Farmers markets serve up local for dinner
Shopping local can start at the dinner plate, and there’s no better place to get started on that than at a local farmers market.
Almost every one of Niagara’s municipalities boast a farmers market, some seasonal, some year round, each delivering locally sourced and/or grown fruits, veggies, meats, cheeses and baked goods right from the field to hungry consumers.
“Farmers markets allow you to buy the absolutely freshest product you can get,” says City of Welland market co-ordinator Cassandra Magazzeni.
She says that for a prospective shopper, local farmers markets are unique. They provide a one-stop shop of sorts for the majority of a grocery list with butchers stocking stalls alongside fruit growers and bakers alike. While supporting local farmers may be enough, she adds the market provides an opportunity for shoppers to become more acquainted with their food, how it’s grown and who grows it.
She says she regularly catches up with vendors to see what is in season, what crops are having the best year and for tips on how to best use the produce she scoops up.
For example, last year Magazzeni learned from a grower that yellow tomatoes have less acidity, and therefore make for a better addition to her guacamole.
The market, she says, is important to farmers, butchers and the like, allowing for them to better reach their customers.
“It allows them a temporary storefront and a customer base that has been built up over the years,” she says, explaining how some vendors who have their own brick-and-mortar stores still spend every Saturday selling their wares at the market. Some vendors, such as RC Haist Farms, have been selling at the Welland market for five generations.
Caitlin Nicholesen can attest to the impact of the market on local vendors. She started her business, Mama Missfit’s Cheesecakery, with a stall at the Welland market last year. Now she is preparing to open a permanent location in the city thanks to the exposure and business generated at the market.
“Every weekend I’m there I’ve got a lineup,” says Nicholesen, adding, “my best advertising has been the market.”
She quips that the market has turned her from an average person to Welland’s “cheesecake lady” with all the exposure, and business it has brought. It’s not surprising, according to Nicholesen, given how the market brings people together as a community hub of sorts, with politicians lining up alongside vendors and the general public to discuss the happenings of the week.
“I never realized what a hub of happening the market is.”