Bellingham Farmers Market: Celebrating 30 Years

Lora Liegel is our guest for this episode. Lora is the Market Director for the Bellingham Farmers Market.

Lora chats about how the market is celebrating 30 years of bringing local sustainable agriculture and local farmers to to the Depot Market Square location This year for the opening day the market will be bringing back the famed Cabbage Toss! Find out more about exactly what a Cabbage Toss is.

We talk about the types of vendors who bring their produce, crafts, arts, and fruits, and more to the market each week. Lora shares how the market is able to help people with food access using SNAP EBT, WIC, and Senior Checks. The Bellingham Farmers Market also participates in the SNAP Market Match where the market can match up to $40.00 per week to help stretch participants food dollars.

Learn how the market was able to adapt during the pandemic and still be able to serve the local Bellingham and Whatcom County community by bringing local food and fresh produce weekly to the downtown market location.

The market is held every Saturday April through December and open on the 3rd Saturday of the month in January, February, and March. The market is open from 10am to 2pm.

Bellingham Farmers Market also has a Wednesday market at the Waterfront during June, July, August, and September. The Wednesday market is open from 4pm to 7pm

Find out more about the Bellingham Farmers Market by listening to this episode.

Bellingham Farmers Market Lora Liegel Episode Transcript

Scott Cowan [00:00:00]:
I can’t let you not describe this. Why cabbage? What’s the story there?

Lora Liegel [00:00:06]:
You know, to be honest, I’m not sure.

Scott Cowan [00:00:27]:
Welcome to the Exploring Washington State podcast. Here’s your host, Scott Cowan. All right, well, welcome to this episode of the Exploring Washington State podcast. My guest today is Laura Liegel, and Laura is the director of the Bellingham Farmers Market. So, Laura, first off, welcome. Thank you for taking the time to chat with us.

Lora Liegel [00:00:46]:
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Scott Cowan [00:00:49]:
So, Laura, what I’d like to start with is let’s talk about your background. How did you end up being the director for the Bellingham Farmers market, and what was your journey to get to this destination? Let’s put it that way.

Lora Liegel [00:01:01]:
Sure. Yeah. So I’ve been the director of the Bellingham farmers market the last three years, and prior to that, I was working as the market manager with Mercer Island farmers Market, which is in the Seattle area, so not too far away. And I feel like I’ve been making my journey northward for the last several years. Before landing in Kirkland, I was living in Portland, Oregon, for about four years, but my background has really been in the agricultural sector really since I was about 16. I got my start working with the USDA on a hop research project in Corvallis, Oregon, and started out in a chemistry laboratory at the university and then made my way out more toward the fields and yeah, driving tractors and basically collecting samples for hop research. And that really just showed me my passion and love for farming, agriculture, specifically where food comes from.

Scott Cowan [00:02:07]:
Let me just pause you. So at 16, you were researching hops. Yeah, I got to understand that. That doesn’t sound typical to me. Did you grow up in Corvallis?

Lora Liegel [00:02:23]:
I did, yeah. I grew up in Corvallis and even before that. So just outside of Corvallis, Oregon, there’s a USDA research center. They called it the Germaplasm. And so it contains and they house essentially probably thousands of different varieties of all sorts of food products from apples and strawberries and raspberries. I think my mom caught me trying to graft apples at, like, age 15, and so she said, yeah, why don’t we our neighbor worked out there. And so I landed a volunteer gig probably maybe age 15. It was before I was driving, and so that kind of just opened the doorway into farming and research and yeah, that world.

Scott Cowan [00:03:14]:
All right, so did you go to Oregon State then? I mean, that would seem natural, that.

Lora Liegel [00:03:19]:
You like yeah, in that natural progression. I did go to Oregon State for my undergrad and then took about a year or two after graduation off, so to speak. And then I went to Humboldt State University in Northern California for grad school.

Scott Cowan [00:03:37]:
Okay. All right, so after grad school, is that when you started we’ll call it the slow migration north up to where you are.

Lora Liegel [00:03:49]:
Yeah, when I was going to grad school, I was in Arcada, California, but my research project actually had me over in rural Idaho working with potato growers and looking at water management, and I still just couldn’t let go of the farming. And so even when I was back in Arcada, I was volunteering for a small CSA farm. And so after I graduated from Hsu, then I stuck around for another year and worked at this really great farm called Redwood Roots Farm in Arcada. And that season ended and I just felt the call to come back home, essentially to Oregon. And I’d never lived in Portland before, but felt like the big city was calling my name. And so yeah, I worked at Salvia Island Organic Farm and then got a position with another little place called Pure Bolt Crop Management, and they did berry consulting work. So working with blueberry growers and raspberry growers to just help the farmers grow their product even better.

Scott Cowan [00:04:58]:
And then you moved to the community of Mercer Island?

Lora Liegel [00:05:02]:
Yeah, then I landed in Kirkland, Washington, and was looking for work and yeah, saw that job come up and that really kind of opened the door into the farmers market realm, which I’d never been a part of before.

Scott Cowan [00:05:18]:
Okay, all right, so how long were you at Mercer Island, the farmers market there?

