After twenty Market Sundays we find ourselves here, at the twenty-first, and last, week of Season Six of the Bridgeport Farmers Market. I think it is safe to say the Market truly came of age this year. In last season’s closing blog I said it was inarguably the biggest year of the Market’s existence. At that time the Board wasn’t really sure the Market could grow any larger. Boy, were they wrong. While the final sales haven’t been tallied it’s safe to say that Season Six will see an increase of well over 30% as compared to Season Five’s sales! And that will be with two less Market Sundays. With that said, I now present a recap of Season Six in the form of a Top Ten List of Things That Happened at the BFM through the course of the spring, summer, and fall. Here goes:

 

10)          This past February during the WV Small Farms Conference the WV Department of Agriculture announced the winners of its 2014 Agritourism Marketing awards. The BFM brought home two awards including first place for Best Social Media Campaign for any Entity or Event and third place for Best Brochure or Rack Card for a Farmers Market. Those of you who follow the Market on Facebook and/or Twitter know from experience that the first place award was especially well deserved. Congrats to the Market’s marketing maven, Deb Workman.

 

9)            A. The Market’s participation in the inaugural Bridgeport Restaurant Week and Jazz Expo the week of July 21-27. Throughout the course of the week the Market’s vendors were featured on the menus at seven Bridgeport restaurants.

 

B. Unfortunately the culmination of the week, the Market’s annual Country Roads Cook Off, had to be postponed due to the weather related cancellation of the July 27 Market. This was the first cancellation in the Market’s six year history. Of course, as we know now the forecasters were just a wee bit off that day. In Bridgeport anyway.

 

8)            The June 28 unveiling of Meadowbrook Mall’s Connect-Bridgeport Kid’s Zone featuring a playhouse with signage designating it the Bridgeport Farmers Market.

 

7)            The expansion of the vendors offering brunch foods at the Market. Mia Margherita and Chef Cody Thrasher’s food truck, Hash Browns and New Grounds, joined long-time Market food vendors Fish Hawk Acres and Bridgeport Conference Center during the course of the season.

 

6)            The addition of our monthly guest blogger, Heidi Nawrocki, along with a roster of contributors made this guy’s life a little easier this season. Heidi, along with new vendor Kaycee Crislip, board member Athena Freedlander and Broadway star Kirsten Wyatt provided our readers with a different and extremely entertaining perspective of the Market. Many thanks, ladies!

 

5)            The August 3 Market visit of WV Commissioner of Agriculture Walt Helmick. Commissioner Helmick was on hand to help the Market celebrate the kick-off of National Farmers Market Week.

 

4)            The contributions of videographer Ben Berry and his company, Mountain Craft Productions, were invaluable to the Market’s marketing efforts and will continue to be well into the future. Ben shot and edited three videos at the Market this season. You can see the first two, Opening Day and a visit to Market vendor Mt Hollow Farm, on our Vimeo page by clicking on the link shown at the bottom of this blog. The third, an overview of this year’s Country Roads Cook Off, will premiere this coming Wednesday at the Market’s Harvest Community Dinner.

 

3)            The September 28 Doggie Day at the Market. The Clarksburg Kennel Club set up shop in the field adjacent to the Market and let the dogs take charge. In addition to a Meet the Breeds event, the dogs and their owners took their turns on an obstacle course.

 

2)            The weekly Chef’s Demos were a huge hit this season. As detailed in this space last week, each edition of the Market saw a local chef prepare a recipe featuring items found at that week’s Market. Many of the chefs arrived without a set recipe and simply improvised with that week’s offerings. We labelled this a “Fresh Fire” demo.

 

1)            Once again the biggest Market day of the season was the day of the 4th Annual Country Roads Cook-Off. The postponement of the Cook Off from its original July date to August 24 had no effect whatsoever on attendance. Just like last year the crowd this day was estimated at well over 1,000! If you check out the pictures in the gallery below you will see the crowds lining up for the People’s Choice award sampling. While we’re at it, congratulations to both our Grand Champion, Sherry McDaniels of Buckhannon, and our now two-time People’s Choice award winners, Rick Johnson and Jerry Pomeroy of Bridgeport.

 

Here’s to achieving even more milestones during the Winter Market which starts November 9 inside the Bridgeport Conference Center! The Winter Market will then take place the second Sunday of each month thru April, 11am to 2pm.

 

Before signing off I want to remind you that there are still tickets available for this Wednesday’s Harvest Community Dinner in support of the Market. The Dinner takes place at the Bridgeport Conference Center and starts at 6pm. In addition to a fabulous meal featuring foods from the Market’s vendors, Big Timber Brewing Co. from Elkins will be on hand sampling their products. Joining us as guest speaker will be WV’s new Director of Tourism, Amy Shuler Goodwin. Add in music from guitarist Rus Reppert and the premiere of Ben Berry’s latest video and it is sure to be a great evening. For tickets or more info, including a menu, shoot us an e-mail at the address below or just stop by the Market info tent today.

 

The Market would like to take this opportunity to send out a huge thank you to you, the loyal customer. If not for your support throughout the years the Market would have never gotten this far. Please keep supporting the Market in both the Winter and Summer seasons!

 

So, until next season, Stay Fresh!

 

The Bridgeport Farmers Market Association is the seven member all volunteer board of directors that governs the Bridgeport Farmers Market. It is supported by a wonderful group of community volunteers who help in the setup and maintenance of the market. For more information on the Farmers Market or to see how you can help please e-mail us at bridgeportfarmersmarket@yahoo.com or, better yet, LIKE us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. You can also check out the Market’s own YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/BridgeportFarmersMkt or for more BFM video content you can now go to http://vimeo.com/bridgeportfarmersmarket/videos