This Saturday, the Elora Farmers’ Market will be open at Bissell Park for the first time this year.
Barb Lee, market manager, confirmed in a phone call there will be 13 or 14 vendors that sell food items only because of current restrictions on selling non-essential items.
“We can only have our farmers, producers, bakers and makers of food there until the lockdown ends, at which time our artisans can be there,” Lee said. “Hopefully we’ll see things change and turnaround in the next few weeks and then we’ll have our full-blown market.”
More food vendors will follow in June because some growers haven’t had enough product come up from the ground yet, which is normal Lee said.
Shoppers can also expect wineries and craft beer vendors soon as well, who are allowed as long as they own a storefront.
Lee said they will be following public health guidelines set out for farmers’ markets which includes a one-way loop around the market, vendors spaced from each other and customers, marks on the ground for queuing and hand sanitizer readily available.
“There’s also no handling of the produce or food or anything like that,” Lee said. “There’s going to be a space, typically a table with nothing on it except hand sanitizer and then the produce. They can talk to the vendor and tell them what produce they want but people can’t arbitrarily go in and pick-up anything they want.”
Lee said they strongly encourage masks but they aren’t mandatory outdoors except where social distancing can’t be realized. One person per family is also preferred to avoid too much of a crowd and therefore maintain social distancing.
An online ordering system implemented last year may become a permanent fixture but that’s to be determined based on how vendors feel about that.
Not all vendors took part in it but Lee said the ones that did see some value in it.
“The ones that are doing it recognize that for many people the idea of ordering ahead and having the opportunity to just come pick it up on a Saturday morning works really well,” Lee said.
Lee said she looks forward to when farmers’ markets can get away from the COVID-era of being a quick stop and back to being an experience.
“The joy of a farmers’ market is community, meeting people, chatting and having conversations with vendors, friends and family,” Lee said. “Right now it’s more of a pop-in get your stuff and pop-out. That’s hard on us all, I think we miss that part of the market that’s community.”
The market will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays at Bissell Park on East Mill Street.