Lora Liegel [00:05:22]:
About two and a half years or so.

Scott Cowan [00:05:24]:
Okay. Now as a former Puget Sound resident and I moved to Central Washington because of traffic, I just got to my tipping point where it’s like there’s just too many of us here. I’m going to go where there’s less of us. Did you have a motivating reason to move from the Seattle area to Bellingham?

Lora Liegel [00:05:48]:
Did, yeah. I have two small children now, ages five and three, and my wife grew up in Bellingham and her parents are still here, and so we just wanted to be closer to family and get some grandparent time in. And I also felt that call to live in a place that’s a bit smaller, closer to agland and less traffic. And I love the access to nature here in Bellingham. I love being so close to the ocean and trails, and when I’m not at work, I try to get out on the trail and do some running. So that was definitely a big push to come up more north.

Scott Cowan [00:06:31]:
Okay, well, that’s an interesting I still can’t quite get over the at 15. You were grafting apples?

Lora Liegel [00:06:41]:
I was attempting to.

Scott Cowan [00:06:43]:
Okay.

Lora Liegel [00:06:44]:
I don’t know if it worked at age 15 or not, but okay.

Scott Cowan [00:06:48]:
That’s very different than my teenage experience. I’m like that’s kind of cool. Yeah, it’s very cool. So now you’re at the Bellingham Farmers market, and why don’t we talk about that a little bit? Kind of tell us for people that are listening to this that might not be aware of Bellingham and all of that. So what’s the backstory here for the farmers market?

Lora Liegel [00:07:15]:
Yeah. So the Farmers market has been around for 30 years. This year we’re celebrating our 30th anniversary, and I’ve been digging into the archive, so to speak. I’m sitting in my office right now and it’s a little bit messier than normal. There’s all these boxes and photographs that I’ve been digging through and it’s been super fun. And I’ve been in my position, like I said, about three years. So just kind of a short snippet of that 30 year history. But digging into these archives and photographs has really given me a better picture of our history. The farmers market in Bellingham. There was a history of a market being present in the downtown corridor, even in the late seventy s and eighty s, but it wasn’t really until about 19 92, 93 that a really dedicated group of citizens got together and formed this organization that we have today. And so it’s gone through various iterations over that 30 year history. But a big turning point was in about 2006 when the market in this sort of public private partnership raised a bunch of money, partnered with the city and state to build a more permanent home for the Bellingham Farmers Market, which is right downtown. And so we know that as Depot Market Square, and so that has become the home of our Saturday market. And we’ve got a great outdoor space and even a covered area, and it’s arguably one of the best farmers markets, I’d say in Washington State. We are a weekly market from April almost all the way through December, and then we have a once per month market during the winter months of January, February and March.

Scott Cowan [00:09:09]:
Okay, so let’s talk 30 years of history. What’s some memorable things in the archives that you’ve dug up over 30 years?

Lora Liegel [00:09:19]:
Well, one of the things that I’ve loved coming across is we have a few vendors that have been with us almost that whole time of 30 years. So I love seeing their faces from 30 years ago, and they’re hugging and smiling and it’s been so fun to match them up. And just the amount of families too that I see in the photos. It’s been this hub of community activity and vibrancy over that long history, which is a common theme that if I take some pictures today versus 30 years ago, looking at them, just the fun smiles and community space that it’s really provided, and seeing the musicians and buskers. We’ve had a really robust scene for local artists during that time too, which has been great.

Scott Cowan [00:10:20]:
Any notable musicians, do they get their start at the Farmers market up there? What’s his name?

Lora Liegel [00:10:28]:
Who’s?

Scott Cowan [00:10:28]:
The guy out of bellingham. It’s on the tip of my tongue.

Lora Liegel [00:10:31]:
That I should I don’t know if I could say personally if I know enough about the music history, and I don’t feel like I’ve lived here quite long enough to speak to that. But one of the things that I’ve seen are like the magicians and even the non musicians, which folks who have come back year after year. We had to put a pause on some of the buskers during the COVID pandemic, but we hope to bring more of that back into the actual market space this coming year. But just that interaction, whether it’s reading and writing poetry, or a magician or music, just really great place for the community to interact with all kinds of different art.

Scott Cowan [00:11:19]:
So as best you can tell when we’ll go back 30 years, how big was the market 30 years ago when it started with this current configuration, if you will?

Lora Liegel [00:11:30]:
Well, it’s definitely been ramping up, I’d say year after year. That’s one thing that’s been pretty consistent, whether it’s the number of vendors or our sales, the number of customers and participants, it seems like it just keeps getting bigger and better year after year.

Scott Cowan [00:11:47]:
Well, let me ask you this question. How many vendors were there pre COVID? Because I’m going to guess this is just a guess, and based on conversations with other markets in Washington State, I’m curious if you’re going to go along with this, some other markets have shared something to this effect. Number of vendors down, number of visitors down, dollars consistent.

