State Ag Commissioner Pays Visit To Winter Farmers Market

ORLEANS – Business was good for vendors Saturday morning inside of Lower Cape TV, which for the second year is serving as home to the town’s weekly winter farmers market. Visitors, including Commissioner Ashley Randle of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, perused the market for fresh produce, fruit, snacks, homemade honey and more. 

 Randle and staff from MDAR were on hand Saturday as part of a statewide tour of winter farmers markets in an effort to raise more awareness about the off-season events. The commissioner also made a stop in Truro while on the Cape.

 “It’s really about food access,” she said of winter markets such as the one in Orleans. “It’s bringing the local community together to be able to access local produce, meat, dairy, local seafood. And for farms, it’s really an income generating source for them and in turn for the local economy.”

 The Orleans Farmers Market, one of the longest running and most popular markets on the Cape, typically operates outdoors behind the Artist Cottages during the spring and summer months. But the market’s president, Gretel Norgeot, said the market has been harder to operate off season due to a lack of adequate indoor space in town to accommodate it.

 “People had to wait outside to get in the building,” she said, referring to the market’s former winter home at 44 Main St. “So when we moved here, everyone was really excited that there was so much more space, and more room for vendors, too.”

 At Lower Cape TV, the market accommodated about 20 vendors a week leading up to Christmas, Norgeot said. In the weeks since, there have been 10 to 15 vendors a week on average. 

 “It brings people in,” said Lela Bailey, who works alongside her mother, Heather, who owns and operates The Optimal Kitchen in Chatham “It gives them a place to get fresh food grown locally, not something from the store where who knows where it’s coming from.”

 The ability to offer the market year round is critical, noted Senator Julian Cyr, D-Provincetown. As more and more people struggle to keep up with the cost of food on top of the cost of housing locally, the ability to source food from local growers is key, he said.

 “One in seven families in Massachusetts struggle to get access to food and afford food,” Cyr said. “We are not immune to that on the Cape. If anything, we have seen demand from our food banks spike since the pandemic. And that demand has stayed level.”

 The ability to sell at markets such as the one in Orleans is also a boon to local vendors and businesses. 

 “In the offseason, you can still make your money,” Bailey said.

 In talking with vendors, Randle said, concerns have been raised about the impact that climate change will have on future growing seasons. She said she’s also fielded questions about the availability of federal and state grant funding to support local farms and growers. 

 “We do have a wide suite of grants available for farmers to be able to utilize, so we want to encourage them to look at the grants that would be the right fit for their farm and to be able to help support infrastructure investments as well as succession planning for farms that are at that point,” she said.

 And beyond being good for business, the market also offers the opportunity for connection and camaraderie among participating vendors and businesses, said Bailey, who added that she’s been coming to the Orleans market for as long as she can remember. 

“It brings us together as a community,” she said. “Like I said, I’ve known most of these people since I was a baby. We all stick together, we all work together. It’s great. It’s a great community.”