Farmers Market rises from ashes

It was September when a large fire destroyed the main building at the St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market in Waterloo. But just three months later, the market opened a new building that houses 49 of the displaced vendors. The grand opening of the Harvest Barn was busy at St. Jacobs Farmers Market.

It’s hard to imagine that this charred wreck is what it looked like three months ago with the main building burnt to the ground, leaving sixty vendors displaced. But rebuilding happened fast.

“We prayed that we would get a new structure, bigger and better. And and from what I see, they accomplished that.”

The new Harvest Barn was bustling with shoppers many of them regulars: “I come here at least twice a month.”

Marcus Shantz is President of Mercedes Corp: “The cool thing about today for me is watching the vendors meeting their customers again, and you realize it’s this homecoming.”

There were vendors selling everything from fudge to cheese. Mickey McGuire from Dundas runs a cheese booth. He was one of the more fortunate ones. “After the fire, I came to the market just to see if we can get any space at all and we were accommodated with a small space. But today we’re here in this new facility, the lighting is fabulous.”

But for others like Stefan Marinov who has a booth selling woodwork, this was their first time back: “Before the fire there was a regular customer that my dad knew. He actually came and bought stuff today. It was really nice to see a first day, first customer type thing.”

Next to Stefan, Leslie Humphrys-Elia-Shiv has a booth selling Dead Sea products. It was destroyed in the fire. She says the community support helped her through the tough time: “I’ll probably get teary because it’s been very touching. It’s amazing, amazing the way people supported us.”

This isn’t the final home for the vendors. A new permanent building will begin construction in the spring and should be ready by the end of next year. But for now, the Harvest Barn is their home, and for many here, it feels good to be back.

Leslie says: “I’m very happy here. Love it.”

The market is open Thursday and Saturday from 7:30am to 3:30pm.

The Harvest Barn is just temporary home for the vendors. A new permanent structure will be built, and you can help out by donating. The Community Foundation has set up a relief fund. it will triple every dollar donated. The goal is to raise 225,000 for the rebuilding phase. Here is the link:  http://www.kwcf.ca/sjfmvendorrelief