Canandaigua Farmers Market readies for new summer season

CANANDAIGUA, NY — Come for the food shopping. Come for the friendship. Come for the music.

Leave with good feelings, and maybe a stalk or three of rhubarb, a hot sauce you're dying to try and a macaroni-and-cheese dinner you can throw in the freezer for later.

The Canandaigua Farmers Market is an event, according to Bob Stevenson, who takes over as market manager this summer season.

"It’s not a shopping trip necessarily, it’s a little different kind of event,” Stevenson said. “It’s just fun.”

His wife, Anne, runs Seasons of NY, which operates solely at the market. Seasons of NY started at the winter market three years ago and is entering its third summer.

“We now have many loyal customers and look forward to Saturday mornings,” Stevenson said. “The market is like a big party where the customers and vendors have gotten to know each other over the years.”

The market opens for the summer Saturday, June 1, and runs from 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays until the end of October.

Local food, local products at the Canandaigua Farmers Market

The Canandaigua Farmers Market is Ontario County’s only farmer-run market and consists of 30 or so vendors who live within a limited radius of Canandaigua.

The focus is on local.

Agricultural vendors such as Howell Farms, a farm within the city of Canandaigua boundaries that produces garlic and other veggies, and orginal market vendor Seneca Vegetables produce a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, flowers and eggs. Vendors like Schrader Farms provides fresh meat. Small-scale food processors such as Ms. Linzy's Mac-N-Cheese and CDGA Coffee Co. offer a variety of fresh baked goods, sauces, pickles, jams, maple products, specialty mustards, honey and more.

Vendors are required to sell only what they produce.

Most farmers started planting in greenhouses in early April, so the market will have fresh vegetables early in the summer, Stevenson said.

Where is the Canandaigua Farmers Market?

Find Canandaigua Farmers Market vendors under the pavilion on Mill Street, on the east side of South Main Street in the parking lot between Lafayette Avenue and Mill Street in downtown Canandaigua. Look for the signs directing you to the market.

What’s new at the Canandaigua Farmers Market this summer?

Cooke's Kitchen, one of the booths this year will offer hot breakfast sandwiches, which will fill in the gap created by the loss of Thai By Night. The owners of the now closed popular restaurant run Off Main Market, which moved into a physical location around the corner from the farm market.

A baker, who is new to the market this summer, will focus on cakes and specialty cookies.

Brewery Ardennes, from Geneva, is expected to host tastings and offer its beer varieties at every market this year.

“Overall, our vendors are very loyal,” Stevenson said. “They enjoy the market and come back every year. We had many more applications for booth space than we have room for booths.”

Growing the Canandaigua Farmers Market

The Canandaigua Farmers Market is well-respected and an integral part of downtown Canandaigua, and attendance grows each year. That said, Stevenson wants to expand awareness of it.

“I’d like to help people understand that the market is an event,” Stevenson said.

The market offers a weekly music series, featuring great local musicians, like John Carter, Rocco Sole and many others, Stevenson said.

Family events are held throughout the summer, such as a farm animal event by Hunt Heritage on June 8; floral crowns by Bristol Hills Lavender on June 15; face painting by Ms. Linzy's Mac-N-Cheese on Aug. 3; a scavenger hunt by Karen Bischoping on Aug. 24; and, Halloween will be here before you know it, trick or treating with all vendors on Oct. 26.

Yes, there is a lot of fun to be had at the market, but there also is a lot of business.

“We need to publicize the fun stuff, but also emphasize the fact that the produce, fruits, meats and other products are local and fresh,” Stevenson said. “When we buy ingredients, we know that they have not been traveling through a long supply chain from farm to trucks to distributor to stores. They are fresh picked and will last much longer.”

More about the Canandaigua Farmers Market

For more details and to sign up for the market mailing list, visit https://canandaiguafarmersmarket.com/. You can also follow the market on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/canandaiguafarmersmarket/.

Mike Murphy covers Canandaigua and other communities in Ontario County and writes the Eat, Drink and Be Murphy food and drink column. Follow him on X at @MPN_MikeMurphy. 

This article originally appeared on MPNnow: Food, friends and fun at Canandaigua Farmers Market