Christina
Blenkhorn is talking to Phil Davis like everything is 100 percent
normal.
And that’s even though it’s 6:23am, still dark, and Davis—awake
since 5am—is perusing packages of Fox Hill Cheese House’s hot
jalapeno gouda, to which, he says, deadpan, he is addicted.
The Halifax Farmers’ Market doesn’t officially open for another 37
minutes on this Saturday dawn and some vendors still practice a
bleary-eyed stumble to their tables. But Davis is already Blenkhorn’s
fourth customer of the day. She arrives at 5:45am to set up and greet
the market regulars she calls—with obvious delight—“the
beyond-early risers.”
They have their reasons, believe me, the beyond-early risers. And
it’s nothing to do with insomnia or insanity or just finishing a
World of Warcraft all-nighter.
Phil Davis likes that it’s not so crowded at half-past six, so he
can buy his spicy cheese unmolested and unshoved.
Darryl Bruce agrees. He’s a latecomer compared to Davis; he
typically arrives at 6:45am when the market is just past the time for
easy cat-swinging. But it’s still empty enough for Bruce, who has
impaired mobility and needs the extra room to grocery shop
comfortably.
“I like space,” says Bruce. “And I like that I can talk to the
vendors because they aren’t so busy.”
It’s the same for Phil Davis. “It’s a very social atmosphere,” he
says of his early marketing.
Ford Doolittle is eyeing bacon-wrapped scallops at Mike’s Fish Shop
at 6:37am. He gives his head a firm shake after considering the
prospect of arriving after the market is, you know, actually
technically open.
“It isn’t nearly as much fun. So if you can get up early enough,
this is the time to be here.” But his advice comes with a caution: “You
don’t want to be rude, standing there while the vendor is trying to get
unloaded. Some of the vendors really aren’t ready.”
Ted Hutten is one.
And it’s not that he likes to sleep in. Hutten has been selling at
the market—and getting up Saturdays around 2:30am—for 25 years. He
arrives from Kentville at his stall at 4:30am, but won’t sell a sliver
of daikon until 7am. He spends the interim two-and-a-half hours setting
up, drinking coffee and invoicing restaurants.
There was a time when Hutten opened before 7am. “We used to do a lot
of vegetables at six,” he says. “And then at 5:30. It got to the point
where I was showing up at 4:30 and there were three or four people in
the driveway, waiting.”
Maureen Legg, whose Little Dorset Farm stall is across from
Hutten’s, also won’t sell before 7am.
At 6:42am, she and two others are hidden behind containers of meat,
stacked on the coolers. Three people are already lined up on the
civilian side. In September, Legg put up a sign at her stall indicating
that she would not serve customers before 7am. Why? I ask. “Because!”
she laughs, poking her head between the containers. “I’m busy!”
Jane Mason-Browne has stopped, at 6:53am, in the middle of set-up.
She likes to prepare her table slowly, with tea breaks.
She sells greeting cards and says her earliest customer arrives at
7am most Saturdays, though the bulk of her sales happen between 9:30
and 10:30am. Mason-Browne says she wouldn’t mind the market opening
later. “It would make me a more normal person.”
Mason-Browne may get her wish. The new Seaport Farmers’ Market,
which is set to replace the current labyrinthine Halifax Farmers’
Market in late spring 2010, is scheduled not to open until 8am.
Darryl Bruce calls it “a nightmare.”
Ford Doolittle: “Detrimental.”
“For many people, seven o’clock is not early,” Doolittle adds. “And
probably for many farm people, seven o’clock is not early. Eight
o’clock is very…city.”
“Where’s my psychiatrist?” says a pokerfaced Phil Davis. “I could
sleep in until six. I haven’t done that for decades.”
Even vendor Ted Hutten who cracks the whip on pre-7am shoppers, says
8am is way too late. There are practical reasons, he says. “Some people
are coming early because they have businesses they need to be at.”
But a bigger concern is that it’s going to make the market crowded
from the moment it opens.
“There are people who are more introverted, or perhaps sane,” Hutten
says, “who want to come and talk to the vendors. Sometimes, when it’s
so busy, the relationship between the vendor and the consumer is lost.”
Related Stories
Meet the new Seaport Farmers’ Market
This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2009.
These people are nuts. Even 8AM is early. Doesn’t HRM have a bylaw prohibiting retail sales before a certain hour?
I don’t shop here anymore. I found that most people were shoving past you and rude.
8am is too late!!! I’m there by 7:15am most Saturdays…it’s blissful. Fewer people, better selection. Here’s an idea: tell everyone it opens at 8am but let those who want to get there for 7!
Well that’s great. I’m going to have to take work off to go to the Farmer’s Market when this hits. Tell me how much that’s going to happen. 😛
I had to drop someone off at the airport real early one time so I thought I’d get a headstart at the market, I was there at 6am or earlier, people were setting up their booths, and some old lady was walking around with her wicker basket! 6am! What is wrong with people?
The new Seaport Farmers Market plans to be open 6 days a week. So it shouldn’t be as crowded as the current one is on Saturday morning, even if it doesn’t open until 8:00. As for 8:00 “being very city,” well, you’re in the city.
It’s sort of a city venue for a rural concept, the market. For those of us who work on weekends (and have class during the week), it would be impossible to ever get to the market if it didn’t open until 8. That’s tragic!
The strange opening hours is just one sign of the shifting priorities for the market.
