{"id":66774,"date":"2019-08-16T21:03:37","date_gmt":"2019-08-17T03:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-farmers-market-is-dissolving-for-foreseeable-future\/"},"modified":"2019-08-17T03:03:37","modified_gmt":"2019-08-17T03:03:37","slug":"bayfield-farmers-market-is-dissolving-for-foreseeable-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-farmers-market-is-dissolving-for-foreseeable-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayfield farmers market is dissolving, for foreseeable future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"From
From left, Tiana Lemley, Jackie Morlan and Mary O\u2019Donnell provide information about the Bayfield Downtown Farmers Market at a Bayfield Block Party in 2017. Two years later, the market held its last event Aug. 8 before dissolving for the foreseeable future.<\/span>Courtesy of Sharon Nissen Photography<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Bayfield Downtown Farmers Market held its last event Aug. 8, and organizers have no plans to launch another market during the 2020 season.<\/p>\n

The farmers market, which started its third season in June<\/a>, was created as part of Bayfield\u2019s downtown revitalization effort. In past years, it offered customers a reliable source of fresh produce and a vibrant community. However this year, the market faltered when produce farmers didn\u2019t come. Farmers informally attended the last Bayfield Block Party of the season Thursday, then planned to move to other markets, said Jackie Morlan, a board member for the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ended up not being consistent, and we didn\u2019t have the fresh vegetables to be what the farmers market was intended to be,\u201d Morlan said. She has returned deposits and cash on hand as part of the dissolution process.<\/p>\n

The market lost two of its anchor farms this year, All Seasons Farm and Homegrown Farm. While eight or nine produce farmers expressed interest during an April organizational meeting, none of them ended up coming, Morlan said.<\/p>\n

Instead, the market featured six or seven vendors, including produce from one farm, Pinyon Crest Farms, and other vendors who sold homemade jams, freeze-dried fruits and vegetables, and baked goods.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Where are the farmers?\u2019 That\u2019s what I would hear,\u201d Morlan said. The late frosts and unpredictable growing season were hard on farmers, she added. \u201cThese farmers work so darn hard, they have to do what\u2019s best for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without vendor consistency, however, customer attendance declined.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big thing is the two farmers that were there, and were a draw for customers, did not return this year,\u201d said Elizabeth Bartley, owner of Healthy Pleasures Skin Care, who was in her second season as a vendor at the market this year. Without them, it was harder to keep attendance up. \u201cI totally understand their business choices,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Losing the market) will definitely decrease the amount of money that I would have made,\u201d she said. She will continue going to Durango Farmers Market and Blue Spruce Arts and Crafts at Vallecito.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met some really nice people and customers that returned weekly, so I\u2019ll be sad that it\u2019s coming to an end,\u201d Bartley said.<\/p>\n

The downtown market grew out of a 2015 community assessment by Downtown Colorado Inc., which suggested a co-operative market for health foods and fresh produce.<\/p>\n

\u201cFresh produce will be available at other farmers markets, but unfortunately, it will be harder to get in Bayfield,\u201d said Chris La May, Bayfield town manager. \u201cAt this point, it will probably take another person that\u2019s willing to champion the cause to really organize the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Morlan felt like the market helped achieve some revitalization downtown. Mill Street gained one new restaurant in June, and two more will open soon, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there are enough farmers in the Bayfield area who can support a market here, I\u2019m sure somebody else will start it up,\u201d Morlan said.<\/p>\n

For the foreseeable future, she is bowing out. \u201cSomething like this should be done by younger people, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

vendors participated to gain traction<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-66774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66774"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=66774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}