Downtown Farmer’s Market - TOMORROW!
The Market is coming, the market is coming!
We’ve waited a while for this project to see the light, and now you’re going to get your chance to experience it firsthand.
Starting tomorrow, and running every Saturday until October, Windsor’s Downtown Farmer’s Market will be open to the public. Visit often, as events like these just keep getting better and better every week. From their new website…
Windsor’s Downtown Residents’ Association is excited to announce the grand opening of the Downtown Windsor Farmers’ Market!
With the help of the City of Windsor and the DWBIA, the Market Committee of the Downtown Residents’ Association has organized a Farmer’s Market for each Saturday from July 4 through to Oct. 10.
Shoppers will be able to purchase fresh produce from well-known Essex County growers as well as several interesting new local producers.
The market is located in the parking lot of the old Greyhound bus station, at 40 University Avenue East, Windsor, Ontario. Click here for map.
The market committee is committed to maintaining the Downtown Windsor Farmers’ Market as a non-profit venture. Any fees charged to vendors will be used solely to cover operating costs.
The market will be open 8:00 am - 2:00 pm, every Saturday from July 6 to October 10th 2009. It’s worth getting there early for the bread and cookies that Richard Thibert bakes from the flour he mills. A WSO quartet is lined up to play at 10 a.m. for the offical ribbon cutting. Have something that you feel would be a perfect fit for the market? They are still taking vendors, so drop them a line…
We are still taking applications for vendors for Summer 2009 from:
Local farmers Local artists, crafters and artisans Downtown restaurants The Downtown Windsor Farmers’ Market is intended to showcase “home-grown” and “hand-made” products. Specifically, the market aims to attract local agricultural growers and dealers, talented artisans and crafters, specialty prepared food vendors, bakers, meat vendors and others at the discretion of the market committee.
Click here for more information and a vendor application.
So, bring down the whole family and let’s make this a success! Congrats to the Downtown Residents Association, the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association and the City of Windsor for banding together and making this a reality!
Tags: Bus Station, Downtown, Downtown Residents Association, DWBIA, Farmers markets
Post Feedback
Way to go Windsor! A market in the city core is one of many stepping stones to a sustainable city. Keep up the great work … glad to see some committed stakeholders on board with this project too!
I’m not a religious guy but I am willing to light a candle and say prayer that this works!
I think the Farmers Market idea is fabulous…. the venue is in a wonderful location, the vendors were brilliant and I am totally pumped about the attendance today. However, the cost of renting space at the Farmers Market is totally out of whack. How are our local growers and artisans alike supposed to afford the rates? If it is to make it, the prices need to be affordable. I am concerned that this idea is self sabotaged by the organizers. No one is going to come out in downpour to pay 5.00 for a loaf of bread, locally made or not. If the weather is good the people will come, the vendors will come if the rates are reasonable. Think globally and shop locally. Live the slogan. We are in the midst of a huge economic downturn, the downtown core is suffering with striking city workers populating the downtown streets more than local shoppers. I myself am always looking for free/cheap ways to entertain my bunch and a walk downtown to check out the Market is a great way to spend a sunny morning Saturday, a quick jump into MILK for a latte and we all left happy. Keep it reasonable and available and the people will show up.
Check out this article about the Chatham-Kent Farmers Market
http://chathamdailynews.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1626542
They charge 20.00 a day, if signed up for 5 or more weeks or 30.00 for individual days. Gimme a break this is the way to do it… let’s learn by this example of what works and follow it.
Marne the Market Goer
off topic post - deleted by Mark
Marne Chatham is less expensive to do buisness in period. The prices for renting stalls and for the food was very reasonable. Remember this was the frist day for the first year this is open. I am sure if it gets busier, which I am sure it will pricing can be looked at after the year is done. Did you see pricing for the smaller stalls? They are not that expensive at all!
I spent $20 for vegetables and have enough for family AND friends for a week. I thought the prices were great! Besides most farmers sold out of their food by noon! It couldn’t have been that expensive especially for locally grown food. It sure beats produce trucked from 1,000s of kms away.
I totally agree with Marne on this one. Think how many loaves of bread or bags of potatoes need to be sold JUST to pay for the cost of the table.
As much as I love the concept of our Downtown Farmers Market, table prices are way too high for vendors to be able to make any kind of return on their efforts. Farmers’ tables start at $115 and crafters’ at $40. At such high rates, produce prices will have to be raised, or vendors will be discouraged from setting up shop at all - most likely both. Either way, this is likely to inhibit the initiative from being as successful as we all want it to be. How about cutting table pricing radically — I’m sure that will more than double the number of vendors and enable them to keep prices low. That will make more people come back regularly too.
It’s not just Chatham that is way cheaper. A table at Riverdale Market in Toronto costs $25 per market or $500 per season. Check it out here: http://www.friendsofriverdalefarm.com/market.htm
Competitive produce prices are necessary to encourage more customers to the downtown area and encourage residents to buy local. Wasn’t that the whole point of the project?
Just some clarification.
A Farmers’ table at the Downtown Farmers Market starts at $48 and have access to electricity. There are discounts for 3 or more days.
There is an annual membership fee of $25 at the Riverdale Farm Farmers’ Market.
If not enough people come to sell their goods, then the prices will have to reviewed. The fact that many people came out to sell their goods suggests that the price of a stall is acceptable.
When I stopped by in the afternoon most venders where sold-out. Maybe the venders did not anticipate the opening day hype would be as strong as it was or if anything prices are too low. Considering the objectives of this is to provide a vibrant market downtown, slightly lower than normal prices is ideal. So I would say the initial price seems to be in the ballpark. Getting the pricing right for a new product is a very difficult task, like taking a shot in the dark, kudos to the market committee for apparently getting it right.
