Charlottetown Farmers’ Market reopens Saturday at new site

Charlottetown Farmers’ Market Opens New Temporary Location

The Charlottetown Farmers’ Market has found a new, temporary location. It will open this Saturday.

The market building was heavily damaged by a fire on Christmas Day. Islanders can shop for market goods at 614 North River Rd. in Charlottetown, in the old Sporting Intentions space.

Travis Cummiskey, a vendor and president of the Charlottetown Farmers’ Market Co-operative, said, “The ambiance is beautiful, the exposed wood makes it feel like a farmers’ market, as well as the parking is workable. It’s on bus routes, and it’s accessible to the community.”

This weekend, about 30 vendors will be at the new location. More vendors will join as equipment like exhaust vents and sinks are installed.

A pop-up market was held last week at the Farm Centre. Organizers have been looking for a more permanent solution. Cummiskey noted it could take a year to fix the fire-damaged market building.

Cummiskey mentioned, “A lot of our vendors cook with oil, even the donuts are cooked with oil, and it becomes an issue with air quality if we’re not able to vent that out. This building didn’t previously serve food, so those amenities aren’t here.”

He hopes to have everything set up within the next month. “The vast majority of our members want to be back as soon as possible,” he said.

Cummiskey expressed “cautious optimism” about the new space. He added, “We know this isn’t going to be perfect, we’re losing some square footage, not everything’s going to be 100 percent, but just the ability to get back and have the ability to be in front of our customers, we can open the doors and welcome everyone in, is a good feeling to us.”

The market will be open from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday. Cummiskey said additional parking will be available at 600 North River Rd. and at the child-care centre across the street from the new location.