The Wood River Farmers Market
It’s a weekly habit: You grab your basket, your empty egg cartons and jars, and head to your local farmers market. You might see friends as you shop. But it’s the farmers you’re after. They take back your empties and sell you fresh berries, produce and jams while chatting about the week, the weather and what’s new at the booth. Knowing your favorite farmers’ booth location is key and the ritual is repeated each week. When the markets move, it’s like not being able to find your church.
In the Wood River Valley, both farmers markets made moves over the past decade. In Hailey, the market migrated across the street before returning last year to its original spot in a small park on Main Street, a situation that both the vendors and customers prefer. But in Ketchum, things looked murkier. Its location in Town Square was disputed by some nearby businesses. The board of the Wood River Farmers Markets began looking for alternatives.
Since farmers markets can help bring activity into public spaces, they’re often located in downtown areas in need of revitalization. Sometimes it’s a central shopping street and sometimes a town square. Which begs the question: Just who can use a town’s town square?
“No one is entitled to anything except to be listened to,” says Neil Bradshaw, Ketchum’s mayor. “I need to work hard to create balance with the year-round businesses. The Town Square is for the public benefit, but it’s not for a commercial venture.”
For more than a decade the market was held on one block of Fourth Street designed many years earlier with wider sidewalks for a more pedestrian-friendly feel. However, due to 2018 construction on a building along that corridor, the market moved to the nearby Town Square. Though it lost 20 vendors due to a limited area it was the “best year ever,” says Kelly Eisenberger, market manager of the Wood River Farmers Markets.
The markets’ board anticipated the change.
“We tried our best to talk to the city, to convince them to let us stay in Town Square, but it was clear to us it wasn’t going to work,” said Katie Taylor, the board president of the Wood River Farmers Markets, as well as a vendor with two booths: Wood River Ranch Beef and Katie’s Kakes.
Ketchum offered up an alternative in a less-central location, near its Forest Service Park. But the board nixed it due to issues such as traffic, parking, timing and location. Meanwhile, Bradshaw admitted it was problematic to keep the market in the downtown core of Ketchum.
“What they choose to do is up to them, it’s not my preference,” he says.
Cities that embrace their farmers markets are “happy, healthy and vibrant and I’d like to see them be successful,” he says.
But by the end of the season, adjacent businesses lodged complaints about parking issues and loss of revenue. Subsequently, the board of the Wood River Farmers Market and the City of Ketchum held several meetings to discuss how to move forward and, most importantly, relocation.
While Ketchum’s alternate location offer sat on the table, the City of Sun Valley, through its River Run Revitalization arm, approached the board with an intriguing offer. The lower River Run parking area at the base of the town’s ski area Bald Mountain might not seem an obvious location, but it checked off boxes including ample parking for vendors and customers, use of permanent restrooms and a scenic area.
Eisenberger says the River Run Revitalization group understands the worth of farmers markets. Together they’ll work on signage, banners on Main Street and other marketing to help move the market to its new destination.
“They want to make it Ketchum’s backyard, and bring locals to River Run,” she says.
“They’re ready to play ball with us and have been very accommodating and flexible. “We’re hoping to get away from the negativity we experienced in Ketchum.”
Amy Matias, co-director of the Local Food Alliance in Blaine County, feels that the move should be looked at as an opportunity to “re-envision the future, to stop looking at what was.”
“It’s a deeper conversation than people seem to be willing to have: What can we do to better serve our community,” she says. “Maybe we can envision a Saturday-morning market with 20 farmers from the Bellevue triangle.”
Besides a feeling of being wanted, the new location has other benefits, Eisenberger points out.
“We’ll have more food court offerings to get hikers and bikers when they get on or off Baldy, and food trucks can open earlier for lunch,” she says. “Plus we’ll have more than enough room for growth. We all hope this will be a permanent move.”
Hailey Farmers' Market
Ketcham Farmers' Market
Wood River Farmers Markets
Wood River Ranch Beef | @woodriverranchbeef
Katie’s Kakes | @katies.kakes
Local Food Alliance | @localfoodalliance
