The Kemptville Farmers’ Market is hoping for a return to normal in 2021.
The market held a board meeting last week to review the 2020 season and look ahead to what their plans are for this year.
Manager for the Kemptville Farmers’ Market, Stacey Johnson says while they don’t quite know yet what 2021 will look like, they are thrilled with the success of last year’s market.
“The majority of our vendors were really impressed that it was one of the busiest seasons we’ve had,” Johnson said. “I think there was a real push toward supporting local last year, and we were really happy to be able to offer the space to allow those vendors to come together.”
Johnson is hoping if the community can work as hard as it did last year, they feel they can easily repeat the success they had in 2020.
There is still no word on how the market will operate, whether in-person or online, but Johnson says she’s hopeful for a more clear picture by April.
“I believe we will,” she said. “If anything, with how the community worked last year, both public health, and our board, everyone was so gung-ho on getting everything going and despite it being a little late, it still ended up being a profitable season for vendors.”
Johnson says they are toying with the idea of an online market, but she feels the in person connection is vital to the market’s success.
She says around 50 vendors rely on the market as their source of income.
“If we could get a little more community back this year. It was still great to have everyone through last year but we really missed having the prepared foods to eat on site, the music, the events we held, that was all certainly missed last year.”
Johnson says they’ll have more of an idea of how they will operate this year, once public health restrictions are loosened.