For years, various groups have wanted to get more shopping areas down on the old container piers to service the tourist industry, in particular the cruise ships that dock there. A permanent, 7-days-a-week market with more emphasis on crafts and souvenirs seems designed to satisfy that need. Now, I have no problem with a waterfront shopping mall to service the tourists. But trying to turn Halifax’s farmers market into that shopping mall is one of the most misguided things I’ve ever heard of.
Has anyone done any digging to see where the pressures for a new market location came from in the first place? Yes, the current location is often busy and crowded. One reason it is so busy and crowded is the popularity and charm of the location. I know several people who say that one of the main reasons they go is the charm of the old brewery. Sure, putting the market into a big waterfront warehouse will give more room for vendors and shoppers. But will they still want to go there? Not to mention that the new location is somewhat more inconvenient for residents (but – surprise, surprise – more convenient for the tourists).
The location, the hours, the emphasis on permanent stalls – all these things point to a market whose priority is not bringing farmers’ good to people who live in the city, but servicing a completely different clientele. Unfortunately, it’s probably way too late to stop this hugely misguided plan.
Often my fellow health care workers work ‘nights’ which means we get off work @ 7am. Often we go straight to the ‘market’ right after 12 hours of work. This time is essential as we can get through out shopping list of needs quickly we certainly are not there for ambiance or chit-chat over chai lattes. I know that setting up the stalls are labour intensive work & customers are lining up. I do not have sympathy that you were out of bed at 3am as I have been on my feet for 8 hours by that time so the sympathies aren’t in tandem. I know precisely what I want & attempt to have correct change & while I attempt to show support for local produce I will not support arrogant market stall sellers, nor are we willing to ‘wait’ for 8AM. I want to get home to bed!
Here’s a hint, hire a ‘locally grown’ student to cater to the pre-opening customers while you focus on the oh so time consuming unloading aspect or better yet get the new hire to unload while you cater to your important customers. Sobey’s has increased it’s local produce selections & they are aware of customers neeeds like open 24 hrs & self serve check-out so the staff will not have to encounter humans.
To bad you cannot or will not want my money because Sobeys sure will take it at the time I want to shop without the ‘dirty hippie’ attitude that permeates the market. Every hear of the supply & demand curve, nah I guess not.
It seems odd that you are willing to travel many miles from the organic patch in the valley so we unwashed here in Halifax must have some value to you. Don’t get snotty as customers will drop you like a dead cat. Good luck…won’t see you soon market trolls you can relax now & surmise with neighbour staller of where have all the customers gone. arrogance does not sell anything.
Market hours are way too country time for the rest of us that show up around 11 am, and get the bum’s rush to leave a 12.30 just as we are getting into our stride. How about a 9 am start, closing at 4 or 5 pm. Lots of time to get down there, see what’s going on, do the shopping, and have some lunch. Perfect.
I hardly ever go to the current Farmers’ Market – too crowded, too many line-ups. I look forward to a better space with better hours – will probably go regularly then, and I imagine many other people who never go now will go when there is a better facility with more convenient hours.
The Halifax market is by far the best market I’ve ever been to. I love the atmosphere and the labyrinth. I love the variety of vendors, I never know what I’ll find there! I no longer live in Halifax but have made the four hour drive there just to go to the market a few times since I’ve left.
I do not go to the market and expect the same convenience of Sobey’s or Superstore. It is not a “big box” store. I do not go to the market and expect it to be a quick in and out trip. I do not go to the market expecting that everyone will be in a shitty, cranky mood like they are at Sobey’s or Superstore.
I go to the market for the experience, the ambiance and the usually, awesome products. I go there to explore and to find something new. I go there to spend a few Saturday hours browsing and supporting the work of local artists, farmers and bakers. I go there because it feels different than Sobey’s and Superstore.
I have not seen inside the new venue so I cannot comment on the layout, I only hope that it doesn’t take away from the feel of the market. Historically, Farmers Markets are for the early risers – the earlier you get there, the better selection you have! If the market does not open until 8am that seems to take away a part of the feel of the market. I’m not so sure that I understand any good reason supporting an opening time of 8am. Most of all, what I would hate to see is the Halifax Market becoming more commercialized like the Saint John and Fredericton Markets.
I love the Halifax Market and I like change. I just hope that in all of these changes, the ambiance is maintained, the vendors continue to offer awesome product and the customers continue to shop!
I’m wondering where Lezlie got her information about the new market opening at 8:00? My brother is involved with this new project, and he says that’s not the case, it will still be a 7:00 start time.
Also, the new market is NOT going to be open 6 days a week – at least not in the beginning. It will still be a Saturday market, with the possibility of opening more days (probably Wednesdays at first) if and when the need arrises.
Anybody that thinks that stopping in at the Supersobeys is a quick in/out compared to the Farmers Market is a fucking idiot. Sometimes I’ll drive down to the Barrington Supersobeys after being at the market to grab a few things I couldn’t be bothered wading through the crowd to get to at the market.
I’m with the folks who are tired of being jammed into half the space you need to breath. I used to go much more often, to the market, when I lived in the city (is Dartmouth considered part of the city ?) Now that I live out in the ‘boonies’ (as pointed out to me recently) its a 40+ minute drive to Halifax. So I don’t get there as often as I did, & the horrific parking problems really ruins it as much if not more than the crowds !