Farmers market vendors, volunteers preparing for new Penndale location
Market starts Saturday at school parking lot
The vendors and volunteers at the Lansdale Farmers Market are getting ready to start their ninth season on Saturday at a site they think will be bigger and better than ever.
“I love it. It’s environmentally friendly, it feels like a neighborhood, and a lot of neighborhoods can walk to it — and it’s next to a school, so it’s a community-based location,” said April Clarke of Lund Brothers Nursery.
Starting Saturday, the market will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday through Nov. 4 at Penndale Middle School, located at 400 Penn St. in Lansdale. The market vendors will be set up in a parking lot along Church Road, just north of a driveway running along the adjacent athletic fields, and visitors will be able to park close to the middle school, while vendors can park near the corner of Church and Penn streets.
“We’re so glad it landed here. It’s a location that we’re really excited about: it has so much shade, and space for people to stay,” said vendor Paula Stoltzfus of Simply Clean, Simply Green.
Stoltzfus said she has been selling homemade soaps, body wash, and other natural products at the
market for four years, and said she thinks the Penndale site is the best yet for both vendors and visitors.
“It’s going to feel like we can breathe a little bit more between the vendors, and the vendor numbers have increased too,” Stoltzfus said.
Vendors will be set up below trees along the parking lot nearest to Church Road and Wissahickon Avenue, two blocks south of Main Street and about the same distance north from the SEPTA Pennbrook station.
“The easy access for cars, and the houses right across the street, where you can walk, are going to make a big difference,” said Kevin Ganz, owner and chocolatier of Joanne’s Candy Kitchen.
Ganz, who is in his second year as a market vendor, said the Lansdale community was the strongest of several local markets he attends, and the new site should be better for both customers and his chocolates and candies.
“I’ll be in the middle. Hopefully that tree will give me some shade in the mornings — anything to keep the chocolate from melting. I think it’s going to be another great year for the whole market,” Ganz said.
Last year the market was located at the Hillcrest Shopping Center on the 600 block of East Main Street, but with the owners of the shopping center planning to add standalone buildings in the parking lots where
the market had been held, a new site became necessary.
Enter the North Penn School District, which market board President Tom Allebach said was “really amazing” in offering its parking lots for the market to use this season.
“We know they’re not going to be building on this site, and hopefully we’ll have a good relationship for years,” Allebach said.
Allebach credited district Superintendent Curt Dietrich in particular with helping the market secure approval from the district, and said he hoped the market would be a frequent stop for district athletes and parents using the nearby fields.
“It’s a very visible place, and a busy place, and it’s not busy with people trying to get away from it, but people who want to be here,” Allebach said.
Joel and LiLiane Nino, owners of Mamy’Li Home Made Products, said they’ll be ready on Saturday with French-style homemade pastries, cakes, muffins, and more.
“They won’t find any place else that has the pastries that we do and the jam that I do. I have strawberry with passion fruit, I have blackberry with black currant, and everything is homemade,” LiLiane said.
“It’s really very, very nice. It’s perfect. We hope the people are going to come, that’s all,” said Joel.
Market manager Charisse McGill said this year’s market season will feature 35 seasonal vendors, and new additions this year include The Cottage Kitchen, which features fermented vegetables and beet kvass;
Hazel and Ash Organics, which sells sweet and savory organic relishes; Rafiki Shoppe, which will have prepared African food; and Small Batch Kitchen, which will have jams and spreads. Dairy products will arrive later in the season, while opening day will feature live alpacas from Little Lost Creek Alpaca Farm and live jazz music by Carl and the Hamiltones.
“This is the only place in town that can hold us with how big we are, and we weren’t going to shrink our market to fit somewhere else, so we’re very happy to be here,” McGill said.
“We’re excited to have families who participate in sports over the summer, and then early fall with soccer. We’re very excited to be here for them,” she said, gesturing to a soccer game being played at the nearby Penndale fields.
Volunteers for the market season are still needed, and organizers are still hoping to fill one part-time staff position. Anyone interested in either can contact LansdaleFM@gmail.com. This year, McGill’s daughter Madison will be making the leap from volunteer to intern, and she said she’s looking forward to a busy few months.
“I’ll be setting up tables, putting away stuff, selling stuff. I’ve learned that it’s not easy to do, what people are doing, and you have to have patience,” Madison said.
Throughout the season, other organizations will appear at the market, including the Montgomery County 4-H, Penn Environment, Abington Jefferson
Hospital, Garden of Health, the Lansdale Historical Society, the Lansdale Public Library, and Manna on Main Street.
Vendors will also change their offerings depending on the season, like Chris Darrah of Mainly Mushrooms, who said he will have various types of exotic mushrooms available.
“I sell all kinds of exotic mushrooms: morels, chanterelles, St. George’s — it changes seasonally, whatever is coming up in the woods,” Darrah said.
Out of four regional markets he takes part in, Lansdale was the best in terms
of quantity and quality of customers, Darrah said. His stall will be located toward the entrance to the Penndale lot, and while there may be more sun than normal, he’ll be ready: “The sun is my enemy, but I can set up appropriately.”
On the opposite corner, visitors may see a cloud of sawdust surrounding John Barrett of Oreland Wood, who is in his eighth year of hand-carving, cutting, and crafting wooden furniture.
“With some significant exceptions, I’ve found you meet better quality people in the lumber yards than the board rooms. I do this because I enjoy it. It’s very rewarding, on a number of levels,” Barrett said.
“Working with your hands is very rewarding and satisfying. You’re probably not going to get rich, but you’ll enjoy yourself,” he said.
The Lansdale Farmers Market will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays from May 20 through Nov. 4. For more information visit www. LansdaleFarmersMarket.org, search for “Lansdale Farmers Market” on Facebook or follow @LansdaleFM on Twitter.