Wednesday, June 17, 2015

New Farmers Market

One of our lovely roosters decided he would start crowing at 4am this morning. How lovely! And wouldn't you know it, as soon as he had me fully awake he went back to sleep. So here I am researching and compiling ideas when I'd rather be sleeping. I'm going to try typing for a while and then see if I can't get back to sleep for a couple of hours.

The idea of a Farmers Market isn't new. Every single city or town I've lived in or near has had one. St. Albert was probably the most amazing, Calgary has a couple, Courtenay has a lovely and well established market as well that serves the surrounding area, and then we moved to Greenwood Nova Scotia and nothing. Well there are markets in Kentville, Bridgetown and other towns further out that are lovely but who wants to drive for an hour? Greenwood does have what it calls a Farmers Market inside the mall on a Thursday from 11-2pm but it's definitely more of a craft market than a place to buy locally grown vegetables.

So what do you do if you want a local market? You start your own! In collaboration with several other area farms I'm looking for a good location to start our very own Saturday morning, outdoor market. There's a lot to do and organize behind the scenes from attracting vendors to finding a suitable location and then deciding how to advertise, organize and get it up and running.

The locations we've considered are in Greenwood area, Kingston, Wilmot and Middleton. I've got a list and later today I'm going to make some calls and see what might be available for rent and the services available. The big considerations are location, parking, accessibility, size, bathroom access, and if power is available for a fee. Other factors include level ground, a covered area and a children's play area.

We're meeting on Monday to discuss this and invite you all to attend and give us your input. We're seeking ideas for vendors, producers, location, how long we'll be open every year, you name it! There are loads of little things to decide before we even move beyond the planning stage. The meeting will be held at the Big Scoop Restaurant in Middleton. For an invite please message me on the blog or check our contact tab above for our email address. It's also an opportunity to meet some of your local growers but seating is limited so please reserve a spot. We'll no doubt have a much larger meeting in the near future in the evening so many more people can attend.

Well it's 5am. The sky is getting lighter now so I'm going to try and snooze for an hour. Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, and thanks for your interest in and support of small farms like ours!

And watch for some news regarding our organic certification to come soon :)

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