INDOOR WINTER MARKET
Saratoga Farmers’ Market moving to Wilton Mall for winter season
The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is making a move into the Wilton Mall for the winter season.
Beginning in November, the market will run from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. each Saturday in the interior space of the mall by the Department of Motor Vehicles and former Bon-Ton entrance.
As the area’s longestrunning farmers’ market, the Saratoga Farmers’ Market Association is glad to celebrate this year’s opening of its indoor winter market season in the new location, where it will feature more than 50 vendors selling a full range of locally produced items including fresh produce, ready-to-eat foods, and artisan products.
“Finding an accessible, affordable, safe and secure winter market location has long been a goal of our board,” Saratoga Farmers’ Market Association Board President Beth Trattel said in a press release. “Our hope is to provide increased exposure to the public while operating within the welcoming retail environment of the Wilton Mall.”
Market Manager Emily Meagher added, “Our new location in the Wilton Mall will offer the market and our customers’ many benefits. In terms of accessibility, we will have ample parking and will be located directly by a CDTA bus stop. Additionally, being in a space that is shared with many other businesses creates a ‘onestop-shop’ for your weekly groceries and any other errands that need to get done. In turn, by providing fresh and local products at the Wilton Mall, we hope to help revitalize a community space that has been undergoing rapid change in the past few years.”
Beginning in 1978 with a handful of vendors in a parking lot, the Saratoga Farmers’ Market has grown to be one of the region’s largest.
The predominantly agricultural, year-round market provides customers with locally-made products from Saratoga, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Washington and Warren counties.
Products available include fresh and local produce, meats, eggs, dairy
products, baked goods, jams, wine, spirits, coffee, soap, and flowers.
During its outdoor season, the Saratoga Farmers’ Market is held on Wednesdays and Saturdays at High Rock Park Pavilions in Saratoga Springs.
In previous years, the popular market spent its winter season at the Lincoln Baths in Saratoga Spa State Park.
“It’s a very tight space, which just was becoming smaller and smaller for our growing market every year,” Meagher said, noting that some city services moved into the Lincoln Baths following a fire at Saratoga Springs City Hall in 2018.
“Things like that kind of added up, and made us decide to look for a new space that was a little more secure in terms of us being there and we get a lot more parking which is also huge for our customers,” she explained.
Additionally, “It’s somewhat of an experimental thing to do,” Meagher continued. “It’s interesting to put a farmers market in the mall. It’s not what you’d think of right away, but it’s in a way kind of revitalizing some community space that is there.”
Meagher predicts the move will be beneficial for both the market and the mall by sharing customers. “We’re thinking this makes a good partnership,” she said.
The new, larger location will allow the mall to present several more vendors in the wintertime, in a space that is less cramped, Meagher said.
With this move, the market aims to introduce itself to new potential customers who may never before have thought to visit a farmers market.
“It will be, hopefully, a bigger demographic we’re hitting, which would be great for our vendors,” she said, “but also the customers, because the more customers we get, the more our farmers can grow their businesses and provide more food.”
Meagher hopes the mall shoppers will be intrigued by fresh produce in the hallways of the mall.
The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is also interested in collaborating with fellow mall tenant Healthy Living Market and Café, another spot in the mall that sells healthy foods.
Businesses like Balsam & Birch, located near where the farmers market will set up in the mall, are excited about the new addition.
“I think anything that any mall can do to generate foot traffic anytime, as a business, I think, is nothing but a positive,” said Jim Campione, who opened Balsam & Birch in the mall last year and plans to open a new eatery in the food court next week. “Anything like this, I think, is just a plus.”
Throughout the month of October, Saratoga Farmers’ Market will continue to operate outdoors from 3 to 6 p.m. each Wednesday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Satur- day at the High Rock Park Pavilions, located at 105 High Rock Ave. in Saratoga Springs.
The first Saratoga Farmers’ Market at Wilton Mall will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2. The weekly Saturday markets will continue at this indoor location through April 25, 2020.
The area’s other yearround farmers market, the Spa City Farmers Market based in Saratoga Spa State Park, will continue to use Lincoln Baths as its winter location on Sundays.
More information about the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, including details about special upcoming events within the winter season, is available online at www. saratogafarmersmarket.org and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.