Lora Liegel [00:12:16]:
Yeah, that has been I think you did kind of hit it on the head. 2020 was a bit rough for us. We definitely were limited by, for example, the type of vendors that we could have. Like our flower vendors couldn’t participate early on in the season. So that definitely limited things. But one of the things I’ve been so proud of with our market is through 2020, we really attracted the customers that wanted to help out, that wanted to not only come, but make purchases. Prior to that, in 2019, we really relied on a lot of tourism, for example, so we’d have tourists come in, and I think that we had a lot of people come visit the market and really enjoy that community atmosphere, but maybe not as many people actually making purchases. And so, yeah, in 2021, we definitely saw a rebound where we were able to kind of retain those people that had been coming in 2020, making their weekly grocery shopping, having them, but also bring back some of that local tourism. And so we saw our sales rise. And so in 2022, we’ll probably be at about 85, 90% of the number of vendors that we had prior to the Pandemic. And we hope to just keep continuing to grow certainly into later this year and next year.

Scott Cowan [00:13:47]:
So approximately how many vendors is 85 or 90%?

Lora Liegel [00:13:50]:
What do you it’s actually about 85. Yeah, about probably consistently like 85 on a Saturday in the height of summer. And for comparison, 2019, we had around 105 vendors participating.

Scott Cowan [00:14:06]:
And is that about the maximum that the space can hold?

Lora Liegel [00:14:12]:
Yeah, about 110.

Scott Cowan [00:14:15]:
Okay.

Lora Liegel [00:14:15]:
Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:14:16]:
So really, percentage wise, okay, you’re down 15 20%, but that’s still 85 vendors that are showing up, providing product to the public. I think that’s sized Marketplace. It’s not like we have three people.

Lora Liegel [00:14:35]:
No, Absolutely. And even in 2021, like I said, was total rebound year. It was our highest grossing market to date. We kept over $2.5 million circulating in our local economy, which I think is something to be proud of. All of those businesses that participated, these are local dollars. All of our businesses come from Watcom and Skadget counties. And of those sales, we had over a million dollars in local farm and AG sales. So again, something just be really proud of.

Scott Cowan [00:15:08]:
So you mentioned Watcom and Skadget County. So is that by design that you’re keeping the vendors to those counties, or is that by design? Is that the market’s goal only.

Lora Liegel [00:15:21]:
Okay, yeah. In our bylaws and talking about our 30 year history. That was something that was important to the original creators of the market. To, I think, provide a platform for local. I think that arguably that term local has been thrown around quite a bit. It sometimes gets swattered down. But we truly are a local market. And like I said, all of our businesses have to be residents of Wacom or Skadget County. That might be something that we revisit as we move along into the future. And yeah, just reevaluate what we want to do or where we want to open up. The island counties are pretty close. Homeish is arguably pretty close. So we might take a look at that in the future.

Scott Cowan [00:16:11]:
But it’s not because of lack of participation. I mean, you’ve got 85 to 110 vendors in those two counties that are showing up to the market on a regular basis. That’s Amazing. That’s Wonderful.

Lora Liegel [00:16:22]:
Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:16:25]:
As the market opens up weekly here in April. If I were to show up April 9, what am I going to be seeing at the market early on in the season? What’s up there? Local and early.

Lora Liegel [00:16:44]:
Yeah. Well, we certainly hope to have some tulips. Those start coming on in April. We love seeing those showy flowers at that beginning of market season. Lilacs as we move along later, we’ll see dahlias in terms of food and produce. We’ll start seeing some greens. Come on. Maybe some leftover root veggies from the winter months. And then certainly our crafters and food processors. Those are kind of the three tiers that we have. We have farmers, crafters and food producers. And a lot of our food producers utilize vegetables and produce from our local growers, too. So it’s really kind of full circle when we look at the market as a whole.

Scott Cowan [00:17:33]:
Do you have any guidelines for crafters that? Yeah, I was talking to somebody else and I was joking. And I said, so I can’t get my iPhone case cover at your farmers market. And no, we’re not allowing people to wholesale things, which is great, because that’s the whole to my vision of what? A farmers market?

Lora Liegel [00:17:54]:
Yeah. Again, every farmer’s market has their own rules, but we don’t allow resale of any kind. So everything that you find at that individual vendor booth is going to be made or grown or produced by that business. That might be different at different farmers market. But you mentioned, like, the iPhone case cover. It’s so funny how things intersect with what’s going on in our culture now. But for example, I’m thinking of a woodworker, and they’ve actually produced these really one of a kind iPhone or phone stands that you can put your phone on. So it does intersect kind of the old and the new with what we have.

Scott Cowan [00:18:38]:
And it’s funny you say that, because the other person that told me yes, unless it’s a woodcrafter that’s made an iPhone case and they were selling there was a vendor at that market that was doing phone cases out of wood.

Lora Liegel [00:18:50]:
Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:18:51]:
Okay, but like you said, like the stand for your phone or things like that. So then how do I want to say this? Because you’re further north. I mean, when you think about Bellingham in the United States, you’re quite north.

Lora Liegel [00:19:08]:
We are. We’re very close to Canada.

Scott Cowan [00:19:11]:
Well, yeah, I won’t teach you about Vancouver south type thing, but how close? I can’t even remember. I should know this, but how many miles is Bellingham from Vancouver?

