Sherbrooke public market to take a trip back in time this weekend

How would you like to go to the market and pay $0.10 a pound for ground pork, or $0.15 a pound for cheese? That’s just a glimpse of what is being offered at Sherbrooke’s Marché de la Gare this weekend as The Sherbrooke Historical Society turns back the clock and recreates the a public market from the turn of the twentieth century for the sixth year in a row.

“The Historical Society is shining a spotlight on the public market by recreating the ambiance of a market from the year 1900, prices and all,” said Marie-eve Gingras, coordinator at the Sherbrooke Historical Society, adding that the 1900 prices will only be available from certain merchants and only in limited supply.

According to the coordinator, “L’histoire fait son marché,” as the annual event is called, represents one of the Marché de la Gare’s biggest weekends of the year.

“It’s bigger than Christmas,” she said, estimating that as many as 3,000 people have come in a single weekend in the past to sample the wares. Although the event is still fundamentally an outdoor market selling primarily fresh produce, the special deals and additional programming result in an added charm that people seem to find very attractive.

Three historical re-enactors will be present in costume for the two days, offering visitors the opportunity to interact with a local farmer who has brought her produce to market, an English businessman, and the local stationmaster. These characters, Gingras said, will be aware of their historical surroundings, but also of the anachronisms of their surroundings, allowing room for a little bit of fun in the way the three interact with their 21st century visitors.

“The public market was not in the same place in 1900, and neither was the train station,” the coordinator noted.

There will also be live music on Saturday and Sunday mornings

L’histoire fait son marché programming will run from 9 a.m. to 2p.m. this coming Saturday and Sunday, August 18 and 19.