There may be a pandemic going on but Dripping Springs farmer Amelia Sweethardt still has to get up to get those 70 goats milked every day at 5 a.m., and again and 5 p.m.

Although she lost the business from restaurants for her Pure Luck goat cheeses since stay-home orders first took effect in mid-March, she’s seen an upsurge in demand from specialty groceries and especially, farmers’ markets.

And, for some reason, a tart goat cheese she makes, June’s Joy, named for her son, with honey, black pepper and thyme, has become a phenomenon. "We cannot make enough of this," she said, selling 800 containers a week of the 5 oz cheese product, up from her sales of 250 a week before the restrictions took effect that shut down restaurants, except for takeout and delivery.

Central Texas farmers are adjusting to the new reality and in some cases thriving at farmers markets from Cedar Park to Southwest Austin. Even with strict access requirements and cones to keep customers 6 feet apart, sales are high, albeit with fewer customers who are buying more than they did before.

"Our farmers and ranchers are doing pretty well," said Evan Driscoll, interim executive director of the Texas Farmers Market, with locations at Lakeline Mall and Mueller, citing a surge in demand for meats as well as fruits and vegetables, a staple of the markets.

It’s a different vibe, for sure, since the usual lingering and socializing that is a standard for farmers’ markets is no more. "Farmers’ markets are a community event space," Driscoll said. "We’ve had to strip that away." There is an entry point and exit point and no mingling at the vendors’ stands and no sampling or tasting with pre-ordering encouraged.

"Sales are actually way up," Sweethardt said of farmers’ markets sales, although her costs also have gone up. And it still doesn’t make up for the loss in restaurant revenue, she said.

"We’re making things that take more time and are more labor intensive," Sweethardt said. For example, instead of a 4-pound packet of goat cheese that would go to a restaurant, now the cheese has to be cut and put in small containers — that are more expensive — and have to be labeled. And there’s the extras she can’t do now, the agritourism that brought visitors to cuddle with goats or take cheese tours. She’s applied for assistance from the Paycheck Protection Program but hasn’t heard back yet.

’We’re maxed out’

In Elgin, 25 miles northeast of Austin, pecan farmer Gene Niswander said while restaurant sales dried up, farmers market and online sales have nonetheless enabled him and his wife Eileen to keep their five employees at their Yegua Creek Farms. "Demand has been quite strong," he said.

In addition to raw and roasted pecans, the farm offers 10 different kinds of flavored pecans, as well as small pecan tarts, pecan-flavored coffee, pecan oil and several kinds of jellies, such as jalapeno and peach. And there are pecan wood products, such as a cutting board in the shape of Texas.

Niswander, 78, has been a pecan farmer since 2006 when he retired as an accountant in North Texas. He’s gotten used to the rhythms of selling at the farmers’ markets.

Sales are down somewhat, he said, because pecans tend to be "an impulse buy" and people are very focused now on their budgets.

And though he’s seen a decline in income of about 15 percent, he’s not applying for any federal help. "I’m a reprobate when it comes down to government assistance," he said.

There has also been a burst of interest in Community Supported Agriculture programs, in which consumers pay a subscription fee and then receive produce weekly from the farms in the collective. "We’ve seen a huge increase in demand for local farm products," said Ellen Waller, operations manager of the Central Texas Farmers Cooperative in San Marcos, who said demand had doubled. "Right now, we’re maxed out."

She thinks the reason is not just about convenience. "People are more aware of health and food," she said.

There have been some changes. While members would previously just go to market sites and pick what they wanted, now they pull up in their vehicles and get produce that has already been packaged. Right now, Waller said, the vegetables available are lettuce, spring onions, kale, beets, carrots, radishes, mushrooms and kohlrabi, a German turnip.

’A magical place’

At Boggy Creek Farm in East Austin, the coronavirus restrictions have led to a new way of doing business at what was a pioneering urban farm just 3 miles from the Capitol.

Now, Tracy Geyer, co-steward of the 5-acre property, of which 2½ acres are farmed, can be found with a megaphone, lining people up 6 feet apart on the long driveway and making sure they use the gloves provided by the farm even if they come with their own — "we don’t know where your gloves have been" — and limiting entry to the three produce tents so there are never more than five customers in the sales area.

For sale now are carrots, beets, lettuces, parsnips and eggs from the farm’s 100 hens as well as proteins like chicken and beef from other vendors.

Business has been so good that they are making up the 40 percent of volume that had gone to restaurants before the shutdown. "It’s been a little bit of a boom," Geyer said, requiring the farm to add a few workers and to plan for a larger planting season.

Her mother, Carol Ann Sayle, the farm’s owner, said, "We’re doing double time, working from 5:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. That’s been a big deal. It’s been real healthy." And they do not plan to seek federal assistance — "Gosh, no" said Sayle — as some farmers have done, saying others have more need.

She sees an upside to the difficult times brought on by the pandemic, happy to welcome the additional visitors to her farm that is enhanced by the large trees and blooming flowers.

"It’s a magical place to be," she said.