Manchester Farmers Market - Michigan’s Friendliest Farmers Market

Gail Hamilton's crocheted "Come In!" sign above her booth epitomizes the friendly spirit of the Manchester Farmers Market.

Every summer Thursday between 4 and 8pm, you’ll find a bustling farmers’ market on Adrian Street, in the heart of the village. The 2013 market was so full and energetic that it is hard to remember that just one year before, road construction almost killed the already flagging market. The dramatic turnaround that brought us this year’s successful market wasn’t happenstance

In fact, along with a grant from the Chelsea Wellness Coalition, it was a decision made last winter by the Farmers Market Committee, a sub-committee of the Village Council, to shift the focus of the market, that made it possible for this year’s vibrant market to occur.

Ruth VanBogelen (center) heads up the Farmers Market Visioning Session Tuesday, November 8, in the Village Room.

What was the key change? When the Manchester Farmers Market was started in 2005, the focus of the market was to promote local businesses. The Committee decided that this summer, they would switch the focus to making vendors happy; the theory being that the key to a successful market was to draw in and keep vendors, and that more vendors would mean more customers.

A $9,000 grant from the Chelsea Wellness Coalition allowed them to implement two policies toward this end: first, if vendors opted to pay $100 for the 22-day market season instead of $6/day and attended 80% of the market days they would have their whole payment reimbursed; and second, at the end of the market day, unsold produce was purchased from the vendors and donated to the food pantry here in the village. Other vendor(and customer)-friendly policies that were enacted included the hiring of a new market-manager, Kitty Crutchfield, weekly emails that went out on Wednesdays announcing which vendors would be present and what they would be bringing, and the most remarked-upon of all, a DJ was brought in to play music, creating a festive atmosphere.

Maureen Lochey sold pottery this summer at the farmers market.

It was these policy changes that created the full market we saw this summer. The market had 61 different vendors and averaged 18 vendors/market day, topping out at 25 at the fullest. The vendors averaged $110/market day with a total sales of $37,853 for the season. One vendor grossed $838 in one day. Vendors came from as far away as Jonesville to sell in Manchester.

Although the numbers are telling, and certainly sales played an important role in attracting and retaining vendors this summer, another factor, invisible in the statistics, played an equally important role... Manchester is friendly!

Ruth VanBogelen, who headed up for the committee, the public Farmers Market Visioning session on Tuesday, Nov. 8th, related that this summer she encountered something unexpected: more than one vendor left our farmers market for more lucrative Thursday markets, only to return to ours again. The reason they gave? It was how nice and friendly the other vendors and customers are at the Manchester Farmers Market.

Kitty Crutchfield, the farmers market manager, took notes on the wall during a brainstorming session at the Visioning Meeting.

Although the congeniality of our village isn’t going anywhere, the grant from the Chelsea Wellness Center served it’s purpose reinvigorating the market and it is now up to our farmers market to look towards the future and at becoming self-sufficient. This visioning session was the first step in laying out a 5 year plan for the farmers market. The farmer’s market committee is considering paying for a rapid-assessment by the Michigan Farmers Market Association. If they do, they will take the recommendations that come out of that assessment and the public input from the visioning session to draw up a draft of a plan to present to the Village council which will be revised until it receives approval.

Some of the plan is already set.  The Farmers Market is going to remain vendor focused. The market’s time is going to be moved up a half-hour to 3:30 and will close at 7:30pm. The committee is purchasing a large banner to hang across the road and advertising flags for the new lampposts. The farmers market committee recently met with representatives from Dexter, Chelsea, Stockbridge and Grass Lake. All five communities hold their markets on different days of the week. Plans are in the works to jointly advertise and also to possibly create a “farmers market passport” that could be taken to all 5 farmers markets and stamped to receive a perk.

The Manchester Farmers Market was just one of the markets Mark's Farm travelled to weekly from Britton, MI. This was their first year selling in Manchester and they plan to return for the 2014 market.

Other ideas proposed at the meeting for the committee to consider included eventually moving market day to Saturday morning to take advantage of Manchester’s busiest downtown day and time, building a permanent farmers market pavilion, accepting the bridge card and SNAP, enticing meat and dairy providers, offering training sessions for vendors to help them run their booths as successful businesses, having a winter market, advertising to commuters, and offering recipes and demos.

One idea that was popular with everyone present was branding the farmers market. Don’t be surprised if next summer you see hanging over Main street a banner declaring “The Manchester Farmers Market - Michigan’s Friendliest Farmers Market”.

Dean Shaw brought breads, herbs and wood items to the Farmers Market.

Photos of the 2013 farmers market were provided by the Manchester Farmers Market Committee. 

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.