St. John's Farmers' Market continues to grow with largest market yet
80 vendors, including 14 farmers, at Saturday’s event
Like a farmer's crops, a farmers' market needs good food and sunlight to grow, and with the sun shining on Saturday, the St. John's Farmers' Market held its largest event ever.
Eighty vendors, including 14 farmers, sold their wares, while hundreds of people turned up to eat, shop and socialize.
Pamela Anstey, executive director of the St. John's Farmers' Market Cooperative, says while she doesn't have the exact number of people who visited, the market was "just booming" on Saturday.
People have shown up, and they've consistantly shown up.- Pamela Anstey
Anstey said it was the peak of a successful year for the market since moving to its new location on Freshwater Road.
"People have shown up, and they have consistently shown up. Even during the dull, dark days of January and February, we were still getting lots of people," she said.
"It's been a tremendous experience and a really great opportunity for us to feature a lot of very small businesses … and to be able to introduce the city to a lot of diversity and interesting things that they probably wouldn't have access to otherwise."
Anstey is hopeful the market can continue to grow at a manageable pace.
"We want to be a very central, community-based hub for people without having to spread ourselves too thin, but we want to be able to grow step by step, by step," she said.
"It'll be slow but incremental, that's what we're hoping for."
Anstey said the growth isn't unique to St. John's, and that markets are also burgeoning elsewhere in Newfoundland and Labrador.
"We are in a time where people are recognizing the value of buying local, where people are recognizing the value of sustainability, where people are recognizing the artistry of all these wonderful craftspeople and bakers and food producers and all this stuff that's happening all over this province," she said.
"It is just a wonderful thing to see."