The Bradford Farmers’ Market returns for another season on May 26, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony will officially kick-off the season at 10 a.m.
Vendors will be selling fresh locally-grown produce, baked treats, preserves and pickles, maple products, local honey, range-free eggs, crafts, and more, in the parking lot beside the Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library and Cultural Centre at 425 Holland St. W.
Laura Vree is returning as market manager for the 2018 season, but not as a vendor. Her Sweet Handmade Cookies business is currently closed, while she goes back to school to study big data analytics.
But she’s finding time for the market because, she said, “I love it!”
Many old favourites will be back for another year, along with a number of new vendors.
There have been concerns that this spring’s cold weather, ice and wind storms have put farmers far behind schedule, and so the market may be a little sparse of produce, initially.
Rob Radcliffe of Lakeview Gardens garden centre and greenhouses in Lefroy said the weather has affected business.
“It has affected us. The last two storms, the ice storm and the windstorm, did damage to the glass in the greenhouse,” Radcliffe said. But the crops have made a good recovery, even if the plants are “a little bit younger looking than normal at this time of year.”
By the time the Bradford market opens, he said he should have leaf lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, three varieties of kale, his popular “salad bowls” of mixed greens, and a beautiful selection of flowers and flowering baskets.
Said Vree: “I know our farmers are hard at work, so I am sure they will have something great!”
