Cary’s cornucopia shares its plenty on Tuesdays and Saturdays April through November.

The Cary Farmers Market has been open for 16 years and offers only goods that area farmers and food producers grow or make themselves.

The variety includes everything from onions to strawberries to herbs to flowers to jams and cakes.

“We insist everybody grows it,” said Loyied Norris, one of the market’s founders and still a vendor. “If you don’t grow it you don’t sell it.”

The market has convened in the parking lot of the Cary Train Station and N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles office between Harrison Avenue and Academy Street just north of Chatham Street.

Before that farmers sold their wares across Harrison Avenue in the parking lot of Sorrell’s Paint.

Some things have not changed for Norris.

“This has been a great, great market, I’m telling you,” Norris said.

Norbert Gstattenbauer, a first-year vendor from Morrisville, sells his wife Annelore’s baked goods, everything from lemon bars to small bundt cakes.

Annelore Gstattenbauer has been a professional baker and chef in the United States and Germany for 30 years, her husband said.

Everything is made from scratch, Norbert Gstattenbauer said.

“What we bring with our goods is European flavor and European style … flavorcentric moderated in sugar and fat,” he said. Even on a spring Tuesday, a steady trickle of customers flows under the tents.

“That’s why I like going to the Cary market, because it’s busy all the time,” said vendor Scott Spahr.

Spahr farms in Harnett County outside Lillington.

He’s been selling his produce, most of which is hydroponic and pesticide free, at the market for 11 years.

“This is my regular job,” Spahr said. “This is a good market. It’s usually got a good customer turnout.”

Amy Rockwell of Cary had just bought some fresh cut flowers.

“Oh man I love it,” Rockwell said of the market. “They have everything I love or need.”

A regular at the market for years, Rockwell said that on some Saturdays she will bike over with her 12-year-old twin daughters.

Rockwell said she likes that the market is small but appreciates that she can shop there to meet her fruit and vegetable needs.

“I don’t have to get any fruits and vegetables at the grocery store,” Rockwell said.

Stan Keesling of Cary said he buys more sweet corn and tomatoes than anything else.

But with strawberries in season, Keesling said the tasty red treats have become his “prime target.”

While flavor is a motivator for Keesling, other factors bring him back as well.

“I prefer to buy from the guy who grows it than wait for it to come from the grocery store,” Keesling said.

“I get to know the people.”

Pam Christie of Cary called the market “the best deal in town — delicious, delicious.”

Christie said she has shopped at the market for 13 years. The draw for her are the vendors and the selection.

“I just like to support the farmers, probably the most underappreciated group of people in the country,” Christie said.