The Saskatoon Farmers’ Market Co-op opened the doors to their new, permanent location on Saturday.
“It’s a bit of a relief that we’re actually live in the space after so many months of uncertainty,” said Erika Quiring, executive director for the group.
The opening — and the dozens of customers — brings to an end to several months of doubt and construction.
For more than a decade, the co-op hosted the market downtown in River Landing. But last October, Saskatoon’s city council decided not to renew the group’s lease, choosing instead to look for tenants who could provide activity at the site more than three days a week.
The co-op signed a 10-year lease for 2600 Koyl Ave., near the airport, and had the site renovated.
“We’d like to focus on being an authentic farmers’ market and not focus on fighting battles — we don’t like the politics, we don’t like the conflict,” said co-op president Adi Ramachandran.
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“It’s good to have our own home where we can focus on the farmers’ market, focus on our goals and build it up to be the best possible farmers’ market.”
The location hasn’t been fully developed into what Ramachandran and Quiring had originally planned — they wanted every vendor to have their own booths instead of tables.
Ramachandran said the booths were coming and said the first priority is adding a commercial kitchen that will be open to vendors and the community. Quiring said the group also hoped to get up to four restaurants as well.
Sheila Yusiw, a customer of both the old and new markets, said she enjoyed the ample free parking, telling Global News that she didn’t need to worry about finding change or getting a parking ticket.
But Brenda Belcheff, who had attended the old market for years, said the new location had lost some of its charm.
“One of the things that I loved was going downtown, maybe getting some fresh veggies or a scone or something and just sitting on a bench by the river and enjoying the view, so we really don’t have that anymore,” she explained.
Dedicated customer Don Kossick, who said he had been shopping at the market for decades, told Global News he believed the market could still be the centre of a community.
“I think they’ll keep the cultural side as well. They certainly have the places here where people can sit and talk about what’s going on,” he said.
“I think it’s going to grow, I think it’s going to really make it.”
Ramachandran said the co-op will expand to have an outdoor market in May and will have an official grand opening, with all the fruit and vegetable vendors not there during the winter, in July.
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