2025 - Edmonton’s Downtown Farmers’ Market: Run by toddlers?

Jason writes a bit ranty because Colleen is away from the helm.

Hi! Hey guys and dolls, welcome back! And thanks for hanging in there as Colleen has been working her buns off writing a romantasy novel (about dolphin trainers) and just finished working a four month teaching contract plus I don’t like producing content as I’m “too shy” and more of an editor/fixer upper. (Colleen’s note - it’s not a romantasy, it’s a romance book with a STEM angle to it and it’s sweet because I’m not writing spicy scenes! But, a book is being written that is romantasy, stay tuned LOL!) We didn’t quite drop off the face of the Earth but Colleen seems like she wants to sit this one out so I’ll give it the ole college try. Now right off the bat I should say that we should all keep in mind 2 things: Monkeys and professionals. I know I resemble one and hardly the other so get out the Mortons and thanks for reading my friends!

Okay, one year down and the Edmonton Downtown Farmers Market has been resurrected on 104st off Jasper to 102 ave. Yay!? But you might not know it from their complete and utter lack of socials or normal media. Of course, Fawkes Cafe and several vendors do post faithfully to their own socials but without so much as a single official socials account to tie it all together or even as little as a common dedicated #hastag it seems the organization running the show - well, quite frankly isn’t. Bueller…Bueller?

But let’s recap last year a bit and see where I’m going with this. Last year the market started at about 33 vendors and 2 or 3 veggie stands and grew to about 55 and 6, unofficially and IIRC. Far from the heydays of yore, but a good start, right? (FYI, 2025’s start of the market on May 17th saw about 36 vendors and 3 little veggie stands (shout out to Thistle Hill farms and Reclaim Organics) but the big anchor Vendor slots are still growing their produce.) Last year, Colleen and I spent quite a few Saturday mornings at Fawkes Coffee and Bakery enjoying their ever-rotating-improving selection of goodies and drinks and marveling at their open brand of eclectic yet cosmopolitan coffee klatch and book club inspiring atmosphere. Then we’d be walking the market, talking to vendors and enjoying the goods and views. (Colleen’s note - Fawkes just started making caramel pecan cinnamon buns, seriously go get one in your belly!). Speaking of resuscitating the downtown, we almost thought we were going to see Jack’s Burger Shack open on Saturdays but slack flow and common sense shut that idea down. Obj3cts coffee shop is still surviving though. It’s not all about the vendors, downtown Edmonton needs the traffic, the help, and the attention! But what a glorious opportunity squandered, sigh.

Back to the market - now, throughout the year the vendors were generally positive about the market in specific but limited terms. First off, what we seemed to hear a lot from vendors was that, “basic communication was great” but limited to load-ins, where to set up tents and booths, and all the normal basics of running an outdoor market. This was appreciated as many vendors had been shafted by the previous incarnation of the indoor Downtown market (see previous Substack, “The 104st Outdoor Farmers’ Market is Back?! M’eh - so what. JACOEB: Just Another City Of Edmonton Boondoggle.”) That’s all good for a start but as the year wore on a) there were luckily no adjacent disasters that tested the “management” like windstorms or Anti-Covid parades or the like. And b) The lack of press, media and excitement seemed to be unremarkably remarkable; it’s almost like it was a ghost market or unknown pop-up that had to do all the work itself without any budget for meaningful, useful or even palpable marketing. Permission to speak frankly? (Oh, yeah, I’m writing this myself!) - What monkey troupe is running this show? With not even the (free) basics of an IG account? Or a Facebook presence? Nor any sort of meaningful coordinated attempt to publicize the normal way through gasp!, legacy media? I mean I’ve been to church socials out in Bruderheim with more pop on the local colony scuttlebutt and with at least a webpage that keeps current. Pretty bad when the Hoots online presence makes “Edmonton’s Oldest Farmers’ Market” look like its marketing is being run by the toddler section of a daycare. But compared to what, you ask?

Take the shakeup at Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market. They’ve moved to a 2 day weekend and they’ve thrown their vendors for a bit of a loop by rearranging the placements of booths, but they’ve been all over socials and local media with the changes. Most of the vendors we talked to were happy for the growth, communication, and the drive to change with the times. And even after being hamstrung by our city council that has a hate-on for all things drivers related when they lost their free parking out front, then across street, the management team constantly made sure that anyone with eyes, or a phone, or anyone that had heard of social media was aware of the changes and they are managing the fallout with professionalism. [Editor/writer/ranter’s note]: Drivers are the red-headed-step-children of the Edmonton City Council, if you know what I mean - hey, thanks for underutilized, obstructionist bike lanes and less parking; more expensive parking with no functional parking meters; LRT construction with Billions of dollar in overruns; and oh how about gaudy oversized sidewalks or flared road corners all the while ignoring the gigantic footprint of Edmonton and the time it takes to travel while disrespecting Edmonton Drivers with slow speed limits; limited vision on efficient traffic flow; and those oh so helpful “scramble” crosswalks which COE’s own website says, ”This type of phasing significantly reduces vehicle capacity and increases delay and congestion …” yet they have them only in vital arteries of traffic movement? [End rant.] Oops, I guess I’m digressing. The point was professionalism.

You can’t run a Farmers’ market without marketing (it’s right there in the title!) and expect it to survive. Every successful market has great, competent, professional “market managers” for a reason, right? Some vendors might not take notice or care initially but once the market’s novelty wears off and regular patrons begin to thin out with the summer competition in terms of everything else to do on a weekend and every other market to visit and support THEN the utter lack of professionalism and bush league, amateur management will cause yet another collapse and maybe bankruptcy of not only their market but the goodwill of Edmontonians. Don’t get me wrong, I know vendors are a hearty breed not prone to complain and there has been a tremendous surge in the number of outdoor summer markets clamoring for their attention and if they feel under supported they’ll rightfully vend elsewhere. Professionalism requires some minimums in terms of effort and the Edmonton Downtown Farmers’ market is sorely lacking. Well, so says me, the unprofessional monkey who’s writing this. What about you?