Lora Liegel [00:19:22]:
Oh, from Vancouver. Oh, I’d have to look that up. I always kind of think of us as like being close to the border. I think we’re maybe like 15 miles or less. Yeah. From the border. But from the border a little over an hour to Vancouver Drive.

Scott Cowan [00:19:35]:
And for the longest time, even if you wanted to, you couldn’t even go up there because the border is the border open at this time? Yeah. Okay.

Lora Liegel [00:19:41]:
It is open, yeah. With you have to get the test and whatnot.

Scott Cowan [00:19:45]:
Right. Okay. So as we progress through the growing season up there, so what what are some of the products that are that I would I should expect to see throughout, you know, as the season progresses there? What what is your market? I don’t want to say known for, but you know what, what can I count on there? I’m not going to probably see a bunch of hatched chilies, let’s put it that way.

Lora Liegel [00:20:10]:
Yeah. Well, we are in Washington. We do have some chilies that are grown by our producers, but sort of the staples that we look forward to every year are the tomatoes and heirloom tomatoes. We’re a big raspberry producing growing region. All the berries, raspberries, blackberries, lots of blueberries. I love seeing some of the stuff that you wouldn’t necessarily find at the grocery store every season. I love finding what are called ground cherries. Have you ever had those, Scott?

Scott Cowan [00:20:46]:
Can you tell by the look on my face? What are ground cherries?

Lora Liegel [00:20:51]:
Yeah, I think that they’re related to tomatillos in the tomatillo family but they’re like one of the most tropical tasting fruits that you could find in our area. They’re in like a little paper husk and they’re like a yellow peachy cream color. They look like a tiny tomatillo but they’re just like bursting with this sort of citrus pineapple flavor. And yeah, you can’t find them at the local grocery store, but you can find them at the farmers market. We have a couple of growers that’s one of my favorites.

Scott Cowan [00:21:27]:
Even though this is an audio podcast. Everyone knows we’re running the video so we can see each other. But the look on my face, I’m like, what? I have never in all my years heard of this. That’s kind of cool. Yeah. And so when are those in season?

Lora Liegel [00:21:41]:
Those are around August or so. So a little bit more late, late summer.

Scott Cowan [00:21:46]:
Which makes sense given the way you’ve described them.

Lora Liegel [00:21:48]:
Right. They like that heat. And so, yeah, they come on a little bit later but just a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Sort of the classics too. The greens, the kales, the onions, berries. Like I mentioned before, cucumbers. Just everything pretty much in this part.

Scott Cowan [00:22:12]:
Now, do most of your vendors, are they there the entire season or do you have a lot of people that come in and part of the year, how does that market how does that look?

Lora Liegel [00:22:23]:
Yeah, it’s my understanding that one of the reasons why we’ve been able to open sort of in April is because we have such a robust craft group of crafters that can come that early because typically we don’t really see the bulk of our farmers start coming until about June. We certainly have some, but more start coming in that June month because that’s when we see more produce coming on and then they’ll still stay till about through October. Then we might see some of them peeling out and then again that craft season kind of kicks up again toward the later part of the year and holiday season.

Scott Cowan [00:23:09]:
That’s awesome. Approximately. Well, do you have any methodology where you track how many people are coming through the market?

Lora Liegel [00:23:20]:
Yeah, we did. Definitely. Certainly in the COVID months. COVID years? I should say the last two years.

Scott Cowan [00:23:27]:
Decade?

Lora Liegel [00:23:28]:
I wish it was months, but no, the last two years we were really keeping track of the number of people because we had to. And yeah, pretty COVID high to the summer. We used to clock it. Like sometimes on some market days upwards of like 7000 people in a market day will be coming through the last two years. Probably more around 5000 or so. Seems to be like a really solid number. But yeah, when I think about that, the number of people that are coming in is just amazing. That come to the downtown corridor for our farmers market and then thinking about all the things that they can do while they’re downtown. I think that that’s something, again, that I feel proud of is that we’re this hub of activity that kind of gets to trickle out throughout the rest of Saturday in the downtown corridor.

Scott Cowan [00:24:18]:
Well, since I haven’t been to the farmers market, help me out here. I’m going to randomly call you on a Saturday and say, hey, I want to come up. Why don’t you show me around? And you’re like, I’ve got nothing else to do. I’d be happy to. Scott, it’s Saturday at the market. I have nothing to do. What would you say we need to go see? You’re calling it the hub. What else is around it in the downtown core there that we should go and check out?

Lora Liegel [00:24:43]:
Yeah, well, the Depot Market Square is right across the street from Boundary Bay Brewing, which has been a long time in that place and location. Luffyama Pizza is right next door. The Co op is only probably a block and a half away. If you need to pick up some of your other items that we can’t provide banks, ton of other eateries and shopping places around.

Scott Cowan [00:25:16]:
I’m going to put you on the spot. If I show up on a Saturday, I’m going to go, where can I get coffee? Where would we go for coffee?

Lora Liegel [00:25:24]:
Well, I’d bring you to the farmers market, of course.

Scott Cowan [00:25:27]:
Okay. So do you have vendors at the market that are serving coffee?

