New Saturday farmers’ market to open next month in downtown Peterborough

Come June Peterborough will be home to a pair of Saturday farmers’ markets.

The Peterborough Regional Farmers Market announced Tuesday it will host a market each Saturday starting June 9, running from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Citi Centre Courtyard on Charlotte Street.

Neil Hannam, PRFN president says the location at the Citi Centre Courtyard is the perfect location, close to the downtown core and provides space for up to 100 vendors.

“We had several offers of potential new locations and the whole team considered the best options,” he stated. “PRFN has accepted the offer from Brad Smith, President and CEO of AON Inc., to locate the new Saturday farmers’ market to the AON Citi Centre courtyard in downtown Peterborough.”

The Peterborough and District Farmers’ Market is held in the parking lot of the Memorial Centre on Lansdowne Street on Saturday mornings.

The second farmers’ market comes after a fallout between seven farmers and vendors who were put up for eviction at the PDFM. This occurred after a notice of a special meeting was circulated before Christmas, following complaints filed by 16 members to the market board, citing disruptive behavior by the seven vendors.

Exact details of the complaints have never been made public.

The PDFMA board said it was mandated to respond to these complaints within 21 days and so the seven vendors – McLean Berry Farm, Circle Organic, Otonabee Apiary, Necessitea Elixir, Gaelic Garlic, Chef Marshall and Finest Gourmet Fudge – were all given notification that they were subject to a termination meeting.

A special meeting was held in January but nothing was resolved.

But on May 1 the memberships of six vendors were not renewed. Necessitea Elixir owner Sax Lynn Francisco was given a pink slip a month earlier but admitted she was going to leave the market anyways.

In September 2017, the Peterborough Regional Farmers’ Market tried to step in and introduce a new food signage program at the Peterborough and District Farmers’ Market, to help customers determine the origins of the products being sold and was seen as a “rebel move” by some board members.

The Peterborough and District Farmers’ Market is one the oldest markets in the country and operates out of the Morrow Building in the winter and shifts outdoors to the Memorial Centre parking lot during the summer season.