Summer Tuesdays return to St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market

Canada’s largest farmer’s market is open on Tuesdays once again, starting this week. The St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market will be open Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. until the end of August.

New this year, the market will offer free educational kids programming Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

Market Manager Megan Malcolmson said they are trying to give kids that come to the market more of an experience.

“Tuesday gives our locals an opportunity to really be able to come out and have the market without all of the tourist customers that we do see on Thursdays and Saturdays,” said Malcolmson.

“With the kids getting out of school in a couple of weeks, and moms, dads are going to be looking for something to do. So, then might as well bring them to the market, see the animals, grab something to eat from one of our wonderful food vendors and do some shopping.”

Last year they tested out story time and introduced farm animals to kids as part of their Farmyard Follies series. This year they have added onto that program with more options like planting a vegetable garden, princess story time and various farmyard crafts.

“Within our farmyard, just off of Farmers Market Road, we’ve got some farm animals and we’re going to be doing some educational based activities every Tuesday from now until the end of August.”

Malcolmson said so far, they have had a great start to 2024, seeing a surge in customer foot track over the last couple months with more people wanting to get out and explore.

“Last year was a really great year, but we’ve seen steady numbers in the upward direction since the start of the year.”

Saturdays are known as the busiest day of the week for the market in St. Jacobs and Malcolmson added they do see out of town numbers go up on those days.

On Thursdays and Saturdays, the market hosts more than 350 regular vendors. Tuesdays will typically have less vendors and be less busy, said Malcolmson.

“There’s a whole bunch of new vendors this year, we’ve got some great ready-made frozen foods, we’ve got a few more diverse vendors who are bringing international flair to the market. There is always something different to see at the St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market.”