The Global Market Brandon Is So Much Fun!

Loved the ceramic plant markers!

So, Brandon has a new market: a market with so much more than just veggies!  This is a community-group based project, with the land donated by a business to the City.  It's a permanent, colourful installation with wooden beamed tents with bright colored awnings.  Such a great looking space.  The Global Market welcomes farmers, bakers, artisans, crafters and home-based businesses, so a great mix!

A shady food court!

We decided to join this market for various reasons, discussed here.  Grand Opening was Thursday night, running in conjunction with the popular 'Cruisin' the Dub' car show: something like six blocks of vintage cars on display.  What a fabulous evening!  The weather was perfect: not too hot, not too windy.  The place was rockin'!  We saw friends, neighbors, CSA members and previous Farmers Market customers - so much chatting and laughing!  What a great way to introduce a new market.  There was live music to groove to supplied by the Majestics, a couple of food trucks providing good food, the occasional roar of an engine and lots and lots of people!

Awesome traditional Hispanic baking!

Grand Opening on Thursday night had a couple of us fresh veggie vendors, some fabulous handmade art including paintings and ceramics, two vendors of gorgeous locally produced jewellery - one classic metal based and the other had intricate, almost woven earrings, very cool!  There was an hispanic bakery (where I scored some scrumptious coconut buns).  There was a home-based business selling earth-friendly cleaning products (including Norwex re-usable cleaning cloths - which I adore, mine is about five years old now and still going strong after many washes!) and a seller of Epicure, with yummy gourmet spices, rubs and other edibles!  You could have also picked up some CD's or DVD's and some vintage toys from a couple of different small business people!  Such a great variety!

Smilin' Hugh and his son-in-law!

Friday, in conjunction with Brandon's Multi-cultural Festival, there was another market and some great music!  We were back Saturday morning and there were more veggies producers (Ray had fresh peas, don't know how he got those so early!)  There was another jewellery vendor with, again, cool different stuff, and 'Lady of the Lake' was offering coffee, some tasty and healthy smoothies and some awesome baking!  We were really enjoying a busker - a guitar player!  As we were leaving in the early afternoon a painter was setting up with some gorgeous, large scale abstract art!  Such variety at the Global Market!

Adorn yourself or start your
Christmas shopping!

The Global Market has a great new website, so you can keep up on entertainment, special events and such:  check it out here.  They are also on Facebook and Twitter, like us, if you want to know what's going on right now!  Market days, right now, will be officially Fridays afternoon and evenings until 7:00 PM, and Saturdays all day.  The Funky Food truck is there six days a week serving from lunch to dinner!  The Jamaican food truck is open during the evenings right now, I do believe.  We'll be doing Friday's from 4:00 to 7:00 PM, and Saturday mornings from 9:00 AM to noonish.  There will lots of different entertainment!  More veggies producers are coming as their crops come in, more of the vendors from the International Women's Market will be coming and lots of crafters will be coming-and-going each week!  What a great place to do your shopping!  I'm already starting my Christmas shopping: the jewellery and ceramics will be great for so many of the people on my shopping list!  Love shopping local as much as we can!  When you drop by the Global Market, please do come say hello! 

Where, Oh Where to Sell Our Veggies!

Working it at a Farmers' Market!

We never wanted to organize Farmers Markets.  When we took over the little family farm ten years ago and were looking to increase sales, there was one market in town on Saturday mornings and they wouldn't let us join!  We knew they sold out of fresh produce, and early, so we figured there was room for another market!  Friends were working with the Riverbank Discovery Centre on a project and mentioned they were looking for events.  We loved the idea of an outdoor market in such a beautiful location and thus was born the Saturday morning Farmers Market at Riverbank Discovery Centre!  We were growing extra veggies and we heard from so many people that they left for their cottages on Friday night and missed Saturday morning markets, so a year later we started the Thursday night market at the Riverbank.

We laugh now, looking back at the first few markets at Riverbank Discovery Centre!  There was us and our friend Jim, a baker, two little tables.  Fortunatley, the market grew.  We always struggled to promote the Farmers Market at the Riverbank Discovery Centre: it couldn't be seen from the street so it relied on advertising to grow, and there is never enough budget for ads while keeping the table rentals reasonable and still paying the licenses, rents and insurance.  With that in mind, Farmer Man had the idea to start a market at one of the busiest corners in the city so, a few years ago, we started the Friday Night Farmers Market at Shopper Mall!  It did quite well, quickly, showing us the value of 'location, location, location' and high visibility, however the rent and insurance requirements were much higher.

Now, those of you who know us well know that we're not that organized...well, Farmer Man is the farmer and organizing fell to me.  And I'm not that organized, or good at paperwork, or happy doing office stuff.  We never made any money at organizing markets and they were taking up a lot of our time.  In season, we'd get a lot of phone calls every week: inquiries about what veggies would be at the market coming up that day (when we're really busy getting the veggies ready for market that day), inquiries from people thinking of selling at a market, inquiries about whether we knew when a certain seller or product might be coming....much time spent in talking on the phone or returning emails.  Really, we just wanted to grow and sell our vegetables!

So, we were interested when we heard of a new community-based project called The Global Market.  A company, Perths, was closing its' downtown Brandon dry-cleaning plant.  For new building construction to happen on the site, an extensive and expensive environmental clean-up would have to happen, so the company decided to donate the land, with the Brandon branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association organizing, with stakeholders as diverse as Westman Immigration Services and Samaritan House.  The space is close to BU, close to residential areas with plenty of parking!  The plan includes permanent tents, green space and seating!  The organizers already have interest from a couple of food trucks; 'Funky Food' the chip truck is already using the empty lot, serving their goodies during the week!  Apparently the Jamaican food truck 'Irie Kaya' will be on site shortly!  Vendors from Brandon's much-loved International Women's Market will use the space as their summer home - meaning great, fresh ethnic food and crafts!  The Global Market, to my understanding, will welcome home-based businesses like Avon, Arbonne, Pampered Chef and such, and sellers of new merchandise like sun glass vendors, T-shirt sellers and the like!  There are plans for Saturday evening live music, with the 0 block of 12th Ave closed for street parties!  Should make for a fun and diverse market!

Although it has been a tough decision, we've made the choice to join The Global Market.  We're going to free ourselves from all the duties involved with organizing The Farmers Market at Riverbank Discovery Centre and The Friday Night Farmers Market!  The Global Market should be open by June - we anticipate being there Saturday mornings for sure and probably at least one evening during the week; follow Aagaard Farms on Facebook or Twitter to get our latest news!  We know that a number of the vendors that participated with us at our markets the last few years will be joining us!  Stay tuned for more details: The Global Market has a Facebook page at Global Market Brandon, MB so go 'like' them and keep up on all the latest info!

We would like to take a moment to thank all the Buyers and Sellers who have supported us over the years!  It's been great to get to know so many fabulous Brandonites!  We hope you'll all come join us at The Global Market, it should be a Blast!  In the meantime, we can concentrate on 'Growing Great Food for Our Neighbors', which is, really, what we do here at Aagaard Farms!