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FARMINGTON – The Farmington Grange is looking to improve its hall, with an eye towards using the building to run the Sandy River Farmers’ Market through the winter months.
In the past, the market has shut down in the winter. The Grange is hoping that this year will be different.
The Grange has held two markets over the past two Saturdays, with locally-produced food being offered from 10 a.m. to noon. Richard Marble, a member of the Farmington Grange, said that they hope to build off of that success.
“The first weekend we had the hunter’s breakfast and the artisans along with the market,” Marble said, “and each group said the other helped bring in people. Then last weekend traffic was pretty brisk.”
Marble and other members of the Grange are working to winterize the building, starting with a new heating system and insulating the roof. In past years, Marble said, the cold weather had defeated attempts to use the building for events during the winter months.
“That’s been the problem, it’s been hard sledding once it gets really cold,” he said, “and with the price of heating oil, we’ve had to just shut it down.”
The Grange is hoping a warmer building will provide a home for the market, as well as a pickup location for the online Western Maine Market. Marble said that the market will continue to be held on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon, with those hours potentially expanding should enough interest develop.
Future plans, tentatively scheduled for summer 2010, would be to install a commercial kitchen and a walk-in cooler. Marble, who has 18 years of experience as a contractor, said he had installed a similar system at his farm. Those improvements would let farmers use the hall to process their products, prior to selling them at the market.
The goal is to increase the use of the Grange hall, turning it into a focal point for an increasing demand for locally-grown products. Marble said he also hoped the year-round market would make local farms more sustainable.
The Grange is looking for both people interested in selling their products at the market, as well as people willing to donate time and money to help the renovations move forward. Marble can be reached at 778-6968.
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