SWAMPSCOTT — The town’s farmers’ market, now in its 13th year of operation, has grown to become a staple for the community during the summer months.
Recreation Director Danielle Strauss — who will be retiring from the role after 20 years, effective July 10 — explained that the project first began in June 2012, with a group of volunteers racking their brains together on how to bring something different to the community.
“It started with a group of volunteers, talking about new things to do at a recreation meeting, and one of the things brought up was the farmers’ market,” Strauss said. “It began in the parking lot of the high school, but we weren’t getting enough traffic, so after a few years we moved it over to Town Hall.”
Strauss added that a total of 60 vendors signed up to participate in the farmers’ market each Sunday morning, though the average number of vendors that usually line up that morning is at least 30, she said.
The market runs on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., spanning from June until October.
According to the farmers’ market website, some of the vendors listed for the event on July 6 are: Bear Hill Farm, Beraka Juice, Far From the Tree Cider, Grab the Bagel, Olive World, Speak Up for Animals, and Sweet Emmy’s.
She went on to explain the impact that she saw the farmers’ market have on people who came down to explore it.
“On the very first day, I just saw people walking from all different directions, and it really just grew from there,” she said. “I’ve actually had people come up to me at the market and tell me they bought a house here because they love the farmer’s market and all the other activities in town,” Strauss said. “They said the farmers’ market was the first thing that they looked for, and ended up coming to Swampscott from places like Peabody or Winthrop… They thought it was great.”
Select Board member MaryEllen Fletcher, who was operating Michael Moran’s Natural Pet Food tent, explained why she felt it was important to be present for the community.
“I love being at the market, I’ve actually been one of the first vendors myself, as well as Clark Farms, we were some of the first when former Select Board member Glenn Kessler had the idea to get the market going,” Fletcher said. “At first, we came down just with cookies, but later we started coming down with all of our products.”
Bill Clark, who was manning the Clark Farms tent, spoke on his passion for bringing produce to Swampscott residents.
“I love the town, it’s a great market,” Clark explained, “We’ve been doing this for about 12 years in Swampscott, but I’ve been doing farmers’ markets in general for about 50 years now… I hope the community gets great produce.”
Deb Newman, who operated the Speak Up for Animals tent, said it was advocacy that brought her to the market.
“I am having a citizen’s petition to ban Foie Gras in Swampscott, which is a horribly inhumanely-made liver specialty for animals… Nobody in town sells it as far as I can tell, so that’s the best way to have a ban because you don’t have to make anybody feel bad,” Newman said. “Brookline has already banned it completely. The more municipalities in the state that ban anything, then the state will eventually come on-board and act on it.”
She noted the petition will be included in the fall Town Meeting in December.
“I’m also here talking about rodenticides… There’s all kinds of things that people aren’t really aware of,” she said. “I have a bill in the statehouse that’s been co-sponsored by 30 legislators, it’s fabulous… It’s aiming to stop the use of infant monkeys in laboratory research facilities.”
Newman continued, “The researchers separate the infants from the mothers, and it’s a disaster… So, if you’re studying anything that has to do with behavior, they’re already messed up from being separated… And it may be moot, because our charming President Trump has removed federal funding at Harvard, where this is taking place.”
Newman said that “if the bill is passed, infant monkeys will no longer be separated from their mothers for research purposes.”
