Despite COVID-19, the Wellington North farmers market saw an increase in visitors this year, due to a couple of changes made.<\/p>\n
The first change was relocating the farmers market from the corner of King and Egremont to the parking lot at the Victory Community Centre.<\/p>\n
Harry Engel Wellington North farmers market manager says the main change that really benefitted the market was switching from Friday afternoons to Saturday mornings.<\/p>\n
\u201cSee Friday afternoons what we saw was, and we\u2019re very thankful for them, we saw a lot of our senior population coming out because they\u2019re retired, they\u2019re not working, and they can come out on a Friday afternoon. But we didn\u2019t see the working people, the people that are still working out there. So, Saturday now has totally changed the whole demographic,\u201d Engel said.<\/p>\n
Engel says they still saw a lot of their seniors, but they also saw younger families come out and a lot more children.<\/p>\n
Engel says he didn\u2019t think Friday afternoons were working and discussed this with Dale Small, Wellington North economic development officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, [Dale] gave us the student that they hired for the summer, to come on Friday afternoons and actually do a survey, every Friday afternoon. [\u2026] She actually kept track of all the numbers, [and] we found [with] the numbers that we were averaging about 200 people per week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Engel says although they haven\u2019t done an official survey, he saw a significant increase in visitors since switching the market to Saturday mornings.<\/p>\n
He also adds that because a lot of farmers markets were delayed this year or did not happen at all due to COVID-19, he reached out to some vendors that had shifted to other markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell we gained two vendors because of [COVID-19], so you know a lot of people are negative about the [COVID-19], and don\u2019t get me wrong it\u2019s a horrible thing, but there\u2019s also opportunities if you look for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Engel says he is still looking for vendors to sell cheese and fish at next year\u2019s market.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re interested, you can find more information here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Harry Engel Mount Forest farmers market manager:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n