Henri Linde’s booth at the Elmvale Farmers’ Market was overflowing Thursday evening with a variety of fresh produce — celery, sweet peppers, corn, tomatoes, beans, onions, beets and zucchinis.
One of a dozen or so vendors who set up shop for three hours starting at 5 p.m. in the municipal parking lot just off Queen Street, the village’s main thoroughfare, Linde has been a mainstay of the weekly market for the past 15 years.
Thursday night was the last instalment of this year’s season, which began June 13, and he was pretty happy with the results.
“This is the only farmers’ market we go to and it’s been great,” said Linde, who owns Valley Farm Market, located about halfway between Elmvale and Wasaga Beach on County Road 92. “It changed time and day, so it was hard at the beginning of the season, but it’s going well now.
“We’re looking forward to next year already,” he added.
Prior to this year, the Elmvale Farmers’ Market was held during the day on Fridays.
While it faced little competition from other farmers’ markets, it wasn’t the best day to attract customers, as many of them had to be at work.
Organizers decided to mix things up this year and host the market on Thursdays evenings, a time more conducive to shopping and strolling.
“It’s been a really good year, even with the changes,” said Springwater Township Coun. Matt Garwood, council’s representative on the board of the Elmvale Business Improvement Area (BIA).
“We started from scratch and the market grew every week," he added. "We averaged between 12 and 15 vendors a week and there’s been great word-of-mouth support.”
Garwood says he’s talked with many of the vendors and most of them are preparing to come back next year.
That’s important to Garwood, because it shows the confidence and support the vendors have in the organizers and the event.
“We’ve run the market successfully for the past season and we’re already having conversations with our vendors about how we can improve things next year,” he said.
Eleven months ago, organizers weren’t sure there was going to be a farmers’ market in Elmvale in 2024.
During their meeting on Oct. 4, 2023, Springwater council decided to end its support of the market, and the part-time employee who managed it.
Garwood wasn’t prepared to let the farmers’ market go.
“We’re an agricultural community," he said. "How could we not have a market?"
In December, the Elmvale BIA voted to relaunch the market under the Elmvale BIA banner.
Garwood says changing the day and time of the market has proven beneficial.
“Moving from Friday to Thursday evening we’ve seen a lot more families that might not have been able to come out on Fridays,” he said. “The clientele is changing and growing so that’s good.”
While Garwood admits he’s had a few sleepless nights worrying about the market, he says it’s been worth it.
“The market has been a huge project, one that I didn’t expect would be this much work,” he said. “But that’s an OK thing. I love doing it, the board (BIA) loves doing it and the community has been grateful for it.
“We have some adjustments to make for next year, but I’m sure it will be back and be better than ever.”