Lora Liegel [00:25:30]:
Yeah, we do. Bellingham coffee roasters. They are a producer of like, whole bean and ground coffee, but typically they also sell drip coffee at the market. Okay. One of the businesses that I’m super excited about, they haven’t been offering drip yet, but they’re Cosalish Coffee Company. They are from the Lummy Island and they have a great decaf and full caffeine varieties. And then yeah, festival espresso. And then we’ve got like one new business. I can’t remember their name right now as I’m on the spot, but we really hope to bring back like, a robust coffee scene. That was something that our customers were telling us was kind of missing during the COVID years. And so we hope to bring more prepared food back to day of March.

Scott Cowan [00:26:26]:
You just weren’t able to I mean, the guidelines didn’t allow for that. At full capacity. In theory, you would allow four, as I think you should, or more for me, coffee. You’re going to let four coffee vendors be there?

Lora Liegel [00:26:44]:
Yeah, we are. Yeah. I always think a little bit of.

Scott Cowan [00:26:47]:
Competition you’re my type of market.

Lora Liegel [00:26:49]:
I think a little bit of competition is good. And we always try to make a balance. Right. Like each business is even though they’re all selling coffee, for example, they’ve got different backgrounds, different stories, and a little bit different coffee. And I think that it’s always a balance, providing customers some options.

Scott Cowan [00:27:11]:
Well, and I joke, but the decaf place wouldn’t be where I’d go. But at the same time, I could also understand that there are people that would appreciate the fact that they could get decaf.

Lora Liegel [00:27:22]:
Sure.

Scott Cowan [00:27:23]:
Make fun of them.

Lora Liegel [00:27:25]:
Hey, I’m a decaf drinker too. Sometimes I like the half and half, half decaf, half regular.

Scott Cowan [00:27:33]:
I have nothing against the idea of decaf at all. I have just not found one at this point in my life that I appreciate the taste.

Lora Liegel [00:27:45]:
Yeah, I’m going to Plug Coast Baylish Coffee Company. Got to check it out.

Scott Cowan [00:27:49]:
All right, I’ll give it a try. So we have the Saturday market. What are the hours for the Saturday market?

Lora Liegel [00:27:57]:
Typically ten to two. That’s something to mention. They used to be ten to three pre pandemic. We shaved off an hour for a variety of reasons, but it seems like the vendors and our staff and even customers, most of us have been enjoying that 10:00 A.m. To 02:00 P.m.. So that’s what we’re going to stick with in 2022. We might reevaluate it later, but yeah, ten to two.

Scott Cowan [00:28:24]:
Well, let me ask you this. How many people does it take to put on the Saturday market?

Lora Liegel [00:28:30]:
Yeah, so it’s myself, I always kind of like to imagine myself as a little bit more in the background, kind of running the show during the week. And then our market staff steps up and they’re sort of boots on the ground. I have an awesome operations manager. Her name is Morgan. She’s there every Saturday from start to finish. And then we hire two market assistants that just work day of. So in total, there’s four of us. I’m full time, and then the rest are part time.

Scott Cowan [00:29:04]:
So on Saturday, you’re not just rolling up at 09:55 A.m.? Definitely not at 205. So what’s a typical Saturday look like for your team?

Lora Liegel [00:29:14]:
Yeah, I love describing this because sometimes I think that the public just thinks that the farmers market just sort of, like, happens on its own. Pops up. Yeah, it just pops up. Everything just happens with a little bit of sprinkle of magic. But yeah, truly, it does take a lot of hard work and stuff going on in the background to put on a really good event every single week. And so the staff typically shows up around 06:30 A.m.. They’re putting out all the signs, making sure that all the simple stuff, but it really adds up. Bathrooms are open, the pavilions opened up, unlocking everything. And then 07:00 A.m. Is when cars and vendors start rolling onto the site.

Scott Cowan [00:30:03]:
Okay, so the vendors can take a couple of hours to get set up.

Lora Liegel [00:30:07]:
Yeah, they’ve got a couple of hours.

Scott Cowan [00:30:08]:
Not too bad. And then how long does it take to tear it down on the back end?

Lora Liegel [00:30:11]:
Yeah, we crank it up a notch a little bit and everything’s pretty much gone in an hour and a half.

Scott Cowan [00:30:19]:
Wow. Okay.

Lora Liegel [00:30:20]:
Yeah, we actually rent it from the city of Bellingham. They’ve been a wonderful partner of ours over a 30 year history. And so the space that we rent Depot Market Square, the city can rent that out to all sorts of other events and individuals. Pre Pandemic, they had a lot of weddings. So we’d have to make sure to get everyone from the farmers market off the site in case there are other events that happen right after.

Scott Cowan [00:30:50]:
We’re not going to sell ground cherries at the wedding reception. Okay, got it. How’s the Wednesday market? And let’s shift gears to the middle of the week.

Lora Liegel [00:31:05]:
Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:31:06]:
When did the Wednesday market start?

