Published 5:50 pm Wednesday, March 29, 2017
By Nick Hon
Thanks to several months of strategizing, planning and groundwork, Nicholasville’s new Farmers’ Market is set to debut next month.
The event will kick off Saturday, April 29 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., a time slot that it will occupy each Saturday through October. Its inception comes courtesy of the current class of Leadership Jessamine County, who convened at a retreat last August and began discussing possible service projects that they could embark on to benefit Nicholasville.
“We started talking about the strengths of the community and what areas could use some support,” Pastor Carol Devine, a member of Leadership Jessamine County, said. “There are many strengths, but the thing we kept coming back around to was health and well-being, and access to good and healthy foods.” Brainstorming amongst the group led to discussions on topics such as community gardens, but the graduation date of the current Leadership Jessamine group led them to choose a farmers market program back in September. It was a sustainable idea and a baton that could be handed off. In early November, the team hosted an open house at the Jessamine County Public Library and invited the community to attend and offer feedback and ideas. They asked everyone who had visited a farmers’ market where they went, and nearly everyone said Lexington. They then asked everyone which types of items they would purchase at a local farmers’ market, and what types of experiences people would like to see offered. Local farmers and producers were also asked about their interest in participating in a local market, and what they would like to see there, as well as their concerns.
The local input was imperative because the market will feature goods strictly grown or produced in the Bluegrass State by producers in surrounding counties. Devine said that once all of the information was gathered, a Farmers’ Market Board was put into place to start formalizing decisions. The board met for the first time in January, and officers were elected for key positions. A logo was also designed, and can now be seen on the group’s Facebook page. “By that time, we had drafted bylaws, guidelines, applications and had checked into insurance for the market,” Devine said. “I had spent a lot of time looking at grants that we could apply for. And we started checking back with other farmers’ markets that we had visited last year, and asking more questions that we had because nobody in Leadership Jessamine County is an actual farmer!”
