Less than two weeks after a fire destroyed their main building, staff at the Green Pig Country Market in Salisbury, N.B., are back to work.
For the time being, customers hoping to pick up fresh vegetables will do so under a tent.
Dawn Beckwith, the co-owner of the market, said she had no doubt they would find a way to bring this fall experience back to finish the season.
“I guess we got creative, and we still had a lot of vegetables left to sell, lots of veggies left to harvest, so we decided to set up an outdoor market to try to move some of those,” Beckwith said Sunday afternoon.
On Sept. 19, a fire requiring 70 firefighters from five different departments fully engulfed the market.
In the days that followed, the Green Pig received overwhelming support from community members near and far.
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According to Beckwith, returning the market to an operational level has included support from churches, sports teams and area residents.
The “heartwarming” response came as a shock, she admitted.
“I just didn’t realize how many people, I guess, had Green Pig in their heart. I guess it’s just such a charming place, and it’s just touched everybody over the years, whether they’re just passing through or whether this is some place they come to every week for their groceries.”
The vast majority of the food sold at the market is Green Pig-grown.
It’s the “community-based” and “friendly” approach of the market that draws people from across the province, said Steve Gallant.
The outdoor event manager at the Green Pig admitted he was surprised the market bounced back in such a strong fashion.
“We had the fire in one week, the next weekend we had a hurricane, so it was a double whammy. The hurricane did some damage to us and damaged our corn maze a little bit, but we cleaned it up, pushed everything back, and have it as good as we can make it.”
For now, Beckwith said their focus remains on finishing the season, with the expectation they will be open every day until Halloween.
As for next year, she said they will have plenty of time to get creative on plans for the market.
— with files from Nathalie Sturgeon and Karla Renić
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