@Vincent: I am aware of the $25 annual registration fee at Riverdale. Spread over the 15 week season, it’s less than $2/week. I think this is entirely affordable and reasonable.
As for the discounts available in Windsor, the three day discount is a mere 2% and maxes out at 10% for a vendor committing to the full 15 week season. Assuming they stay through October 10th and the lowest rental of $48, this will cost them $648. At the top end of $131, the investment is a whopping $1,768.
I admit that I have no idea what costs are involved to get this market up & running. I am suggesting that many more vendors will be interested in committing for longer if rental prices are really low. How can you feel comfortable that many people came out to sell their goods, without knowing how many didn’t even bother?
@Edwin: My point is regarding table rentals, not the produce prices, though the one obviously feeds into the other. It’s not a shot in the dark if table prices are aligned with those of other markets. Farmers Markets Ontario has a list of 141 markets on its website. I’d be interested to learn to what extent Windsor has used information from some of the other established markets in our province. See http://www.farmersmarketsontario.com/Markets.cfm
Then come out ot the next meeting and help out if you have ideas or concerns. The committee could always use more volunteers.
What meeting? When? Where?
I hope that the market organizing committee would be open to constructive criticism about the new market from patrons and potential vendors. Obviously, everyone commenting here on ScaleDown is doing so in the hopes that this initiative will get better and better.
Each and every one of us knows the benefits to eating local produce, supporting our local growers. That is why each of us have a vested interest in seeing our downtown open-air market thrive!
Exactly Chris. That is why the invite was extended. Anyone can be a volunteer. The next meeting is today @7:00pm at Victoria Park Place. Just ring the security guard to let them know you are with the Farmer’s market committee.
We will all look forward to new faces.
I just want to add some clarification to my earlier post.
A 5.00 loaf of bread is NOT unreasonable for a speacial treat or picnic snack but I am shopping for a household of 6 sometimes 7 and I need to be able to afford the locally produced items in order to support the local producers. It is very important to me that my family apppreciate local business and take their part in sustaining them, but also to appreciate our budget and my efforts to mange and maintain it.
I really do support the FARMERS MARKET in downtown Windsor. We truly enjoyed walking about downtown and eating our finds, I would just like it to be an affordable weekly outing as opposed to a once in awhile treat.
I was at the Ottawa Street market yesterday chatting with some vendors there, asking why they were not involved in the FARMERS MARKET and the recurring theme was the high price of the table space. I will try my very best to make it out tonight to the meeting, to show my support and voice my interest in seeing this MARKET bloom.
Not to detract from your well-made points but I bought a loaf of bread there and it was $2.50 (some were $2.00). The guy had a nice variety on the table - garlic, french, oregano, sourdough rye, etc. I don’t remember the vendors name but he was just south of Thibert’s booth. Hopefully everyone keep coming out though. As long as the vendors do the volume, the booth price becomes less of an issue. They need our $upport.
Thank you to everyone who came out to support the opening day of the market. It warmed my heart to see people in our community embrace it so enthusiastically.
I’m one of the volunteer organizers, so I’ve been scouring the blogosphere for feedback from people who attended the first day.
The reaction overall has been positive.
Some people have expressed concerns about produce availability. Unfortunately, that’s an early bird gets the worm issue…there’s a reason your parents used to wake you up on Saturdays at 6 a.m. to go to the original downtown farmers’ market. Plus, we can only offer produce as it’s in season, and more vendors will be coming onboard all the time.
The second concern out there is vendor stall pricing and food prices. Many people have been focussed on the $4.50 loaves of bread. I think that John has addressed that effectively. I would only add that if anybody can find a loaf of bread baked by a family operation, using wheat that they grow and mill for under $4.50, I’d like to know who they are. And, incidentally, Richard’s bread is the same price if you drive to his place in Comber.
The reason that you’re not seeing vendors from the Ottawa Street market is that our volunteers consciously chose not to target them. We consider that market to be an important component of the Walkerville neighbourhood, and want and expect both operations to co-exist successfully.
All vendor fees are based on cost projections for the entire season. Edwin is right, it’s very difficult to price things in a new venture. We need to meet our costs, or any liabilities will be borne by the volunteers on our committee, some of whom are unemployed, on fixed incomes; none of whom could be described as wealthy.
We’re sensitive to price concerns, so we’ve encouraged people to partner on the costs of stalls, which almost no farmers’ markets alllow, with the result that some artisan tables were split 3 or 4 ways, resulting in a $10-$13.30 cost per participant.
We’ll be constantly reviewing the budget as more information comes to light, and will simultaneously review the vendor cost structure.
We’ll also be monitoring Scaledown and International Metropolis and Photo 404 and other blogs for feedback, so keep the debate going!
See you on Saturdays this summer and fall!
Another point to be made from the customer-side … as someone who makes trips to county vendors frequently throughout the summer … you are *saving* money at the farmers’ market after you take into consideration that the vendors are absorbing the transportation costs of bringing their farm fresh produce to the city.
When I do my county run, that’s about $10+ in gasoline burned up to feed about six people. The market vendors feed hundreds for the price of your walk or bus ride and the stand prices are generally no higher than their county point of sale. Can you say “BARGAIN”?
Also not to belabor the “bread” issue but we all know a loaf of nothing-bread at the Supermarket can run around $3, and what do you get? Mass produced, chemically bleached bread, sodium laden, nutrition-less, “enriched” full of preservatives. An extra $1.50 is not much of a price to pay for the premium advantages pointed out by Tristan that you are getting with Thibert’s bread. Oh…and it feels good knowing for once you are not lining the pockets of some bigshot at ADM.