Lora Liegel [00:31:07]:
So the Wednesday market starts in June. This year. We’re going to go through mid September. It’s typically been June through September. We had a long history of running that Wednesday market at a location in Bellingham called Fair Haven, the Fair Haven neighborhood. But due to changing customer spending habits and limited parking, that site, it was called the Fair Haven Village Green just got a little bit too small for that Wednesday Market. And so we took a pause due to the pandemic in 2020. But last year we brought the Wednesday Market to the Port of Bellingham property, which is very close to downtown, right near the waterfront. Super exciting location for us. It’s close to the bicycle pump track downtown and the Granary Building. And Culcian Brewing has a beer garden, they call it right down there that’s open up in the summer months. So the space is kind of raw, but really exciting that we get to be in on it at sort of the foundational level.

Scott Cowan [00:32:20]:
Okay. What hours is the Wednesday market? Are you doing that kind of after work hours?

Lora Liegel [00:32:28]:
Yeah. So we’re running it from four to seven. So it’s a bit different than the Saturday market. We hope that families can come, they can grab a bite to eat, grab dinner, maybe. They brought the family to do some biking or grab a beer at Culsion, and then afterward they can come to the farmers market and stock up for their veggies for that midweek purchase. And so, yeah, this year we really hope to bring back a strong prepared food vendor scene. So we’re going to be offering like, hand pies. And we’ve got a new food truck coming called Hungry Street. They’re offering it’s like Venezuelan and American cuisine. So yeah, definitely took that to heart and are hoping to bring back more prepared food.

Scott Cowan [00:33:20]:
I’m on your website.

Lora Liegel [00:33:22]:
Sure.

Scott Cowan [00:33:22]:
So I’m looking at some things and I was going to ask you about something and then I saw that it said suspended until further notice. But can we talk about some projects?

Lora Liegel [00:33:33]:
Yeah. Some different events and things? Sure.

Scott Cowan [00:33:35]:
Yeah. So I want to know more about what kids Vending Day was and hopefully we’ll be again. So I’m guessing that it’s suspended because.

Lora Liegel [00:33:44]:
Of yeah, we had to suspend it due to COVID just in terms of we wanted to keep everyone safe. And so we were really focusing on the. Essentials people sort of getting in and getting out. Kids Vending Day used to be an event where we would invite the public kids, as you can imagine, to have, like, a little table and then offer their wares that they had prepared themselves. Mostly things like arts and crafts and yeah, that program is currently under evaluation. We’re not sure what we’re going to be doing next, but we know that we want to offer something robust for the kids. And the family kept kind of looking like maybe that sort of event might shift to the Wednesday Market. The Wednesday market offers more physical space where we could put on something like that in the summer months. Most kids aren’t in school, so that could be a fun activity for them there. So stay tuned on that. Make sure to go to the website as we progress with that idea.

Scott Cowan [00:34:47]:
And I think that’s kind of a great idea to help. Well, I don’t know about you, because at 15, you were grafting apples. I don’t know if you were entrepreneurial as a young kid, but as a young kid, I mowed lawns and seemingly did whatever I could to make money. And had there been a well, not that I’m crafty, that’s probably the sad thing, because my art doesn’t even make it onto my mom’s refrigerator. But the idea of helping youth be exposed to this opportunity to sell their things and interact with people, I think is a really cool idea.

Lora Liegel [00:35:28]:
Definitely. Yeah. Help them understand what it takes to understand the value of money and be able to earn it. Interact with the public, just like you mentioned. So there’s a lot of great skills that can come from even running a tiny business, micro business at that scale.

Scott Cowan [00:35:47]:
Right. The other day, I was driving here in town. My neighbor, they’re a mile from my house. It’s not like they’re my next door neighbor type thing, but as I drive past, the kids opened a cafe in the driveway, and they called it a cafe, and I’m like, It’s not a lemonade stand, but it was like they had tables and chairs in the driveway. And I drove when I was coming back and it was full. There’s, like, 15 people sitting around. I’m like, that’s kind of cool.

Lora Liegel [00:36:13]:
It was happening. Yeah. It’s so important to introduce, I think, kids, too, in terms of that food access, being able to see and meet. Okay. An apple doesn’t just appear at the grocery store, right? But someone actually grows it. And it’s not just someone, but lots of people are needed in order to make that happen. And not only that, but it tastes so good, I think about even vegetables taste sweeter from the farmers market. That was an experience that I had when I was a kid, tasting a cabbage. That was sweet, and it was surprising. And that’s something that just kind of kept me coming back to the vegetable world.

Scott Cowan [00:36:55]:
Well, that’s one of the things that getting to know where your food comes from versus the plastic wrapped, sliced apple that might be in your lunch bag. Mom and dad, you know what I’m saying? Kids think that they don’t understand careful how I say things, but knowing, like you said, knowing that apple was on the tree three days ago, let’s say, and it was brought to the market, it’s as fresh as you’re going to find short of being out in the orchard yourself.

Lora Liegel [00:37:30]:
And there’s so many varieties. Not only is there an orange carrot, but a purple carrot and a purple cauliflower. These are things that I find super exciting. And I think that when kids get to see that firsthand, that vegetables can become exciting too.

