A cool brisk morning greeted vendors and customers at the last Moose Jaw farmers’ market of the season.
Tables groaned with potatoes, tomatoes, melons, carrots, onions, home preserves and baking.
“It was a weird year,” commented Dave Parry of Belbeck Gardens, north of Moose Jaw. “We had a pretty good year.”
Parry and Todd Gray were selling home preserves, mostly pickles, at this last market. Their tables included jars of pickled slices of turnips.
Gardener/baker Cathy McKechnie of Bethune was pleased with the year. “Our markets are better than last year.”
She attributed that to people unable to travel because of the pandemic staying home and wanting fresh vegetables.
“The support from people has been just great, a little better than expected.”
Fewer vendors were at the market as social distancing rules require six feet distance between vendors.
One observer suggested there was less browsing and socializing this year as attendance became strictly for buying.
McKechnie is retiring from the market garden business.
“This is my last year,” she said. “I want to thank everyone who has supported me.
“It’s time. It’s getting to be a little too much..”
She and her husband Morley started selling at the market 18 years ago. When he died in 2018 she kept the market garden running.
After a career farming the McKechnie homestead, they started a market garden business.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
