Vendors on the opening day of the Yelm Farmers Market on Saturday, May 27, were welcomed by a steady crowd of customers at its new location on McKenzie Street.
Market organizer Jon Jamieson estimated between 200 to 400 attendees on the first day.
“It hasn’t been a bad turnout at all today and the weather has worked in our favor,” Jamieson said at the market. “We’re at a new location, just across the street from where we used to be. We’ve actually been here before, whenever we’d have events and there’d be events at the community center, we’d come over here, so it hasn’t been too big of a change.”
Jamieson said there is a large variety of both new and returning vendors scheduled for the 2023 season.
Some of the returning vendors include a fresh flower vendor, Lady MacDonald’s Gourmet Foods, Reed’s Sweet Wine and All Cotton Creations.
Some of the new vendors on May 27 included Burning Lantern Candles and Cosmic Carrot. Jamieson said other new vendors will make their Yelm Farmers Market debut throughout the season.
The Yelm Farmers Market will coincide with several popular events in the city this summer, including Prairie Days, the Nisqually Valley Barbecue Rally, and the Mermaid Festival. He described that as the market’s busy times during the season.
“Things won’t look different,” Jamieson said. “We rotate vendors throughout the season. Some vendors might only do two events per month, but when we’re doing the market with events like that we’ll have our max vendor count. The most we can have here is 32 and then there will also be the vendors at those events, too.”
Jamieson hopes the market’s relationship with the Yelm community continues to grow this summer.
“Our main goal is bringing local handmade products here for people to purchase,” Jamieson said. “There are typically items that you can’t find at our local Walmart or Safeway.”
The Yelm Farmers Market is located at 206 McKenzie St. It will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each Saturday. The final market of the season is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 30.
