Farmers' Markets Opening April 17 In Albany And Corvallis - 04/07/21
Corvallis-Albany Farmers’ Markets
P.O. Box 2602
Corvallis, OR 97339
FMI: Rebecca Landis, landisr@peak.org or (541) 740-1542
April 7, 2021
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Outdoor farmers’ markets open April 17 in downtown Albany and Corvallis.
The 32-week season will begin with COVID measures much like those in fall 2020 markets and the winter market that runs through April 10 at the Benton County Fairgrounds.
Hours are 9 am to 1 pm. The season runs 32 weeks, until just before Thanksgiving. Albany will add a holiday farmers’ market in December.
The Albany Farmers’ Market is at 4th and Ellsworth, occupying the City Hall parking lot and an adjacent block of 4th Avenue.
The Corvallis Farmers’ market is at 1st and Jackson. On Saturdays, it runs a ½ block north of Jackson and to Monroe, where it turns west to 2nd Street. A new section on Jackson just west of 1st was added to the permit area in exchange for spaces that will be used for enclosed street cafes for various brick-and-mortar restaurants/bars.
The Wednesday market footprint is smaller, occupying one block of 1st Street and a ½ block on Monroe Ave.
Farmers’ markets will focus on their role as essential food providers, using all available space to spread out vendors and customers and ensure community access to locally grown, fresh and healthy foods.
Market customers should look for and heed signs on vendor stalls and on A-frames at entrances and throughout the site. As conditions and regulations change during the season, the market association will continue to make safety adjustments.
Live music and most educational events remain on hold. The exception is Albany’s Power of Produce (PoP) Club, which in 2020 found a COVID-safe way to provide fruits and vegetables to kids 5-12. Parents are invited to pick up one free produce item for each eligible child. PoP is scheduled to start on July 3.
Everyone 5 and up must wear a mask properly and consistently. The market will provide face coverings if needed. This requirement is unlikely to change this season even as more people are vaccinated, since even those with substantial immunity still shed virus that could infect others.
This year, the market also has to manage occupancy according to Oregon Health Authority formulas that apply to all retail whether indoors or outdoors.
The market asks the community’s help in COVID compliance keeping shopping groups small – just one or two people if at all possible.
Additional customer expectations are listed in a colorful graphic and a text document that appear on social media and on locallygrown.org, on a tab called Keeping Markets Safe for Everyone.
Online marketplace
Customers who want to start their shopping at home can use CAFM LocallyGrown Marketplace. You can reduce your time at the market site or just earn the right to sleep in and still get eggs. Pickup is at individual vendor stalls, but online customers should not wait in line.
Sign up for online orders starts here: locallygrown.localfoodmarketplace.com
Farmers’ markets are for everyone
People in a wider range of income situations can benefit from market products because of various nutrition programs, including SNAP, Double Up Food Bucks and the Farm Direct Nutrition Program, which includes both certain seniors and Women, Infants and Children (WIC) participants.
Vendor news
A few vendors who did not participate in 2020 will be returning to markets thanks to the availability of vaccines. Some vendors will return or come more often because they have secured services at USDA-inspected meat processing plants that were affected in 2020 both by COVID and by wildfires.
New Albany vendors this season include well-known Corvallis vendors Brandywine Fisheries and The Naked Crepe. New to CAFM are All Tucked Inn and Woolly Oak Farm.
New Corvallis vendors include Chateau Bianca, Rupert’s Meats, Rusty Fish Farm, Underground Seeds and Lacomb Lavender. Camron Ridge Farmstead, which is continuing at Albany Farmers’ Market, will join the new vendors on Jackson just west of 1st Street.
During the pandemic, the market has maintained a spreadsheet of vendors offering their own online, delivery and pickup options. That spreadsheet has been updated and posted as a Google sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TcmwT4ZnOqSk-WyYAD8b2QMrRNagrj7l1E26xpQ0WXY/edit?usp=sharing.
History:
The Albany Farmers’ Market will open April 17 for another season of promoting locally grown farm direct agriculture.
The market began in 1978 on Water Ave. but since 2007 has operated in the City Hall parking lot and an adjacent block of 4th Avenue. Albany boasts the oldest continuously operating outdoor farmers’ market in Oregon.
In Corvallis, 2021 represents two major birthdays. The Wednesday farmers’ market is 40 years old, and the Saturday farmers’ market is 30 years old.
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