Farmers market draws record opening crowd

So many peo­ple came out for open­ing day at the Winchester-Clark County Farmers’ Market on Saturday that it was hard to find a park­ing place close by. All the near­by lots were full, and vehi­cles lined both sides of Main and Highland streets.

Ken Howard, one of the 39 ven­dors, guessed there were more than 1,000 visitors.

“We’ve nev­er had a crowd like that,” said Doug Ashcraft, the board pres­i­dent. “That was a record day for us.”

Alex Kirkwood, this year’s mar­ket man­ag­er, said Monday after­noon that she was still wait­ing to hear back from eight ven­dors, but so far she had record­ed $27,000 in sales and expect­ed the final total to sur­pass $30,000.

She said every ven­dor she talked with said it was the most they had ever sold in a day.

“Some of our ven­dors sold out,” she noted.

The farm­ers’ mar­ket began 37 years ago in the park­ing lot of the Bluegrass Heritage Museum on the south side of town. This is its 20^th year on Depot Street.

“It’s hop­pin’, man!” said Seth Boyken of Backcountry Baking Company, who was sell­ing scones and muffins right next to the booth where his mom and broth­er were doing a bustling busi­ness with hot and cold brew from Creative Coffees Roastery.

Nearby, Andy Hamon of Hamon Haven Winery was offer­ing sam­ples of chardon­nay, caber­net sauvi­gnon, and sev­er­al oth­er vari­eties of vino.

Tom & Mike’s Farm had elder­ber­ry, black rasp­ber­ry, and oth­er jel­lies and jams, along with let­tuces and fresh eggs, and the last cou­ple of loaves of choco­late-and-cher­ry bread.

“We sold out of our bread and break­fast bars with­in an hour and a half,” Mike Childress said.

Other prod­ucts avail­able at the mar­ket includ­ed fresh meats, cheeses, straw­ber­ries, pep­pers, oth­er pro­duce, herbs, plants for plant­i­ng, and fresh-cut flow­ers for Mother’s Day.

The mar­ket always opens on the Saturday before Mother’s Day.

Guests arrived to the aro­ma of grilled meats for breakfast.

Shear Away Farms was offer­ing bacon and fried bologna sand­wich­es topped with duck or chick­en eggs, and Fink Meats and Produce was sell­ing lamb sausage sandwiches.

People came not only to buy, but also to min­gle. The farm­ers’ mar­ket is one of the biggest social events dur­ing a typ­i­cal spring or sum­mer week­end in Winchester.

“I was sur­prised at the turnout for today,” Matt DeBord said as he lis­tened to his daugh­ter, Emily, singing a song for the crowd’s enter­tain­ment. “It’s not the per­fect weath­er they were hop­ing for, but I think it works.”

The event took place under a lead­en sky with wind, light rain, and tem­per­a­tures in the low 60s, but that didn’t seem to keep peo­ple away. Many wore warm hood­ies and brought their dogs and small chil­dren in strollers.

“It gets big­ger and bet­ter” every year, DeBord remarked.

Besides live music, the Clark County Public Library had its new book­mo­bile on the premis­es, and there was a vot­er reg­is­tra­tion table and info tables for AgCredit and Clark County Community Services.

Kirkwood was sell­ing T‑shirts and oth­er mer­chan­dise and giv­ing away raf­fle tick­ets for free merch.

“It was a crazy day,” she said. “I didn’t get out of my seat from 8 to 12.”

Kirkwood said she had ordered 2,000 raf­fle tick­ets for any­one who made a pur­chase, and she ran out.

One rea­son this year’s open­ing day may have been big­ger than ever was that it was adver­tised as a Market to Main Saturday, encour­ag­ing guests to vis­it down­town shops after arriv­ing ear­ly for the farm­ers market.

Kirkwood said her friend Amanda Adams of Hamilton Brooks Design pushed that idea.

Many busi­ness­es took advan­tage of the pro­mo­tion, includ­ing Bell & Company, the food ven­dor for Abettor Brewing, which offered brunch spe­cials such as smoked salmon eggs Benedict and bananas Foster pecan waf­fles, along with bloody Marys and mimosas.

Kirkwood said the Market to Main pro­mo­tion will be repeat­ed every Saturday through Sept. 26, the last day of the mar­ket season.

The man­ag­er said there are some spe­cial events sched­uled for the sea­son, includ­ing a trib­ute to vet­er­ans on the Fourth of July, the Clark County Health Department’s Veggie Day on July 11, Kids Day on Aug. 15, with giant inflat­a­bles and free­bies for the lit­tle ones, and an Oktoberfest night mar­ket with Abettor Brewing on Sept. 19.

The Winchester-Clark County Farmers Market is open from 8 a.m. until noon every Saturday dur­ing the season.

Ken Howard, vice pres­i­dent of the mar­ket board, said lead­ers were pleas­ant­ly sur­prised by a $10,000 dona­tion they received from the Blue Grass Community Foundation.

He said the mon­ey will like­ly go toward the board’s goal of rais­ing $50,000 for the design to fin­ish the project on Depot Street, which will include expand­ing the canopy and build­ing restrooms.

This year, the car­pen­try stu­dents at Robert D. Campbell Junior High School built new pic­nic tables for only the cost of the materials.

Howard said the farm­ers mar­ket puts a big empha­sis on local part­ner­ships, and one that they’re proud of is the work they do with Community Services to pro­vide left­over fresh pro­duce, eggs, and oth­er foods at the end of each Saturday morn­ing to help feed neigh­bors in need.

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