The Traverse Metropolis Downtown Improvement Authority (DDA) will carry again the Sara Hardy Downtown Farmers Marketplace for on-line gross sales this winter – a primary main step towards establishing a year-round market because the DDA plans for future progress, together with both renovating the present market house or transferring areas.
The DDA is making ready to carry again the digital Sara Hardy Downtown Farmers Market beginning in January, based on Outreach Coordinator Elizabeth Dunham of SEEDS, the market supervisor for the previous decade. Prospects will be capable to browse merchandise on-line and place orders from native distributors by a weekly cutoff date, then choose up their purchases in individual at a specified time and place every week. The DDA plans to announce particulars on ordering days and pickup occasions/areas in December – the pickup location will probably be indoors at a downtown enterprise, somewhat than outdoors in parking heaps B and T the place the market is normally held, based on Downtown Expertise Coordinator Nick Viox.
The DDA first launched a web based market in May as a security response to the pandemic. Early digital gross sales had been overwhelming, with practically 400 customers putting $16,000 in on-line orders the primary three days the market was obtainable. Although on-line gross sales dipped when in-person purchasing returned, the digital market nonetheless held regular for the season – producing $164,750 in complete gross sales from 49 distributors (together with $10,000 in meals help profit purchases), with 2,860 clients registered to buy on-line, based on DDA information. Of these gross sales, 37 p.c got here from greens and herbs, 18 p.c from value-added merchandise (like breads, condiments, and dips), 14 p.c from flower/nursery/plant gross sales, 14 p.c from meat/dairy/eggs, 12 p.c from fruit, 2.5 p.c from honey/maple merchandise, and a couple of.5 p.c from skincare merchandise.
Lots of these merchandise are nonetheless obtainable in winter months, bucking conventional assumptions that agricultural choices are restricted in Michigan’s low season. “There are still products that are happening…we see a lot of great root vegetables, hoop-house products, value-added products, as well soap makers, honey, and baked goods,” says Viox. Husband-and-wife duo Andy Elliott and Emily Stewart of Trendy Fowl, a brand new bakery vendor at Sara Hardy the final two seasons, say they’re “excited” in regards to the market returning this winter, noting that the digital model has helped sellers gauge demand upfront and be capable to “test the waters” with new merchandise.
“As a small producer who doesn’t yet have a brick-and-mortar location, it’s hard for us to justify making something without knowing it will sell, because after the market is over we don’t have an outlet for it,” the couple tells The Ticker by e mail. “The virtual market allowed us to more reliably predict what would and would not sell on market days, and in what quantities.” Elliott and Stewart say the digital market helped turned sandwich bread and brioche – late additions to their stock – into high sellers this yr, which they plan to carry again in January together with buyer favorites like malt cinnamon sticky buns and new experimental baked items. At the least 20 distributors have signaled their curiosity in taking part within the winter on-line market, based on Viox, with extra nonetheless being signed up.
DDA CEO Jean Derenzy says internet hosting a digital farmers market this winter can be an important first step towards figuring out whether or not Sara Hardy can turn out to be a viable year-round market. “How do customers and vendors look at this? Will they use it, or won’t they use it? Is there a need for a year-round market?” she says. “We can at least start small and then add on to it. I can’t imagine in northern Michigan, the agricultural mecca of Michigan, not having some type of demand for it.”
In reality, different farmers markets are already efficiently working within the low season months. The Farm Membership launched a brand new weekly market this fall that runs each Saturday from 10am-2pm, providing a produce tent that includes Loma Farm merchandise in addition to BLK MRKT espresso, breakfast sandwiches and donuts, and Farm Membership’s stocked indoor merchandise part and grab-and-go cooler. Whereas the market is barely slated to run by way of the tip of January, Farm Membership co-owner Allison Jonas says the occasion has “been very well-received” and may be prolonged additional, with extra product choices added. “It’s been great to see people shop the market and stock up on local veggies, eggs, coffee, and bakery items, as well as holiday gifts,” she says. “(It’s) one-stop shopping. And lots of shoppers then stay to enjoy a beer by our outdoor fire.”
A number of distributors that take part at Sara Hardy in the summertime additionally promote items weekly by way of the winter at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons, which runs an indoor market each Saturday from 10am-2pm. Through the pandemic, distributors are being spaced out all through the Mercato hallways at Constructing 50, with masks required on the market. Derenzy notes the DDA doesn’t intend to compete with the Village market, however somewhat supply an “added value” to clients and distributors this season by offering one other outlet for gross sales. Viox provides that as coronavirus circumstances surge, some clients may not be snug with in-person purchasing – even with heightened security protocols – and can now have an choice to order merchandise on-line.
The doable growth of Sara Hardy to a year-round market is only one facet of future progress into account by the DDA. After years of discussions a couple of doable multi-million-dollar redesign of the farmers market, the DDA should make a key choice earlier than sinking funds into that undertaking, based on Derenzy: maintain the market the place it’s or transfer it to a brand new location. The DDA pressed pause on that call whereas the Decrease Boardman River Management Group works to complete a grasp plan that may information tasks alongside the urbanized part of the Boardman within the coming years. That plan, anticipated in 2021, will supply suggestions on the most effective use for properties alongside the river, together with metropolis waterfront parking heaps like B and T.
One choice could possibly be to make heaps B and T the everlasting house of the farmers market, redesigning the property to higher showcase the river and create an on-site construction that would shelter a year-round market. Or, says Derenzy, the plan may conclude there are higher makes use of for the property, and the DDA may search for one other long-term location for the farmers market. Choices have been bandied about for years – from transferring it to the Open House to closing Entrance Street on market days to creating the deliberate Rotary Sq. the brand new market house – with price, parking, and logistical benefits and drawbacks to every of these and different websites. Derenzy says the Decrease Boardman River Unified Plan can be essential in guiding decision-making in regards to the final future path of the farmers market.
“We need to identify whether (the current site) is the location and the only location for the market, or if we are looking to integrate it within another area of downtown,” says Derenzy. “This is the most opportune time, while we are studying the lower Boardman and thinking about investing in the lower Boardman, to look at how the market would fit into that.”
