PI, Fort farmers’ markets in full swing
Relatively new downtown farmers’ markets are up and running this season in Presque Isle and Fort Fairfield.
“It’s going to take some time to grow. Just us being here I think people will get familiar with it,” said Ben Nason, a Fort Fairfield resident who sells fresh coffee at the town’s new Wednesday afternoon farmers’ market, along with Shoe Box Farm, County Bakery and other vendors.
Nason, a technology specialist at SAD 1 who sells fresh coffee beans through his business Storibord Coffee, is glad to see more farmers’ markets starting in the area. He’s been selling coffee and beans at the long-running Saturday market at the mall in Presque Isle, and got on board with the idea of restarting a farmers’ market in Fort Fairfield this year, which was suggested by town manager Jim Risner and his wife Lori, recent transplants from Virginia.
Nason said traffic has been growing, with the fresh bread and sweets from Bridgewater-based County Bakery being a main draw, as well as the vegetables and fresh eggs from Shoe Box Farm, plus a number of other vendors, including some set to come as their vegetable fields produce more.
Nason said he thinks the town can support a healthy farmers’ market, and that the market can in turn help contribute to downtown Fort Fairfield. Some 3,400 people live in Fort Fairfield and its downtown receives thru-traffic from people crossing the border into Perth-Andover, New Brunswick.
In Presque Isle, the downtown Friday afternoon farmers’ market is getting into its third season and its first under a new public market pavilion.
Officials with Presque Isle, which paid for some of the pavilion with a grant, were on hand last Friday for a ribbon-cutting, as the Friday market draws more vendors — including a local baker bakery and soap maker, New Canada-based Aroostook Beef Co. and Bite This, a new food truck run by Rick and Sandy Guerrette, two retirees from Presque Isle who sell food like swiss mushroom burgers and tater tot poutine. The food truck also sets up at the pavilion on Wednesday afternoons.
When the market opens in early June, it can be slow since there isn’t too much fresh vegetables available, said Constantino Freitas, of Work and Play Farm in Fort Fairfield, who sells eggs and vegetables at the public market.
“Will have a range of vegetables before the end of month,” he said, listing this year’s vegetable plan: beans, bok choy, carrots, cucumbers, eggplants (the first year he’s growing the nightshade plant), peppers, squash, tomatoes, and sweet corn in end of September and fresh garlic later in the fall.
