Downtown Langford nets farmers maket
The Luxton Station farmers' market is going urban, re-opening Saturdays this year on Bryn Maur Road in downtown Langford.
Langford council gave its blessing last week to close off Bryn Maur to vehicle traffic for the market, sending organizers scrambling to notify farmers for its May 30th opening.
"Bryan Maur is a great location." said Kelly Parkin, manager of the newly named Goldstream Station Market. "It's a lot more accessible for people to walk or bike to."
The Luxton market spent the last two years at the Luxton Fairgrounds, seeing steady growth from 22 to 26 vendors, and from 300 to about 400 people per week.
Robert Thompson, president of the Luxton Station Market Society, said they couldn't come to an agreement with the fairgrounds on a new contract, so the society looked elsewhere, including Veterans Memorial Park.
"Farmers markets are quite popular, especially these days with some much interest in farm fresh foods." Thompson said.
In previous years, the market was popular enough that some farmers would sell out of produce in a few hours, which in some cases meant selling out for the season.
Parkin said that helped prompt local gorwers to increase their crop yields, but running out of food can be a difficult concept for some customers to understand.
"It's not like a grocery store where you can order more produce. It's an entire year process," she said. "It's a different mind set. People start making decisions on the season rather than the weekly trip to the store."
Like the original Luxton market, the Goldstream Station Market expects to draw dozens of farmer and gardeners mainly from Metchosin and Colwood. Cold, wet wheather this spring has set some growers back, but people can expect to find eggs, salad greens, herbs, tomatoes, rhubarb, squash, among other seasonal items, Parkin said.
With the Colwood Farmers' Market gearing up for Wednesdays and the Metchosin Farmers' market on Sundays, there is no lack of access to local foods, Parkin pointed out.
"Now people can get fresh local vegies on the West Shore three times per week."
