The Williams Lake Farmers Market was proud to kick off the new Tuesday evening Farmers Markets on Tuesday, July 2.
Williams Lake Farmers Market manager Jane Bowser said that overall the market has been going really well this year, though they have been fighting with the weather some since the beginning. While Bowser said the rain is far better then wildfire smoke, the rain still puts a bit of a damper on things though they’ve been resilient and pushed through it.
Bowser said that so far they’ve done two Tuesday evening Farmers Markets since the beginning of July and hopes to continue to hold the evening markets until the end of August or even until September. So far they’ve had some pretty good turnouts in vendors and customers whose numbers she hopes will increase as word of the new time spreads.
“We found that the Friday morning market was fairly busy, but we had lots of people working that nine to five job with weekends off and they couldn’t make it to the Friday morning market,” Bowser said. “So we wanted to give them an opportunity to come out and enjoy some of the farmers market that they’ve been missing out on all this time. We figured Tuesday evening would be fairly good as everyone is in town and they can come after work.”
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The Tuesday evening market starts at 3 p.m. in the parking lot beside Kiwanis Park and runs until 6 p.m. So far Bowser said they’ve seen a lot of new faces browsing the wares, which is exciting as it means they’re not taking customers away from the usual Friday market.
On Tuesday they have a “good base” of their vendors with their main meat producers coming out, and around three or four of their fresh produce vendors coming to each one so far.
This allows people to get their staples, Bowser said, while also enjoying some craft vendors and fresh food courtesy of the Fennel Cup and other food trucks. Roughly 15 to 25 vendors should be showing up to the Tuesday market a week, Bowser said, depending on schedules and circumstances.
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“The fresh produce is a big draw, with all this rain the stuff is doing amazing right now and our vegetable producers definitely know what they’re doing,” Bowser said.
Bowser added that the Williams Lake Farmers Market as a whole has started the government-run nutrition coupon program that was started to make sure low-income families get nutritional food they can prepare themselves. They’ve partnered with the Pregnancy Outreach Program in Williams Lake, who will make sure those who need them will get the coupons to spend at the Farmers Market, creating a win-win situation for everyone.
“I just hope that the weather will be good, nice and sunny but not too hot and not too windy and that it’s busy and that everyone comes and checks out everything we got,” Bowser said.
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