Skowhegan Farmers’ Market
Heart and Soul: Farmers’ Market Offers More Than Vegetables | September 2018
By Maria Landry
At first glance, it might seem like the Skowhegan Farmers’ Market is all about local vegetables, cheese, eggs, bread, flowers, and even gourmet frozen cuisine.
Yes, you can find all of that—and much more—but market manager and Crooked Face Creamery entrepreneur Amy Rowbottom sees something else.
“It’s about relationships, I think,” she mused from her parents’ farmhouse kitchen in Norridgewock recently. “That’s what makes it special for me anyway.”
A regular at the market for eight years with her handcrafted cheese, Rowbottom is in her first year as manager.
“Reconnecting with the community was my main goal when I decided to take this on,” she said. “I’m just so impressed with the quality of products everybody brings, and we’ve got some really loyal customers. Just trying to find new faces, reach out to new people.”
Having grown up locally, Rowbottom said she took on the role of manager because “I care a lot about this town and everybody in it. I was hesitant because my business is at a really big transition point right now, but [all the market vendors] are so on it and stepping up when help is needed. It’s hard to juggle it all, but everybody goes with their whole heart and soul into that market.”
Rowbottom says the farmers’ market is always changing as some vendors decide to move on to focus on different aspects of their business and new vendors come in.
“It’s a great place to come in as a new business owner because you can get firsthand feedback,” she said. “I have a new cheese I’m trying—let’s put it out and see what people think. Then they tell their friends and their friends. It’s such a great way to build your relationships with the community, spread word-of-mouth marketing, try out new products.”
A few vendors have been attending the Skowhegan Farmers’ Market from the beginning, including Northwoods Naturals, Cayford Orchards, and Grassland Farm. Others, such as honey producer Hutchins Hives, are brand-new to the market this year.
Guest vendors round out the offerings. “That’s really fun because you can bring in jewelry makers, pottery makers, fiber artists, people that might not want to commit to a weekly market but are from the surrounding area and offer something we don’t already have.”
Summer is, of course, the busiest time. In addition to the regulars who visit on a weekly basis, tourists stop by to check out the area’s bounty.
“I see a lot of new faces, people driving through to camps,” Rowbottom noted, adding that they had a “great day” when the Skowhegan Craft Brew Festival took place on Sept. 1.
She commented that the neighboring Miller’s Table serving breakfast and lunch on Saturdays has been a draw. The Maine Harvest Bucks program has also been important—for every dollar shoppers spend with a SNAP/EBT card at a farmers’ market, they receive an extra dollar in Maine Harvest Bucks to be spent on locally grown fruits and vegetables.
Unlike most farmers’ markets, Skowhegan’s doesn’t shut down in the winter. Open 9 a.m.-1 p.m. every Saturday from May through November, the market drops to the first and third Saturdays during the wintertime. They also shorten the hours to 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and move from their summertime outdoor space next to the Somerset Grist Mill to a cozy space in Boynton’s Greenhouse.
“We don’t have as many vendors in the winter, but we still get quite a bit of traffic,” Rowbottom said. “We have such a good following with the community that it’s worth it for us to keep going through the winter.”
Having started as manager just a month before this year’s busy summer season, Rowbottom didn’t have a lot of time to plan. She’s hoping that next year she can make some headway during the slower winter season.
“I want to do some more work with the community on bringing groups in, maybe some tours, interviews with the different farmers, getting to know their products and how to use them” she said. “I would like to have a wellness month where we have classes in the courtyard at the Miller’s Table, maybe Zumba or yoga.”
She and her fellow farmers are also interested in hosting a paint night in the spring to raise money for other programs.
“This year we wanted to create a kids’ tent,” she said. “There are so many kids that come to market, and it’d be really neat to have a little market set up for them, their own place to pretend to sell vegetables and talk about them. The paint night was going to fund the kids’ tent idea and some other ideas, and we just ran out of time.”
Perhaps most of all, Rowbottom is looking forward to continuing to nurture relationships.
“It’s my hometown,” she said. “I see kids grow up. I know their parents. They see your children grow up, and we all know each other and support each other. I need that element of relationship building and hearing how things are going for my customers, my friends, and my fellow farmers. It keeps you sane. It keeps you happy and healthy. It’s that balance of work and social time and community connection. That’s what makes it so special.”
Want to join the Skowhegan Farmers’ Market?
“We’d love to grow the market,” Rowbottom said. “We’re really open. We want to make choices for the market that are going to be best for everyone—offer as much as we can, as much variety as we can, but also make it a profitable and good market for vendors. You bring a new vendor, and they bring their support system and their community to the market, and it’s great for everybody.”
Submit your application online.
Learn more about the Skowhegan Farmers’ Market.
