Appetite for second growers' market in Whangarei

Lesley A'Court, with support from daughter Penny, far left and Liam Stratton-Smith hoist their banner for the new market space on the corner of Woods and Railway Rds. Photo / John Stone

Another produce market is to open in Whangarei providing locally grown goodies and catering for midweek shoppers who cannot get to the popular, long standing Saturday Growers' Market.

Organiser Lesley A'Court said the idea for the community Mid Week Market on Wednesday afternoons, kicking off this week, came from local growers and customers spoken with during the produce collection for the Whangarei vegetable delivery initiative, The Fresh Food Collective.

"People living out of Whangarei, such as on the east coast and inland, travel to the city Monday through Friday and have shown a strong interest in buying during the week," Ms A'Court said.

Families and people busy with sports or other weekend events had shown interest in a midweek market option, too.

Some growers also had excess produce to sell during the week, but the afternoon market hours still allows them to keep up with their harvesting on the day and keep things fresh.

"A few of us have become interested in the sustainable local food production, which is becoming known in Northland," Ms A'Court said.

"People have started to focus on different ways of getting food to market without having to pay constantly for it to travel many kilometres. The more produce people can sell locally to 'the locals' the better, and the money stays local."

The new market will be held in the carpark of a site that is already home to cooperative community projects, on the corner of Woods and Railway Rds, from 2.30pm - 6.30pm.

"We suddenly realised that there were two food hubs already operating in Whangarei, plus the Bike Whare, and mentioned to Ash Holwell who manages the building, that the carpark he has would be ideal for a small market midweek, which could run afternoon and past business hours."

Small growers are encouraged to take up a stall or join a Community stall, at a 15 per cent cost to the grower.

The community stalls will be run by the new market collective's members on behalf of smaller producers who can't attend, at a charge of 15 per cent of the sales take.

Any leftovers would be either collected by the grower or given to an organisation offering free food, such as Food for Life.

Ideally, all produce on any stall must have a "food story'' attached to it.

"We want to know, along with the public, where the produce was grown, by whom and at least one interesting aspect for the public to know, for example, sprayfree, organics, etc."