The Saturday Farmers Market Moves to a Bigger Home

The city’s Saturday farmers market will move to a larger downtown lot next season, adding room for 30 more vendors. After more than two decades squeezed into a parking area behind a bank, the market is heading four blocks south to a city-owned lot that is nearly twice the size, with space for shade, music and a long-awaited place for children to play while their parents shop.

The city council approved a five-year lease for the new site on a unanimous vote last week. The market’s board, made up of farmers, food makers and two neighborhood representatives, had been searching for a larger home since before the pandemic. The move is scheduled for the first Saturday in May, when the outdoor season opens.

Why the market needed more room

The current lot fits 62 vendor stalls when every space is filled, and it has been full every summer weekend for years. On busy mornings in September, shoppers line up shoulder to shoulder between the tents, strollers get stuck in the aisles and the line for coffee wraps around the corner of the building.

More importantly, according to market staff, many farmers who wanted to sell could not get a spot at all. The market keeps a waiting list, and that list has not gotten shorter in a long time.

We’ve had a waiting list of farmers for three years. Now they can all come.

Maria Lopez, market manager

Lopez, who has managed the market for nine seasons, said the waiting list currently includes vegetable growers, two dairies, a mushroom farm, a beekeeper and several new farmers who started small operations within the last five years. Many of them sell at markets in nearby towns but have told her the city market is where they most want to be.

“A farmer who can sell here on a Saturday can sometimes make the difference between a good year and a hard one,” she said. “This isn’t just about a bigger parking lot. It’s about giving small farms a fair shot.”

What changes

A covered pavilion for rainy days, a music stage and a kids’ activity corner. Those three additions top the list, but the new site brings a handful of other improvements that regular shoppers may notice right away.

• A covered pavilion. The city will build a permanent open-air pavilion with a metal roof over roughly a third of the lot. Vendors who sell baked goods, cheese and flowers — items that suffer most in the rain — will get first priority for those stalls.
• A music stage. A small raised stage at the north end will host local musicians every Saturday. The board plans to pay performers a modest fee instead of asking them to play for tips only.
• A kids’ activity corner. A fenced area with picnic tables, chalk, simple games and a weekly craft led by volunteers from the public library.
• Wider aisles. Walkways will be about 12 feet wide, enough room for strollers, wheelchairs and people carrying armfuls of squash.
• More bike parking. The plan calls for racks to hold about 80 bicycles, up from about 20 at the current site.
• Restrooms and handwashing. The new lot is next to a city building with public restrooms that will be open during market hours.

The pavilion is the most expensive piece of the project. City officials estimate it will cost about $310,000, paid for with a mix of city capital funds and a state agricultural grant. The rest of the work, including paving repairs and lighting, is expected to cost about $85,000.

Thirty more vendors

With the extra space, the market will have room for up to 92 stalls. Lopez said the board will fill new spaces in stages, giving priority to farmers on the waiting list, then to food makers who use local ingredients, and finally to crafts. The market’s rules will not change: everything sold must be grown, raised or made by the vendor, and farmers must be based within about 100 miles.

What stays the same

Same hours, same farmers and the same apple cider donuts. The market will still run from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday from May through October, and it will continue its smaller indoor winter market in the community center from November to April.

Every current vendor has been offered a spot at the new site, and Lopez said all of them have accepted. Shoppers who have a favorite stall should be able to find it in roughly the same order, since the board is keeping existing vendors grouped together as much as possible.

That includes the orchard stand known for its apple cider donuts, which has sold out by 11 a.m. most fall Saturdays for as long as anyone can remember. “People would riot if we moved the donuts somewhere hard to find,” Lopez joked. “They’ll be right by the main entrance.”

The market will also keep its food assistance programs. Shoppers who use SNAP benefits can continue to swipe their cards at the information booth for tokens, and the market’s matching program, funded by local donors, will still double those dollars for fruits and vegetables up to $20 per visit.

What vendors and neighbors are saying

Not everyone was thrilled at first. A few longtime shoppers worried the market would lose its cozy feel in a bigger space. Some businesses near the current lot said they were concerned about losing Saturday foot traffic.

Market staff say they took both concerns seriously. To keep the feel intimate, the stalls will be arranged in a horseshoe around the pavilion rather than in long straight rows. And the board has invited the cafés and shops near the old site to set up tables at the new one, free of charge, during the first season.

Vendors, for the most part, are excited. Tom Kessler, who grows vegetables on 14 acres about 25 miles east of the city, has sold at the market for 11 years. “Every rainy Saturday, I lose money. Half my customers stay home and the other half don’t want to stand in the mud,” he said. “A roof changes that.”

Ana Whitcomb, a cheesemaker who has been on the waiting list since 2023, said she cried when she got the call. “I’ve been driving two hours to sell at other markets,” she said. “This is home.”

Getting there next season

The new location is about a five-minute walk from the main bus transfer station and sits on two city bus routes. Metered parking is available on surrounding streets, and the city has agreed to waive fees at a nearby public garage on Saturday mornings during market season.

The market will host a free opening celebration on its first Saturday, with live music, a ribbon cutting at 9 a.m. and samples from new vendors. Volunteers are needed for setup and for the kids’ corner; sign-ups will open on the market’s website in March.

Key takeaway: The farmers market is not changing what it sells or when it is open — it is simply making room for the farmers who have been waiting to join, and giving shoppers a drier, roomier place to buy from them.

For a city that has long called its Saturday market one of its favorite traditions, the move looks less like a change than a well-earned upgrade. Bring a bag. Bring a friend. And if you want a donut, get there early.