By Zack Sampson, News Staff
After three years of hard work and false starts, Northeastern Farmers Market organizers finally got a chance to enjoy the fruits of their labor Wednesday with a small, six-hour produce exhibition on Centennial Commons.
Student Government Association (SGA) Senator Dylan O’Sullivan, who most recently spearheaded the farmers market initiative, said he was very pleased with the event. He said one vendor, Heavens Harvest Farm of New Braintree participated, bringing about three tables and a couple small tents.
O’Sullivan, a junior political science major, said a crowd of “multiple hundreds” of students and faculty stood in line to get their pick of the farm’s produce, which included corn, lettuce, tomatoes and plenty of greens. He said Heavens Harvest sold out of its fare by market’s end at 6 p.m.
“[The Heavens Harvest Farmers] told me that it was very successful, and they were excited with the way things turned out,” said Tim LePage, SGA’s vice president for student services, who has worked extensively on the farmers market project since June.
Though he could not arrive at the inaugural event until 5 p.m. because he is on co-op, LePage said he heard crowds lined up quickly after the market opened at noon. “I spoke with a student who was there at 1 p.m. and she said over a hundred people were there within the first hour.”
Today’s market was undeniably an improvement over exhibitions planned in past years, which were canceled for a variety of reasons including a lack of vendors, and, most recently, permit issues earlier this month. Both LePage and O’Sullivan said they hope to have more vendors participate in the future.
“We’re working on getting a few more vendors over the next few weeks,” O’Sullivan said. He said he is already in talks with “two vendors that are very interested and want to come.”
O’Sullivan said he hopes to garner interest from more artisan vendors so the market will have a wider range of products. He said he has already talked to a vendor that sells hummus and someone who makes homemade soda out of fruit juice.
However, LePage cautioned it will take longer to bring artisan vendors to the Northeastern Farmers Market because they require different permits than produce farmers. He said Heavens Harvest will likely serve as a lone vendor again next week, but more should join the farm within two weeks.
O’Sullivan said SGA organizers struggled to attract farmers because they were hesitant to sign up for a university farmers exhibition in a city with a lot of market competition. He said some vendors work as many as 15 events a week, and historically, few college efforts have succeeded.
“They had no reason to believe this market was going to be more successful than other schools,” he said.
LePage called today’s effort a “pivotal” starting point for attracting more vendors.
“There’s a huge opportunity for this to be much bigger than it has been,” he said.
Likewise, O’Sullivan outlined big plans for future markets, which will continue weekly until November.
“It’s a great start and I think it’s something we can build on,” he said. “We want to make it more of a community and not just Northeastern event, try to bring everybody together.”
