If you can make it, bake it, or grow it, you're more than welcome to be a part of the new and improved Squamish Farmers' Market this summer season starting Saturday (June 26).
Last year, the market was known as the Wild Cherry Farmers' Market, which was held on the site of the Hollywood feature film Walking Tall, starring the Rock. This year, there are several new changes for the Saturday market, with a new location and an extended season to offer vendors a chance to showcase their goodies to the public. Organizers are hoping to bank on the success of last year's Farmers' Market, and are looking forward to seeing it expand and develop into a popular weekly community event.
"For a first start, given a short time to coordinate the market, it was a huge success," said Squamish Chamber of Commerce manager Karen Hodson. "We're trying to encourage it to grow. We've planted the seeds last year and we're looking forward to it building."
Although the 2003 market got off to a booming start, interest waned throughout the season, partly due to the location at the end of Cleveland Avenue, which is something organizers have attempted to remedy. They have secured the use of the parking lot next to the Chamber of Commerce building and near the gazebo at Stan Clarke Park. Because the new location is paved, it will be easier for vendors to set-up and tear-down, and it will be more family-oriented, allowing parents to bring along their children in strollers. Dust will no longer be a factor and the public will have access to public washrooms and greenspace to have picnics with their newly purchased foods from the market.
Being closer to the downtown business core is also a major selling point for the market.
"This new location is great because if people don't find what they're looking for at the market, they'll be able to find it at one of the shops along Cleveland Avenue," said Hodson. "One of the reasons for the market is to create a steady flow of traffic through downtown, and this site will allow us to do that."
To increase awareness of the Farmers' Market, the Chamber of Commerce, together with the District of Squamish, Squamish Nations Small Business Program and the Community Development Corporation of Howe Sound have initiated an ongoing communications and marketing campaign. Highway signs and banners, posters, local print and radio media coverage and a spot on the Farmer's Market Association of B.C. website are all going to be used to promote the market in the Sea to Sky corridor and the Lower Mainland.
Every Saturday from June 26 to Sept. 4 (with the exception of Aug. 28 for the Brackendale Fall Fair), vendors will be selling farm-fresh produce and baked goods, potted plants, wooden toys, soap and herbal products, bells, glass beads, framed photographs and many other goods. The hours of operation are from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
