The success of the downtown Saturday Farmer's Market has inspired the Butler brothers from Good Time Farming to provide farmers' produce locally year round.
A mid-week market has been running during summer months in Brackendale for the past three years, but according to local farmer Stefan Butler, the lack of traffic made the initiative a challenge.
So he decided another location at the Village Green Garden Centre on Mamquam Road would be more ideal - one reason being locals already connect the store with produce since previous owners would stock local fruits and vegetables.
"The new owners decided to support our endeavour," said Butler.
Village Green Garden Centre co-owner Cheryl Hancox said hosting the market is right up her alley because she and her husband want to support local farmers and community access to organic produce. She said she's looking forward to the market's growth.
"It's still pretty informal and small right now," said Butler. "We only have two farmers, ourselves and Paradise Produce, but we have some other vendors interested."
Butler said newly established Industrial Park business Bean on the Go Espresso will join the market, and resident Sarah Laurensom will offer roasted hazelnuts from her parents' farm in Agassiz and wild rice from a contact in Saskatchewan. Laurensom will also offer produce from own garden in Brackendale in the coming months.
Butler believes a mid-week market is needed and the more exposure they get, the bigger it will become.
"It's a matter of making people aware," he said. "Eventually it would be really nice to have this mid-week market attract farmers from everywhere."
Right now he and his brother Nic Butler are trying to sort out some of the details. They've decided the market will be open from about 3 to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays but nothing is set in stone.
"We're just slowly trying to piece this together," he said. "But we'll need to start recruiting other farmers and putting an organizing committee together to really get it going."
Nic Butler said their focus is largely on prepared food and produce, but of course they are open to having other vendors join them.
"The farmer's market is supposed to be predominantly farmers," he said. "I think we could attract some farmers from further away."
The market is currently housed under a tent, but come wintertime, organizers will set up in one or two of the store's greenhouses.
They've been growing their sprouts at the garden centre all winter and recently the centre gave them 1000 sq. ft. to cultivate, so they will be growing some tomatoes and greens on site.
"It's really a symbiotic relationship right now," said Nic. "They like having us here for the exposure and I'd like to get this market big enough where they're making a bit of money off it too from vendor fees.
"They've been really great with us, they see it as a way of getting more people coming through here. It's just going to get better as the season grows."
Anyone interested in joining the market can contact Stefan Butler at [email protected] or call 604-898-3166.
