20


Kelowna farmers’ market gives new


location a try Year-to-year leases place market in precarious situation


by TOM WALKER


KELOWNA – September 9 marks the end of a 10-week downtown market the Kelowna Farmers’ and Crafters’ Market Society ran this summer on a trial basis in the 200-block of Bernard Avenue. “We decided to run a trial with a satellite market,” explains Bev Wiens, president of the market’s board of directors. “We looked at it as an opportunity to increase exposure; a lot of people still don’t know we have a farmers’ market. And we wanted to find out what the reception might be for a downtown site.” Wiens has received some


initial feedback but the board


plans to do a full evaluation of the trial this fall. Additional discussion will follow at the society’s AGM in February. “The initial reception has


been really good,” says Wiens. “But we already have some ideas of what we might do differently.”


Running the downtown


market at the same time as the main Kelowna market at the corner of Dilworth Drive and Springfield Avenue was problematic. “A lot of our regular


vendors feel that it would be difficult to commit to a second location at the regular Saturday time because it would require additional staffing and preparing more produce,” Wiens says. “So one of things we will consider is a


COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • SEPTEMBER 2017


A downtown venue for the Kelowna farmers’ market is attractive to local residents who live within walking distance. TOM WALKER PHOTO


Sunday morning market.” Another issue was the scheduling of the downtown market, which opened at 8am in an area that doesn’t start


hopping till later in the day. “The downtown location


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doesn’t really get going until later in the morning,” Wiens says. “We scheduled an 8 am start and the crowds are just building as the vendors were looking to wind down and go home, so we will consider a later start time.” Wiens says parking has not been an issue, thanks in part to Kelowna’s growing downtown population. “We are seeing people who


live downtown and can walk to the market and those are some of the people who might not come to our regular location,” Wiens explains. “And there are several parking sites that provide downtown parking for tourists.”


Searching The trial downtown market


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is part of quest to find a permanent location for the Kelowna market, which has operated for the past 22 years in overflow parking behind Orchard Park Shopping Centre. “It’s a great location and the mall management has been wonderful to us but it will never turn into a permanent location,” Wiens says, noting that the lease is negotiated on a yearly basis and includes a 30-day termination clause. “This is very valuable real estate in Kelowna,” she adds. While the downtown trial had the support of the


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Downtown Kelowna Association and the city, even a city-owned Parkinson Recreation Centre where the society’s winter market occurs, isn’t a secure venue. “We book that space a year in advance and we might have a conflict with the recreation interests,” Wiens says.


The situation is frustrating


for vendors. “Consistency of market dates is really important. The vegetable sellers want to move as much produce before the winter and the crafters want customers for Christmas sales,” Wiens says. The solution everyone seeks is a large, permanent location where they could build a community-use facility that would house a twice- weekly market but also provide space for similar user groups. “We have more vendors


than we can accommodate at our current site and we see up to 6,000 customers on a busy summer Saturday,” Wiens says. “Somewhere with good parking that doesn’t access off a busy street, such as we deal with now, would be ideal.”


She says the board is


keeping their eyes open for such a location. Among the sites that would work well are some under-utilized parcels in the Agricultural Land Reserve that haven’t been farmed for several years. “We believe that neither


Kelowna city council nor the ALC would or should approve development on those sites, but perhaps they would consider a market,” says Wiens. “It would be ideal if it could be co-located with a community garden or an incubator farm.”


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