Published: 5/10/2017 12:04:57 AM
Modified: 5/10/2017 12:50:29 AM
The opening day of the Norwich Farmers Market on Saturday signaled the beginning of the market’s 40th anniversary season.
There aren’t any big celebrations planned, said Steve Hoffman, the market’s manager. But the market has another milestone that’s worth noting: its first formal lease on its longtime home on Route 5.
The market made a handshake deal with its landlord, the Co-op Food Stores, in 1977.
“We’d never had a lease and no one ever thought about it,” Hoffman said, noting that the Co-op Food Stores will maintain ownership of the community gardens and the farmers market site, which comprise more than 3½ acres.
Last year, the board of directors for the Norwich Farmers Market and Terry Appleby, the former director of the Co-op Food Stores, agreed it was time to negotiate a lease, Hoffman said.
“It gives us a little more stability,” Hoffman said. “It’s very good. The Co-op has treated us very well in the past.”
The Co-op Food Stores have maintained the relationship with the Norwich market for 40 years because “we don’t just encourage people to shop our stores; we encourage them to shop farmstands and farmers markets and to join CSAs and to have choices of access to our partners products,” wrote the Co-op’s general manager Ed Fox in an email.
The market typically boasts up to 53 vendors, out of a pool of about 100, every Saturday. There are 26 spring, summer and fall markets, Hoffman said.
Once the lease was signed, the annual fee for the site, which had been “dirt cheap,” Hoffman said, increased by six times what it had been.
“It just seemed like a more fair price than what they had been charging us,” Hoffman said.
There is no discussion about buying the property, Hoffman said. “We certainly don’t generate that kind of income. It would be a major change and it would take something along the lines of foundation money to make it happen. It would be lovely to think about it, but we’re a long ways away from ever seeing that happen.”
The farmers market’s annual budget is about $50,000, Hoffman said. Its by-laws mandate that the nonprofit market not earn more than its budget.
Geo Honigford, the owner of Hurricane Flats in South Royalton, has been a vendor at the market for 22 years. “I think it’s a good idea to have obligations spelled out between partners,” he said.
Andrea Rhodes, a co-owner of Sunset Rock Farm in Lebanon, which produces cheese, is now in her second year at the market. “I think having dedicated space is nice, and it’s nice that the market doesn’t have to move,” she said.
“It’s absolutely the right thing,” said Jinny Cleland, the owner of Four Springs Farm in Royalton. “We’ve been fortunate that we haven’t been threatened.”
The Norwich Farmers Market has offered a model for farmers markets that followed it. But for “great location and great visibility, said Rhodes, it is still one of the most sought-after locations in the state.
Nicola Smith can be reached at nsmith@vnews.com.