi and Uganda.”

Cutting said he and his wife have been involved with many other markets over the years.

“We started a farmers’ market at Labonneville’s, but the problem there was the parking,” he said “Labonneville’s had tractor-trailers coming in and dropping stuff off, and it would disrupt the vendors, so we moved over to Rumford. This spring, we moved the farmers’ market to the canopy across the street from the Chicken Coop.”

Right now, the only vendor that has set up shop underneath the canopy is Grandma’s House Bakery. Alana Schlear, a family friend of the Cuttingses, volunteers her time at the booths, which contain homemade bread, jams, jellies and pickles.

Schlear said Thursday afternoon that the Cuttingses also have a greenhouse where they grow fruits and vegetables. One of the tables at the market held baskets filled with cucumbers, rhubarb, green peppers, mangoes and cantaloupe.

While Cutting waits for more vendors to set up under the canopy, he said he will spend his time working on fixing up the canopy and the area surrounding it.

“Right now, the metal gutters on the canopy are all messed up,” Cutting said. “I’m planning on replacing them. I’m going to take a pressure washer and clean up the lot next to the canopy, and eventually, I’ll get around to trimming some of the trees and plants on the side of the lot.”

The market is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 3 or 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. Vendors interested in participating can call Cutting at 364-3424.

mdaigle@sunjournal.com