Children running up and down the hill, live music playing in the background and the buzz of community members shopping for local produce was the recipe for a successful debut of the Rockwood Farmers’ Market.
On July 8 the Rockwood Community Garden sponsored the first ever Rockwood Farmers’ Market, which ran from 4 to 7pm at the St. John’s Anglican Church grounds.
“We probably exceeded our expectations for the opening,” said organizer Jen MacLeod.
“We were just marveling like ‘okay if this is our starting point, if we can recapture these same people week after week we have a lot of potential here.’”
MacLeod said she estimated 400 people attended the first market, where they could purchase from local vendors selling food, handmade goods and other items.
“We were looking to try to do a little bit more for the community … to make local food accessible and to support our local food producers and so it just seemed logical to try and establish a farmers’ market,” MacLeod said.
The idea is to encourage smaller producers to try out the market.
“We’re trying to keep the stall fees very low so that even first timers can come and try to sell their produce without a lot of pressure,” MacLeod explained.
The organizers want the market to become a staple for community members.
“We’re trying to get as local as possible, but we’re also trying to source a variety of produce and we’re trying to make it so that people could come and do a good amount of their weekly shopping there, so to provide the meat, the eggs, to produce,” MacLeod explained.
“We’re hoping it will be a place for people to gather and we’re also hoping to provide food for supper at every market so that people can purchase their supper, hang out for a while or even purchase some of the fresh produce and have a picnic.”
Similar to the opening, each market will have children’s games and there are three or four live performers scheduled to perform throughout the summer.
Organizers are hoping for a similar turnout in subsequent weeks.
“I saw more people walking down the streets of Rockwood than I have for almost any other event,” she said.
“People towing kids in wagons and pushing strollers and their shopping bags in their hand and their backpacks on their back and I just thought like ‘yay this is exactly what we were trying to do is just get people out, getting together, building community, shopping local.’”
The Rockwood Farmers’ Market will run every Wednesday, rain or shine, at the St. John’s Anglican Church grounds until Sept. 30.
As more produce comes into season more producers will be there selling seasonal goods.
For information and announcements such as the following week’s vendor lineup, visit https://www.facebook.com/TheRockwoodFarmersMarket.