Scott Cowan [00:37:47]:
Right. Well, one of the questions I’d like to well, the other thing is, are you guys still offering booths for nonprofits to come and be able to talk about what they’re doing?

Lora Liegel [00:38:01]:
We are, yeah. And that’s something that we hope to bring back more robustly. We’re going to be partnering with our local Master Gardeners chapter for at least a six week period. And for those who are unfamiliar with Master Gardeners, they’re a group of volunteers. They volunteer throughout the community and then teach other people about what’s happening in the garden during that particular time. So, for example, there’s going to be a booth at the farmers market where the Master Gardeners are going to be located. And you’re welcome to if you see anything happening in your own garden at home and it looks kind of funny, or you see a plant wilting snip it and bring it on down. And the Master Gardeners can help you troubleshoot and learn about your garden space.

Scott Cowan [00:38:48]:
That’s a cool feature. One of the things we talked about before we hit record was food access. We wanted to bring that up and how the farmers market is able to help with that. Yeah, I’ll let you elaborate.

Lora Liegel [00:39:03]:
Sure. Yeah, I was thinking about that when we were talking about kids, because we also accept Pandemic EBT cards. There were many school children who received pandemic, what are called Pandemic EBT cards. And the farmers market is a place where we can accept that, but backing up and kind of like getting a bigger vision of what is food access. We really pride ourselves as the farmers market. We accept what used to be called food stamps. That program has been relabeled as Snap or the Supplemental Nutrition Access Program or something similar to that. And essentially you get a card that loads up your benefits every month. And you can use that at the farmers market to purchase anything that you would at the grocery store. So things like milk, eggs, cheese, produce, all those good staples. And then in addition to that, we run a program called Snap Market Match, which is a partnership program with the Washington State Department of Health. And so the really great thing is that we can double your EBT dollars up to $40, and that money can be used on fresh fruits and vegetables. So, for example, if you want to take off $20 on your EBT card, we’ll give you another 20. And so that gives you a $40 purchasing power to use at the farmers market.

Scott Cowan [00:40:38]:
For clarity, the vendors aren’t taking the EBT card. A person with an EBT card or Snap card goes to a booth that the market is running, correct?

Lora Liegel [00:40:48]:
Yeah. Great question, Scott.

Scott Cowan [00:40:50]:
And you run the card, if you will, and take $20 off the balance of the card. And you give them a token, good tokens, like market tokens with that?

Lora Liegel [00:41:01]:
Yeah, they’re physical tokens. So anyone that has an EBT card exactly. They come to the Bellingham Farmers Market information booth. They swipe their card just like they would at the grocery store. But yes, instead we would give them their wood tokens that can then get spent at each individual vendor booth. In addition to that, our market does accept what are called WIC FMP farmers Market Nutrition Program. That’s a Washington state program. WIC and senior checks. Sometimes people get mailed individually checks in $4 increments, and those get spent directly with each of the vendor booths.

Scott Cowan [00:41:44]:
First off, I think this is awesome that you guys are doing this. I love the fact that there’s a match, essentially doubling their that’s right, their dollars. That’s for someone in financial challenges, doubling the ability to buy food is wonderful.

Lora Liegel [00:42:03]:
Oh, yeah, definitely. And our food is super fresh. It’s being picked a couple of days beforehand. So the food that is bought at the Bellingham Farmers Market, that has the potential to even last longer, let’s say in someone’s refrigerator than something maybe that they got at a larger box store. So in terms of matching their dollars and keeping that food extended for a long period of time, it’s great.

Scott Cowan [00:42:29]:
So question I have is not this is just my question, and nobody else listening to this may be interested, but I’m curious. So person comes and they take $40 off their card balance, right. You essentially give them $80. So they have $80 to spend at the market that day. So they go and they spend the $80. And sake of easy math, they spend it in two vendors, $40 each vendor. How do the vendors then? Because they just took wooden tokens.

Lora Liegel [00:43:01]:
I like to call it funny money.

Scott Cowan [00:43:03]:
Yeah, funny money. The small vendor just received wood tokens.

Lora Liegel [00:43:09]:
Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:43:11]:
Do you settle up with the vendor at the end of the market?

Lora Liegel [00:43:14]:
We do, yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:43:15]:
Is that how that works?

Lora Liegel [00:43:16]:
Yeah. So that’s a lot of kind of like that back end work that I was talking about. That’s a big part of my job, is being a part of the counting process. So at the end of every market, they put all of those tokens and their vendor fee inside of a plastic envelope. And then that comes back to the office, we tally it all up, make sure the numbers are correct, and then I do an ACH transfer to them. I essentially reimburse the vendors for any number of tokens or EBT dollars that they’ve gotten. Market match dollars.

Scott Cowan [00:43:51]:
That’s great. So it works on a couple of levels, really, when you think about you’re able to give fresh food to well, not give, but they’re able to purchase fresh food and in some cases, doubling the amount that they could purchase, which helps boost sales for the small vendor.

Lora Liegel [00:44:13]:
Absolutely. Definitely. That’s why I love the program.

Scott Cowan [00:44:16]:
Everybody wins here. Everybody wins.

