Summer Farmers Market Starts May 7

Dust off your basket and get ready for market season!

Saturday, May 7, is the first day of the Denman Island Summer Farmers Market, just in time for spring greens, snap peas, radishes, and early flowers. As always, there’ll be a variety of take-out food, baking, and hand-made arts and crafts. Come for breakfast or lunch, purchase fresh ingredients to cook a meal, stock up on plant starts, and bring home something to beautify yourself or your space.

New this year: you can enjoy a frothy latte, espresso (hot or iced), flat white, or other specialty coffee at the market. Lacon Trading Post, who were so popular last year with their locally made kombucha and small batch roasted coffee beans, has invested in a state-of-the-art espresso machine which will take their booth to the next level.

As well, they will be creating their own flavoured syrups to add to coffees, with local herbs and flowers (think lavender lattes, for example).

“We do all our roasting on island, and our beans are organic, sourced by ethical producers (women-owned cooperatives and Indigenous-owned farms), and as low impact environmentally as possible,” say Brittany and Kane, Lacon Trading Post owners.

“We worked to bring those elements together at the farmers market. With the fine quality and the farming practices of the other vendors, it seemed counterintuitive to bring in something that didn’t mirror the attention to quality and environmentalism.”

Pat Jones from Corlan Vineyard will still be purveying drip coffee for those who prefer the simple old-school approach.

Come with a friend and enjoy your coffee and take-out food at one of our new picnic tables. We thank the Comox Valley Regional District and the BC Farmers Market Association for providing funding for these and other new equipment.

Thank you also to the stalwart vendors at the winter market for keeping the market flame alive through the rainy season. We expect to see them at the summer market, along with many others.

At this point there are no formal COVID-related requirements—it’s the market like it used to be! Masks are optional, and please take precautions if you have recently experienced suspicious symptoms or been in contact with someone who has COVID.

As we emerge from COVID in an unpredictable world, now is a great time to enjoy and support local growers, makers, and small businesses. The market does all that, but most of all it’s a fun, happy place that celebrates the abundance that surrounds us and the relationships that connect us.

The Denman Island Farmers Market is held at the Old School field, 9:30 – 12:30, every Saturday from May 7 – Oct 8.