The Hartland Farmers Market is excited to announce that we will be moving to Artisan Park in Windsor, VT for our 2022 Summer Season!
We are now accepting vendors for our Summer Season, which will be located at 3 Artisans Way Windsor, VT
Access our 2022 Summer Application, Rules, and Community Booth Application by clicking these links. Pay online here!
Dear Market Community,
We are very grateful for the time people took to share their thoughts on the move to Artisan Park. We hear you, and have compiled the most frequently asked questions below. Please feel free to send inquiries to the board through our manager, Brian Stroffolino at hartlandfarmersmarket@gmail.com.
Thank you,
Sincerely,
Hartland Farmers Market Board
Alex McLeod, Ana Mejia, Brian Stroffolino, Carol Steadman, Carly Stone, Garrett Wilson, Juli Hoyman, Lauren Mucha, Melissa Wyman
The Hartland Farmers Market Mission:
We are a community based group committed to building and providing a space for people to have access to healthy, local, fresh produce, food, and goods.
Why are we moving to Artisan Park for the 2022 Season?
The short answer to this is that we were not able to meet our goals. Market sales and attendance have been declining for years and we needed a new path forward.
We have tried reaching out to community members for input, targeting new farms, building the pizza oven, partnering with Vital Communities and state organizations, but none of these efforts have resulted in an increase in attendance and earnings for our vendors–many of whom work for nearly 12 hrs on a market day to earn less than $100–which often doesn’t even cover overhead to get to the market itself.
We are committed to providing a space for our community to access fresh, local, quality foods and goods. We have struggled to bring in farm vendors over the past few years. Our market is just too small for the big farms to justify the expense of vending, and smaller farms just can’t make it work. We also compete with the Lebanon Market (Thursdays) and Norwich Market (Saturdays). Many vendors who participate in these markets take Friday off to regroup. Even with the addition of the community oven and the increase of revenue for the Market itself from pizza sales, it hasn’t had the intended effect of generating more sales for other vendors or bringing in new customers to the Market. So instead of trying to bring more people to the market site, we’re trying a new approach by bringing the Market to where there’s already a large congregation of people looking to financially support local businesses, and potentially vendors.
Our hope is that moving to Artisan Park will provide the attraction of a location that will encourage larger vendors to commit AND provide an opportunity for smaller vendors to capitalize, build their businesses and be fairly compensated for the value of the goods they are providing.
This was not a decision we made lightly. But the reality is, we can’t have a market if people (lots of people) don’t come AND buy things. It’s not fair to our vendors, and honestly it’s not fair to those in our community who come looking for fresh food if we can’t provide farmers to bring it to them.
But I want a Farmers Market in Hartland. I like it.
Right now our sales and attendance data don’t support this statement to be painfully honest. What we think people are asking for is a sense of community–a place to gather, catch up, celebrate and just be.
Our hope is that the Hartland Community Oven will allow us as a market to help work on meeting this need. The market will still offer community pizza bakes, educational training, and be available for rentals in the coming year.
What will happen to the Hartland Community Oven?
The Hartland Community Oven is managed by a subcommittee of the Hartland Farmers Market, but is overseen by the market structure and bylaws. Per an agreement with the Town of Hartland (see attached below), the Hartland Farmers Market is responsible for managing, maintenance & repair, operating, and organizing the oven. The oven and structure are owned by the town and on town property.
The Hartland Farmers Market will continue to operate the Hartland Community Oven and as stated above we are excited about using the oven for a variety of community engagement events this season and beyond.
In particular, we are also planning to host a special market on 7/22/2022 at the Hartland Library Fields location which will be free of cost for vendors to attend. More details on this to come.
What about the town appropriations?
In the past we have used town funds to build the oven and support and expand the kids’ POP Club (Power of Produce). Additionally, our plan this year is to use funds to support Hartland-based farms and small businesses to access the new market space and grow their businesses. Our hope is to build the capacity of our local businesses who are currently selling independently through other platforms into considering taking a risk and vending at the market by removing the registration fee barriers. The prospect of a larger venue may be the very enticement they are looking for.
When will this move take effect? Is it permanent?
The decision to move the location of the Market has already been made and will take effect this upcoming Market season which will run from June 3 to October 7, 2022. We see this as a “pilot” year and whether we decide to continue operating the Market at Artisans Park will be dependent on how this year goes.
Why should I continue to support the Hartland Farmers Market?
The Hartland Farmers Market will continue to provide a space for people to have access to healthy, local, fresh produce, food, and goods, granted at a new location that is only a 5 minute (2.3 mile) distance from the former location. We anticipate that the new location will increase the number of vendors and diversify the products you can buy at the Market. We’ll also continue to host community oven bakes, workshops and educational programming at the Hartland Library fields to ensure the community has plenty of opportunities to utilize the community oven. We are super grateful for our loyal patrons who have come out week after week to support the market and our vendors at the library location and hope you will continue to do so in the future at our new location.
Click Here to view the agreement between the Town of Hartland and the Hartland Farmers Market.