News - Proulx Sugarbush & Berry Farm - Cumberland, Ontario near Ottawa

With a chill now on the air and the leaves slowly turning, summer’s conclusion signalled another end for east-end residents this past weekend, as Cumberland’s Farmers’ Market wrapped up its first full season in operation.

Gisele Proulx
Photo by Étienne Ranger

Each Saturday morning from June 23 until Sept. 15, thousands of visitors to the R.J. Kennedy Memorial Arena in Cumberland were greeted by everything from locally-grown vegetables to breads and pastries to hand-made products by local artisans, says organizer Caroline Douglas. Last August, the farmers’ market ran a three-week pilot project that proved wildly successful, she continues, paving the way for this year’s full-season schedule.

“People came out in droves and we had so many people wanting to vend and become members,” Douglas recounts, adding that grant money from a matching-funds program offered by the city also helped the market launch its second year. “At the end we evaluated all the vendors who were with us who said they’d want to come back. The volunteer committee that helped run the pilot decided they could also offer up some time, and we decided it was just too good an opportunity to pass up.”

Dorina Vachon, who has been practicing flower pressing for 30 years, displayed her wares at last summer’s pilot project and this year’s full season. The artisan has been selling her nature crafts – pressed flowers adorned on bookmarks, lampshades, greeting cards and other works – at the market.

“I enjoy selling there,” she says. “It was a community event – you get Cumberland people and people from all over. It was an occasion for a nice outing for a lot of people … and for me to be known better.”

As a local farmer, market vendor Gisele Proulx of Proulx Farm says her presence each Saturday morning served as a reminder for both area residents and repeat customers of the farm and what they offer.

“We can cater a lot more (to customers),” she explains. “If someone calls me and says they want corn this afternoon, for sure it’s going to be fresh. We were offering to anybody that wanted two ears of corn or two bags of corn – we went from one end to the other. That’s what we can do, versus a grocery store where … they’re pre-packed.”

Douglas agrees that many market visitors this past summer were seeking a fresher – and healthier – alternative.

“By coming to the farmers’ market, they know they’re getting a product that’s grown carefully under Canadian rules and a lot of what we were offering had no chemicals or pesticides used,” she says. “People are concerned about their health, and they trust their neighbourhood farmer to be able to sell them something that they feel is better for their health. That’s certainly one of the benefits of buying local – you can meet the person who’s grown the food and ask some questions.”

Supporting local producers is also important, Douglas adds, because area farmers often have little bargaining power when it comes to selling to chain grocery stores.

“They just can’t get their products on the shelf the way that they used to years back,” she continues. “It’s become a really cut-throat business, so for us to be able to provide to them a venue where they can have direct contact with the purchasing public, it gets rid of the middle man so they can actually sell their food for a decent price.”

As for the market as a whole, Douglas says it’s remarkable to watch a “seemingly straight-forward” event have such a profound effect on the east-end community.

“It’s been a really enriching experience for the people involved – and I include the volunteers, the vendors and the visitors in this,” she explains. “The reaction that we’ve received from all of these groups has been really overwhelmingly positive. People have told us overwhelmingly that they want the market to continue; they really recognize its value as a way to bring the broader eastern community together.”

Some of the season’s highlights included their “market bard”, a local volunteer named Chris Rouffer, Douglas continues, who “played great music for people all summer . . . he got lots of great feedback and really added a lot to it.”

The chef cook-off, which helped launch the beginning of the market season, was also a great success, Douglas says. Fundraisers in the form of a corn boil by the Lion’s Club and a tearoom run by the Women’s Institute of Cumberland were also a hit, she adds.

For now, Douglas and the rest of the organizing committee are already gearing up for next summer.

“Pretty much all of the member vendors will be enthusiastically coming back next year,” she says. “We’re really looking to the long-term to establish this as a permanent market for as long of a season as we possibly can.”

For more information on the market or to inquire about volunteer opportunities, please e-mail market@cvca-online.com.