MEXICO — After spending a few years sandwiched between Congress Street and River Road in Rumford, the River Valley Farmers Market has found a new home at the Region 9 parking lot on Route 2.
Market president Jessica Roy, who runs Roy’s Family Farm with her husband, Matthew, and her children, has served as president of the group for three years, and said that the move to Region 9 was an effort to reach more customers.
“When we used to hold the Farmers Market at Labonville on Route 2, 70 percent of our traffic was tourists passing through town,” Roy said Monday afternoon. “A lot of people drive down Route 2 to get to Roxbury, Byron, Rangeley, Bethel and even New Hampshire. A lot of people like stopping by and seeing what we’re all about.”
Roy said the voting members of the River Valley Farmers Market decided to shift the Farmers Market from Exchange Street in Rumford to the Region 9 parking lot.
“Some people were upset at the move, but a lot of people were okay with it,” Roy said. “We just weren’t doing the business we were hoping to do down there.”
Despite the move and the late start to the gardening season, Roy said that the Farmers Market is on pace to surpass the previous year’s sales.
“We’re about two to four weeks behind on growing, because of the bad weather we had at the beginning of the season,” Roy said. “We don’t have any produce vendors right now, but we’re still getting a lot of business with our jewelry and meat vendors. Once our produce vendors start coming, we’ll be doing great.”
Roy said that the Farmers Market is currently looking for more produce vendors to sign up.
“Since we’re a part of the official Farmers Market organization, there’s a certain ratio that we have to meet between produce vendors and artisanal vendors. We already hit our max with artisanal vendors, so if there any farms or residents out there that want to sign up to be a produce vendor, they’re more than welcome to do so.”
The River Valley Farmers Market meets every Friday from 2 to 6 p.m. until mid-October, though Roy said that the date could be extended, depending on the weather.
“Region 9 has been so good to us, and they said if weather permits, we could stay for a little longer,” Roy added.
For more information, call Roy at 207-357-1304.
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