STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Outside youngsters were throwing snowballs made with the new snow that had blanketed the Wood River Valley this week.

But inside a nondescript building on Bellevue’s Main Street, Julie Miller was fingering fresh raspberries that had been picked the day before.

“Imagine! Fresh blueberries and strawberries and tomatoes in January!” she said, gleefully.

Finding the new Spring Water Market next door to Mahoney’s Bar & Grill was like happening upon a treasure for Miller.

In this case: A treasure of fresh organically grown Napa cabbage, yams, carrots and strawberries that had been picked the day before in a cluster of greenhouses just 75 miles away.

“The blueberries, cabbage, yams and carrots I picked up were beautiful. I missed out on the strawberries, though. Tammy, the lady who works there, told me the strawberries had been so delicious that they had already sold out,” she said.

The Spring Water Market—a farmers market full of fresh lettuce and more in the brick building that once housed Full Moon restaurant—is the brainchild of Doug and Sabrenea Rieck, who own Reliable Produce and Veggies.

They began construction on a cluster of greenhouses on New Year’s Day 2015. The operation is heated with 187-degree geothermal water on 5.5 acres along Salmon Falls Creek and U.S. Highway 30 between Buhl and Hagerman.

Rieck grows everything according to organic practices but has not done the paperwork necessary to secure “certified organic” status. He grows some of the produce hydroponically on tables; some is grown hydroponically with the help of dirt.

“The hot water allows us to grow everything all winter long. As far as I know, it’s the only greenhouse in the state of Idaho that goes year round under geothermal heat,” Rieck said.

As the first crops emerged, the Riecks began selling them to southern Idaho stores and restaurants, including Atkinsons’ Market in Hailey, the Wood River Sustainability Center, Rico’s, Cristina’s, Warfield Distillery, Globus and Il Naso.

“But the restaurant business goes up and down and, when it’s down, I throw away 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of produce a week. It makes you sick as you see dollars going into the dumpster,” he said.

On Saturday the Spring Water Market featured slicing tomatoes, shallots, squash, potatoes, yams, cucumbers, radishes, Brussels sprouts, arugula, peppers , asparagus, blackberries and an array of herbs, including basil, mint and thyme.

It also featured blueberry, raspberry-apple and other homemade jams, as well as homemade canned cinnamon applesauce, Aubergine eggplant sauce and spaghetti sauce.

The refrigerator boasted several salads, including cabbage salad with honey dressing and fruit and potato salads, as well as cheese cauliflower and French onion soups and fresh farm eggs and milk from Buhl’s Cloverleaf Creamery.

Tammy Harris, a friendly accommodating woman who comes from a family of culinary chefs, was stirring a pot of beef barley soup with green beans in the kitchen, after having pulled blackberry-apple muffins and banana nut bread out of the oven.

Harris and her husband Norm Harris moved here just three months ago from Williams, Minn., a town of 191 people that Harris says is supplying plenty of hockey players for the Olympics. Her husband came here to sell windows for Peak Glass and Tammy Harris fell in love with the Spring Water Market, which had had trouble keeping regular hours due to trouble getting help.

She now runs the store from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.

“The produce here is really fresh and amazing—the blueberries are the most amazing I’ve ever tasted. Where I lived before we didn’t get anything fresh during winter,” she said. “But these guys will even pick to order and bring it up to you the next day.”

Joan Marsted, who grows a patch of produce in Croy Canyon, stopped by, also pleased with what she saw.

“I just brought produce at the store or I would be taking home an armful,” she said.

Rieck hopes to open a restaurant supplying sandwiches and other dishes based around his farm’s produce if he can work out the details. If the store proves successful, he might consider opening similar stores in other towns.

“We’re growing about half of what we can right now,” he said. “It’d be nice to run at full operation.”