COME OUT this weekend to celebrate the 30th year of the Skeena Valley Farmers Market, which started out small and has grown thru the years.
Ella Vienneau has been a vendor at the farmers market since it started with about four to seven vendors.
“Then slowly it picked up and people were really good. They supported us and kept coming so we stuck it out and now it’s quite nice,” she said.
There were four vendors who would set up at the four-way stop selling produce there, but Vienneau remembers the farmers market at the same place it is now, Market Square, next to George Little Park. Then it moved to where the Seniors Housing is now and then back again to the market square a few years ago. The farmers market has grown to more than 80 vendors.
“Some of our old customers are still coming,” she said. “It’s quite nice to see the same people. They were just little kids [back then] and now come with their own kids.”
She began as the “fudge lady” with a couple pans of her confection and now her daughter has taken it over.
“Now I do my slippers and take that to the market and help my daughter with selling the fudge,” she said, adding her daughter helped her when she was selling fudge and was there to also keep Vienneau company.
“I just like the atmosphere there, the people. You keep on seeing the same people, the same faces,” said Vienneau.
The Skeena Valley Farmers Market is one of the best, says a lot of visitors, she said.
“We even had a lady last year come from Edmonton and she said that, even with the ones she sees in Edmonton, [ours is] one of the best she has seen so far. It’s quite nice to see that we have a good market and can compare it with other ones.”
The Skeena Valley Farmers Market opens every Saturday from May thru October offering homegrown, homemade and homebaked items. and local musicians and buskers entertain those who come to the market.