By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
Ortonville — The Ortonville Farmer’s Market is getting ready for the summer.
9 a.m.-noon, June 17-Sept. 30, the Ortonville Downtown Development Authority will host their weekly Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings.
“We’ve been meeting since January, and the team of people that we have assembled has been great,” said Leanne Claxton, a member of the DDA board of directors. “One of our biggest problems that we had last year is that we didn’t have enough produce to get people interested.”
Due to staffing and harvests last year, there were not many vendors that sold produce. This year, there will be three consistent, weekly produce vendors, and seven total that will sell at various times.
“There will also be six farms that will provide produce to sell on a whole-sale basis,” said Claxton.
There are now 36 total vendors on various days, and the DDA has added programs, local musician entertainment, cooking demos, canning demos and plenty of other events for those who attend the farmer’s market.
“We’re also launching our farm to food pantry program this year,” said Claxton. “With our wholesale vendors, we have to kind of predict how much we’re going to sell. We’ll have some food left over, and we’ll be donating weekly, alternating the Table Food Pantry in Goodrich and OCEF in Brandon. If any vendors have leftovers that they don’t have a need for, they’re welcome to contribute to that, or anyone there is welcome to donate.”
Another new feature this year will be two, weekly youth entrepreneurs tables.
“Almost every week there will be at least one youth entrepreneur selling something that they make or grow themselves,” said Claxton. “Anyone ages 10-18 can sign up. One of the things we’re trying to do this year is reach out to the younger people, and this gets them excited to get out and do something this summer.”
There will also be a weekly coffee vendor, and the Ortonville Masonic Hall will be serving breakfast weekly, as well as the Village Pub and Impact North.
For more information on the farmer’s market, visit Ortonville Farmer’s Market on Facebook or OrtovnilleMIFarmersMarket on Instagram.