Last weekend, not having to be up and at 6am on a Saturday was both pleasant and bizarre. Getting up became normal so quickly over the course of 20 weeks!
Every week I arrived at the market at 6:30am. Closed the road, labeled the vendor spaces, put out our signs and oversaw the setup as vendors arrived. Each week I had a lot of great conversations with new friends as I got to know our regular vendors, but also got to meet some talented artisans that just popped in for the week. I started a nice routine of grabbing my breakfast, my weekly shopping with the occasional (ok, very regular) splurge item/s and setting off once the market opened and everyone was settled. Some mornings I stuck around annoying my vendors with taking pictures or buzzing around them shooting TikToks!
By the end of the market day, I was already looking ahead to the following week and organizing the vendors for the next Saturday. This past weekend felt more like a step back in time, to earlier in the year before the market started. We had a completely free weekend, and it was weird! While I wasn't "working" I'm back to the abstract idea phase of last year, for what is needed in order to move ahead with the market, and figuring out what needs to be done by which dates in order for things to flow smoothly.
Part of wrapping up this season is to finish the blogs about the market. Touch on some ideas, and suggestions that have been made. I will also be releasing a survey to better understand what changes could be made to improve the market.
I want to keep the dialog open, so the market does not lose momentum over the off season. The full vendor list for 2022 is available on the Farmers Market page of our website, and on our Facebook "Ayr (Ontario) Farmers Market News" group I have set aside Mondays and Fridays for vendors to be able to post to the group to stay connected. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1014478706119707
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