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Downtown Farmers Market Opens for a 25th Year

Nicole Nixon
A sampling of products Weeks Berries of Paradise will sell this summer at the Downtown Farmers Market.

The Downtown Farmers Market opens this weekend at Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City and celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

Jarrod Weeks’ family farm has been selling fruit at the Downtown Farmers Market since it began in 1992.

“Raspberries are our main berry that we grow, but we do blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, currants and gooseberries,” he says.

Weeks Berries of Paradise—located in the Cache Valley town of Paradise, Utah—was one of only four vendors that first year. In the nearly quarter century since, the Downtown Farmers Market has grown to include vendors from over a hundred farms and ranches.

Originally intended as a place to buy local fresh produce, the market now has vendors that sell meats, baked goods, and packaged foods like salsas and dips, as well as an arts and crafts market. Market Manager Alison Einerson says everything comes from within 250 miles of Salt Lake City.

“Where it was at one point, an opportunity for a few people, it’s now a huge, huge economic engine for the city and for all these people individually,” Einerson says.

New this year: Vendors are banned from selling beverages in plastic bottles. Instead, Einerson encourages visitors to buy a stainless steel water bottle for $3.

“For the same price that you would pay for a plastic bottle of water, you get this great logo bottle,” she says. “And you can refill it at one of seven water stations throughout the park.” 

The market opens this Saturday, June 11, from 8 AM-2 PM at Pioneer Park. It runs through October 22.

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