The Latest Happenings

The Miramichi region will soon have its own virtual Farmers Market! The Round Table Farmers Marketplace is the first step in uniting local producers and consumers around local food and homesteading products and will feature:  local food and farm products in all its forms – farm and garden products, frozen/prepared/preserved, ethnic and international food and groceries, home health and home-steading supplies, pet and animal wellness products, and an Artisans’ Agora, featuring select local art and crafters’ wares. The site will feature local fresh produce, eggs, meat and more from enterprises such as Tottie Flower and Organic Vegetable Farm, River Trail Orchard and Farm, The Green Bear Organic Farm and Shipyard Farm. Vendors will be added as the market grows.

Virtual farmers markets became popular when the recent global pandemic wreaked havoc with normal food systems, from farmers who found themselves with rotting produce that couldn’t go to closed markets, to restaurants that couldn’t serve people in their seats, to food banks and community meals serving their folks outside the door in long lines on cold days.  Everything was disrupted, and here in NB we soon learned that nearly 95% of our food is being brought here from somewhere else. As the pandemic rolled on and supply chains became part of the chaos, the demand for good, fresh local food escalated as well.  Home gardening expanded in Atlantic Canada by 300% and our food distribution and delivery systems, including farmers and markets, went largely online, big and small. 

Here in Atlantic Canada, the evidence is in that people now would like both — access to fresh, locally prepared food and efficiency in how they get it.  Hence, the Round Table Farmers Marketplace will highlight our region’s unique producers and artisans while offering the ease and efficiency of online pre-order and payment. Customers shop online as they would any other virtual storefront, place their order by the weekly cut-off and collect it at their pick-up point.  The order is ready and the service paid for by a Community Software Support fee added to the bill for the service. The order is loaded into their vehicle and off they go.  The vendor is already paid, banking is done, and all is efficient.

For the vendor, the ease is in the access to their own unique virtual storefront that offers much of the same benefit the consumers enjoy — pre-sold, pre-paid, and delivered once a week instead of sitting at markets in hopes the wilted produce will appeal while the gardens need weeding.

Customers in turn, shop online before the Tuesday deadline, then pick their order up between 11am and 1pm on Friday at the Newcastle Farmers Market, Lindon Recreation Centre, and Saturdays at the Water Street Farmers Market, Chatham Pioneer Senior Citizens Club.   For updates or more information, visit our Facebook Page www.facebook.com/The-Round-Table-La-Table-Ronde-Co-op-Ltd  or contact theroundtable2@gmx.com.