Farm Day in the City a big draw in downtown Charlottetown
/by Kathy Birt
Making Farm Day in the City a destination draw wrapped around agriculture is the primary goal for Discover Charlottetown, according to executive director Heidi Zinn.
Discover Charlottetown, a non-profit group that promotes P.E.I.’s capital city, organizes the annual event, which was held this year on Sunday, Oct. 6.
With 200 vendors set up on lower Queen Street, Victoria Row, and around the Confederation Centre plaza in historic downtown Charlottetown, Zinn emphasized that while the overall event is meant as a tourism draw, there were 47 primary producers involved in some capacity.
“All vendors have helped with the growth,” said Zinn, adding that she’s particularly pleased with the increased number of food vendors and out-of-province visitors to the event. “People from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick come over just for this street festival.”
The Downtown Farmers’ Market is held in the same area on Sundays from late June to the end of September. The farmers’ market culminates with Farm Day in the City.
FESTIVAL FEEDBACK
There has been some negative feedback on social media sites such as Facebook – specifically that the festival is too crowded to enjoy and needs to be spread out more, and that there’s not enough of a farm presence.
The throngs of people are a testament to the growing popularity of Farm Day in the City, and Zinn noted that the negative feedback on social media means some people are not comfortable with huge crowds.
She also pointed out that while many new vendors are not traditional farmers, there is a farming component to what they sell. She cited South Shore Soaps in DeSable as one example. They raise goats and produce a goat milk soap that many seek out at the street festival.
Zinn added, “We have at least 47 vendors who grow and offer their own product. We sprinkle them throughout the street festival area rather than have them all together.”
She noted that some of these may be people who don’t do the regular weekly farmers’ market. “So it’s a great opportunity for them,” she said. “We are getting more food vendors every year. That is cooked and ready-to-eat food that comes from farmers.”
An example is Nimrods’, a pizza business jointly owned by Jesse Clausheide and Michael Wasnidge, who said they source toppings for their pizzas from Jesse’s dad Gary Clausheide, who owns Sweet Clover Farm, an organic operation in Valleyfield. The young entrepreneurs guessed they would sell more than 800 slices of pizza during the busy day.
P.E.I. POTATO BOARD
While Farm Day in the City originated with Tourism Charlottetown – now Discover Charlottetown – Zinn noted that the P.E.I. Potato Board has been a big help in growing the festival and bringing more farmers.
Zinn said P.E.I. Potato Board representatives are usually at the festival handing out reusable bags and pamphlets.
“There were 2,500 reusable bags made from organic cotton handed out by potato growers, all bearing the hand-drawn Farm Day logo designed by a local artist,” said Zinn, adding that the board also operated a food truck selling baked potatoes and fries. “People may think, ‘Oh it’s just another food truck,’ but it was Island potato growers.”
Greg Donald, executive director of the P.E.I. Potato Board, said, “Our main objective is the producers. We like to have as many as we can on-site to interact with non-farming people.”
Donald said the board has had a presence at the festival for 10 years and in a much more significant way in the past four to five years. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for some (farmers),” he said. “Many things have changed in farming and it is a great opportunity for growers to get involved in meeting the people … to talk about farming.”
Donald said that in his years with the board, he’s seen many changes in the potato sector. “We are very fortunate to have good caretakers of the land,” he said, adding that consumers today are interested in how their food is grown and handled. “It’s what they are asking about at events like Farm Day in the City.”
A portion of the board’s food truck proceeds go to 4-H, while the balance goes to charities. “Potato growers have a lot of pride in our industry,” said Donald.
MAKING IT PRETTY
Zinn said Discover Charlottetown tries to get farmers involved in Farm Day in the City in other ways.
“We have Island Pride farms supplying the decorations along the street festival route,” she said. “These decorations have been a common sight along the street festival route throughout its 12 years.”
John Keuper of Island Pride Garden Co. in Wood Islands explained how they set up the entrances.
“We start at 5 a.m. to unpack three large trucks,” said Keuper. “We work around vendors and others, setting up the gateway decorations that include hay or straw bales, dummies, and plenty of flowers from our greenhouse (in time) for the 11 a.m. opening. At 5 p.m., it is all taken down, packed up, and taken away … leaving the street as when we started.”
FARMERS PARTNER UP
Another farmer Zinn gives credit to is Jennifer Campbell of Jen and Derrick’s Organic Farm in Wilmot for partnering with two other growers at one booth for Farm Day in the City, all selling Island-grown produce.
Her partners were Soleil Hutchinson of Soleil’s Farm in South Melville and Amy Smith of Heart Beet Organics in North Wiltshire.
Campbell noted that early frosts and post-tropical storm Dorian wiped out a lot of the cucumber crop on smaller mixed-farm operations such as hers. But the variety of vegetables she and her partners offered at their booth made up for that. Campbell herself grows more than a dozen vegetable varieties – from Winter squash to leeks to tomatoes – on the four acres of land leased from her father’s conventional potato-growing operation.
The annual street festival means a lot to Campbell’s bottom line as a small vegetable grower. “I think in the past 10 years, we may have missed one Farm Day in the City,” she said.
With Farm Day in the City as their end-of-season goal, Campbell said that by the time the day rolls around, “We’ve been working all season … we are already tired. So, it made sense to partner up and be able to offer more. The day can be exhausting.”
Campbell said she feels that the event changed when the P.E.I. Potato Board got more involved, adding, “It had a better feel to it.”
Zinn reiterated that it’s the mix of vendors that makes Farm Day in the City so popular.
“Without the craft sector of the Island and food vendors, we couldn’t have had the growth we have in the 12 years we’ve been doing this,” she said. “While it is not all traditional farmers, all farmers involved say it is their busiest day of the year.”
