POWAY (KGTV) — The Poway Farmers Market closed early as an extreme heat warning pushed temperatures into the triple digits, but vendors were still determined to sell — with coolers packed full of ice to keep their products fresh.
Poway is one of the areas under an extreme heat warning and reached triple digits on Saturday.
Jason Froelich, who sells salmon, Chilean sea bass and grouper for Dry Dock Fish Company, said keeping his seafood cold was the top priority.
"The fish is like the biggest part of our job. You know, having good quality fish starts with keeping it fresh and cold and away from temperature abuse, so on a day like this where it's 100 degrees out, we got to be really diligent about covering the fish with ice," Froelich said.
He came to the market prepared with eight coolers of ice stored in a specially designed van.
"I've got probably about eight of these coolers filled with ice in the van here. It's a fiberglass insulated van which helps maintain the frozen quality of the ice a little bit longer than bringing it outside," Froelich said.
Froelich wasn't the only vendor depending on ice. Janie Burns sells different cuts of meat at the Poway farmers market with Da-Le Ranch and also relied on coolers to keep her products safe.
"As you can see here, we have our nice coolers full of our meat where we take frozen bottles and we keep. Everything nice and insulated in here. Our coolers help to keep everything nice and cold, and we do switch out our bottles twice a day just like that," Burns said.
Froelich also made sure his customers left with ice.
"I don't even ask. I just put a big bag of ice in each person's bag of fish. You can't walk around for more than 30 minutes without ice on your fish, otherwise. It's gonna ruin it and spoil the fish," Froelich said.
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