Downtown farmer`s market is adding more vendors than people. It`s a struggle – but then anything worthwhile is never easy.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  August 17, 2012   The small market that has been operating every Friday in a parking lot on John Street – back behind Centro Gardens reminded me of the Joni Mitchell song Big Yellow Taxi.

The line `put up a parking lot`sort of speaks to the farmers market – it`s held in a parking lot.

An even more telling line is:

Don’t it always seem to go

That you don’t know what you’ve got

Till it’s gone

Barry Imber, the driving force behind the idea, had thought there would be a little more in the way of traffic.  “It is growing” he said “but not quickly enough for the farmers who spend the four hours at the market each Friday.”

There is a small collection of fresh from the farm products available at the Farmer’s Market on John Street. More traffic is needed if the market is to continue.

Last week Russell Gibbs was back with his honey – he sold out the first time he offered his product – so there is a market.  Featherstone Farms has been in since the beginning with their pork and soaps and then added bread.

Farm to Table Meats and Cheese Gypsy as well as Tree & Twig were there.  But Imber wants something a little more robust.  While he isn’t a vendor he nevertheless wants to promote organic and get some activity into the downtown core – where things can get desperately quiet far too often.

Barry Imber, the driving force behind the Farmer’s Market on John Street talks with Michelle Macdonald, operator of Featherstone Farms, the providers of soaps, bread and pork products.

Imber is working on some food trucks and visiting chefs for the coming weeks to spice it up.` He isn’t seeing a good adoption here. Likewise the vendors aren’t totally comfortable with the traffic either so the whole thing may dissolve sooner than later if people don’t come to the conclusion that they have something special here — their own market in their downtown — the start to something cultural and rich.  A real community hub.

If people don’t make an effort to support it soon, it will be gone unfortunately and giving it another try will be that much harder.

And that gets us back to the line:

Don’t it always seem to go

That you don’t know what you’ve got

Till it’s gone

The only reason there will be an outdoor market in the downtown core is if people come out and at least try the products.  Part of the problem may be that people just don`t know.   Our Burlington is certainly doing its part to tell the story.

There will be additional promotional effort put into the project early in September – and then we will see if Imber`s idea was a true addition to the city or just a bit of folly.


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3 comments to Downtown farmer`s market is adding more vendors than people. It`s a struggle – but then anything worthwhile is never easy.

  • gottawork

    If this market were held on a Saturday you’d get more people there. Some of us have to work for a living, you know?

  • Margaret Lindsay Holton

    Why not fuse this burgeoning ‘designer’ food market with the established farmer’s market at the Burlington Mall? There’s ample parking, food & floral variety, and it doesn’t split the objective of providing ‘locally grown produce to the public’.

    I’m all for this initiative, but again, as long as it directly competes with an already established farmer’s market, it makes it harder for both open-air markets to achieve a profit.

    Better to ‘team up’ and fuse the BEST assets of both. Strength in numbers, and all that. A better BIGGER single open-air market would also be cheaper for all participants to promote at ONE location.

  • This is a great community market. The vendors and Centro owners are truly local families with a great philosophy. I’m definitely a supporter and doing my bit to spread the good word. Not really hard given the great fresh products they’re selling.

    ~ Michelle
    Go Local Food Programmer
    BurlingtonGreen.org