After another successful season, local farmers closed up shop at Lansdowne Park for the last time this year, confident the market will play an important role in the future of the park.
Throughout the summer, members of the Ottawa Farmers’ Market had expressed concern that the proposed redevelopment of the park would push them into a forgotten corner of the property, but they are now optimistic that will not be the case.
“At first, we weren’t even on the plans,” said Greer Knox from Morrison Manor Organics.
“Gradually we grew a bit. So I think we’ll be here for a long time.”
Next season is unlikely to see any changes at Lansdowne Park since final approval of the plan would not come until June at the earliest, but Ottawa Farmers’ Market president Andy Terauds said he doesn’t know what it will be like after that.
The redevelopment plan calls for a competitive design process to deal with the Horticulture Building, the Aberdeen Pavilion and the eastern half of the park.
The farmers’ market would find space somewhere in that section, Terauds said.
He added they would like to have a year-round home inside the Aberdeen Pavilion, with a space to expand outside during the summer.
“Councillors voted strongly to keep us here. We’re not concerned about that part,” he said.
“We’re looking forward to making our site here a park-like setting. The sooner we can do that the better.”
By 2015, he predicts 300 producers will be looking to sell goods in the market.
“We’re going to be attracting 1.5 million people down the road,” said Terauds, who estimates they had around 250,000 visitors to the market this year. The market is “a very popular thing.”
