Popularity of Saskatoon Farmers’ Market creating growing pains

It was first set up in front of the Frances Morrison Library in downtown Saskatoon and has come a long way since then.

This weekend, the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market will celebrate its 41st anniversary as well as an increased demand in the city for fresh food. More and more people are getting on-board to the idea of supporting local product.

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For many vendors like RJ Nichol, hauling hundreds of pounds of vegetables in from local farms is just a regular day on the job and he’s been delighted to do it for the last 16 years on behalf of Grandora Gardens.

“That’s the whole point, it’s eat local – farm to fork,” Nichol said as he passed ripe tomatoes to a customer.

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If you’ve ever been to the farmers’ market, particularly on a Saturday, it’s obvious people want to get their food straight from the source and serve it for supper.

“I can talk to you about what pepper you’re looking for, it’s being able to talk to the people who grow your food,” Nichol added.

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The philosophy at the farmers’ market for the more than 100 vendors is they must make it, bake it or grow it, but its popularity has caused some growing pains. The venue continues to work on parking with the City of Saskatoon and it is also reviewing its hours.

“Our vendors are open Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday,” said Jen McDougall, marketing manager for the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market.

“Then we do have our in-house restaurants and health food store that are open Tuesday to Sunday.”

In the future, officials say will consider expanding hours or days of operation to increase opportunities for the public to pop by.

“It’s been discussed to possibly stay open on Wednesday a little bit later or maybe even open up on a Thursday evening,” McDougall said.

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While this could present a bit of challenge to the out-of-town vendors, many say they’d welcome the change.

“It would probably be more work to get things prepared and stuff but I think it would be worthwhile in the long-run,” said Jennifer Lockie, of Simpkins Market Garden.

Officials say they are brainstorming on what would work best for everyone and according to McDougall that could happen as early as this autumn.

“We do have an AGM (annual general meeting) coming up this fall it could be something brought up at the AGM and discussed then.”