New Glasgow Farmer’s Market goes digital

The supply is there, the demand is there, but the market is changing.

For the 130 annual vendors and the shoppers who usually top 1,000 people on an average Saturdays the New Glasgow Farmer’s market is working hard to keep up.

“Just when you think you’ve got a handle on it, everything changes. Hitting a moving target isn’t easy,” said Kristi Russell.

For Russell and the crew at the farmer’s market that moving target was the number of people allowed in the market at any given time. On March 13, it was 150. On March 17, it was 50.

The declaration of a state of emergency limiting group sizes to five came on March 22, but by then the decision was made. “We couldn’t do a gathering of 50,” said Russell. “That was not going to be possible.”

Speculation abounds for how long this state of affairs can last, but the people behind the scenes at the New Glasgow Farmer’s market are not planning on waiting around for business as usual and are working on implementing an online service which allow goods from local farmers to safely reach the people who depend on them.

“It’ll be a no contact operation,” explained Russell in a phone interview explaining how the Farmer’s Market will be moving online. “Kind of like the curb-side service at the grocery store.”

Basically, customers go to a website where they will see their usual vendors’ profiles, product and prices. They then place their order for the day that they will be going to the market, and on that day arrive outside the dome.

Once there, Russell said that they will telephone inside where the vendors (spaced apart from one another) will fill their customer’s order box. From there the box is carried out of the dome and dropped into the customer’s open car trunk.

And that’s that.

New Glasgow isn’t alone. The farmer’s market association of Nova Scotia has recommended all its members do the same and $30,000 from the Nova Scotia Department of

Agriculture is helping to make it happen.

“Producers are still producing and we’re still trying to provide that access point,” said Russell. “We’re trying to get there as quickly and efficiently as we can and we’ll need for everyone to do their part and do this safely.”

For, Heather Prescott of Red Mountain Farm in Colchester County, the online service will fill the most important gap in the supply chain.

“There is still demand for the products we have,” she said. “The challenge is getting the product to them. So, once we can get this online ordering system up and going that will give us a way to get our products out there.”

The exchange of cash for goods and services is not the only reason why people spend Saturdays at the market, and while the online service will help with local grower’s bottom lines, these changes are another sign of these strange times.

“It is a spot where we can connect with the customers and I will miss that. It’s good that customers get to know the face and the names of the people who grow the food so they can ask questions and feel comfortable,” said Prescott.

Over at Pictou County’s Bramble Hill farm, owner Cathy Munro put it like this during a live video that she posted on March 23:

“We are social beings who want to be out with other people and support our comminutes and be together and all of a sudden: stay home.”