Westwood Farmer’s Market Open For The 2019 Season

Westwood, MA’s Farmer’s Market is open for the 2019 season! It will be at 580 High Street in Westwood in front of the Police Station from 1pm-6pm. “As of now, the vendors who will be attending each week are Great Harvest Bread Co. selling a variety of delicious breads, cookies, and scones and Arrowhead Family Farm selling fruits, vegetables, and naturally raised eggs, pork, and beef. [Arrowhead accepts SNAP/EBT] Great Harvest Bread Co. has been attending our Market for many years and has many loyal customers that visit him weekly to buy his bread baked fresh every morning. Arrowhead Family Farm is a 13th generation family farm since 1683 located in Newburyport, and we are very excited to welcome them to our Market this season! We are hoping to find more vendors to join us.,” says the Westwood Farmer’s Market intern, Brigitte.

She describes herself thusly “ I am a rising senior at the University of Massachusetts Amherst studying Food Science. I decided to intern with Westwood’s Department of Community & Economic Development managing the Farmer’s Market because I am interested in learning more about food production from local farmers and local businesses who produce food every day. I also think it is important to shop locally and support local farmers and businesses, and I wanted to help the Farmer’s Market in Westwood keep running and hopefully encourage more people to attend.”

I commented to Bridgette that I had gone to the Westwood Farmer’s Market MA on June 18. I disappointedly found that due to the rain, the sole vendor there was packing up to go home. “The Market is usually rain or shine, this past Tuesday it rained and we stayed open 1-6pm. The reason we closed the Market early the previous week was because there was only 1 vendor. Due to their staffing issues many of our vendors from previous years were not able to return to our Market, and we have been struggling to find a farm vendor to attend. That week when we closed, we only had Great Harvest Bread Co. as a vendor because we were not yet able to find a farm vendor and he decided to leave early due to this and the weather. The first 2 weeks of the Market we were considering closing the Market as we only had 1 vendor and no farm, and unfortunately this has happened with other small Markets like in Medfield. Now that we have a farm vendor we plan to stay open rain or shine!”

“As I mentioned earlier, we have had issues with finding vendors to attend our Market, so now that we have a farm and a bread vendor we hope to grow the Market even more. We would love to have things such as face painting, community groups, and live music, but right now our Market seems too small and there doesn’t seem to be enough constant foot traffic and that is what we plan to work on first. Hopefully soon we will be able to grow the Market!” REports Bridgette of the idea of Westwood Farmer’s Market having such things as other local farmer’s markets do.

“There has not been a significant change in sales since moving the Market. The idea of moving it to the plaza in front of the Police Station was to attract more people since it has much increased visibility being on Route 109, especially during rush hour traffic at the end of the work day. This summer we are hoping that as the weather gets nicer and the farm continues to bring more and more products foot traffic will increase,” reports Bridgette of the Market’s move from St Margaret Mary’s parking lot to the police station.

Westwood Farmer’s Market will be at 580 High St in Westwood MA on Tuesdays from 1pm-6pm through October 8. Find them on Facebook and Twitter.