Lora Liegel [00:44:18]:
It is really a big win win. And yeah, the Market Match dollars, the EBT dollars, all that stuff is just we’re just helping everyone out with that program.

Scott Cowan [00:44:30]:
That’s fantastic. Do you see anything in the future? Do these programs look like they’ll continue moving forward in the future? I see the crystal ball right there on your desk. I mean, I can see your crystal ball. So forecast for me. Yeah, but what are you seeing as a market manager there? Is the state looking at these things?

Lora Liegel [00:44:56]:
Yeah, we’ve been told that the Market Match program, we definitely hope to continue that and bring some stability to that program. It seems like that’s definitely the direction we’re headed with Department of Health at Washington. And then in terms of kind of on the horizon, the big question is whether to essentially load like that WIC and Senior FMNP right now, like I said, that program is on paper checks, for example, whether to put those benefits onto some sort of card. And so there’s talk about whether or not these transactions, instead of really happening at the information booth, a lot of them, whether to move those transactions at each individual vendor on an electronic basis. So the powers that be are talking about that. It may have limitations, particularly like with seniors who may not have access, whether they have a smartphone. There’s just a lot of questions about what those programs will look like. But right now, they will continue as they have been. Things will happen in terms of Snap and Market Match at the information booth, and then the checks with the FMNP program will go directly and be spent at each individual vendor.

Scott Cowan [00:46:24]:
Okay, I’m scrolling here. I didn’t scroll before. I’m looking at the photographs of the early years and the later years. Oh, I know what we need to talk about. What are you doing to celebrate the 30 years? What’s coming up here?

Lora Liegel [00:46:41]:
We are going to be bringing back the annual cabbage toss. I don’t know how long it’s been happening or going on, but as far as I know, it’s been happening for a long time. Probably since the Depot Market Square was built. But yeah, we’re going to be bringing Mayor Seth Fleetwood of the city of Bellingham. He’ll be coming down on April 2. Typically, we just like to kick it off with the mayor and a couple of our other vendors from Bellingham Farmers Market. Talk about kind of where we’ve come in terms of this 30 year history and then where we want to go in the future and what that looks like. And I think for us, what it looks like is building more partnerships between food processors and farmers, bringing in more BIPOC farmers and vendors, and strategically looking about where we want to go toward the future. So 09:45 a.m. April 2. Come meet by the goat statue for everyone that’s local. You know where that’s at? Just outside the pavilion. And then, yeah, we’re going to kick it off with that famous cabbage toss at 10:00 A.m..

Scott Cowan [00:47:52]:
Okay, I can’t let you not describe this. Why cabbage? What’s the story there?

Lora Liegel [00:48:01]:
To be honest, I’m not sure.

Scott Cowan [00:48:04]:
Well, let’s make one up then. Let’s come up with something fun.

Lora Liegel [00:48:08]:
I think it’s perhaps like if you imagine a baseball game there’s, like that person that comes out, they toss that first baseball, it kicks off the season or it kicks off that game. Right. I think it may be something along the lines of that. I don’t know what it will look like in the future years, but yeah, this is what we’re doing in 2022 cabbage.

Scott Cowan [00:48:31]:
Okay. That’s the part.

Lora Liegel [00:48:34]:
It looks like a ball. It’s round, it’s small, you can throw it.

Scott Cowan [00:48:40]:
That’s all true. All right, I’ll give you that as I’m scrolling here. Okay. When I say your vision, I understand that you’re not the only vision here, but what do you anticipate the next two to five years to look like for the Bellingham Farmers Market? What would you like to see things move towards?

Lora Liegel [00:49:09]:
Yeah, I think in the next two to five, we’re working on a strategic plan. So I will make mention that it’s myself who works there, but I also work closely with a board of directors. That board of directors is comprised of Bellingham Farmers Market vendors and community members. We work closely and meet monthly, if not more, to create and craft a vision. I think that we want to bring in more farmers. At the heart of our market really, is we’re supporting local sustainable agriculture and producers and producers that support agriculture and farming practices. We’ve had a history of retaining vendors for a really long time, and as some of those vendors begin to phase out right. We need to fill the gap. So I’m always on the hunt for new and beginning farmers that want to get a foot and create, get a foot in this business. And so, yeah, I hope to bring in more new and beginning farmers.

Scott Cowan [00:50:17]:
Okay, sorry. This is where we bouncing around. I’m back on your food access page.

Lora Liegel [00:50:25]:
Sure.

Scott Cowan [00:50:25]:
And I’m going to read some numbers off of the page, so since they’re published there, I can read them.

Lora Liegel [00:50:30]:
Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:50:31]:
So in 2020, the total amount of food bought at the Bellingham Farmers Market in 2020 was Snap and other food incentive programs was $85,000. That’s a lot of money.

Lora Liegel [00:50:41]:
And last year in 2021, it was over $150,000. So we have seen a huge increase. We all know that people were hit hard with the COVID Pandemic and we’ve been working to spread the word about these wonderful programs. And we really hope to continue growing those programs and getting the word out in terms of people being able to spend their dollars at the farmers market. And I will make mention too that it’s not only the Saturday market, but we would get a lot of questions about whether customers can utilize those EBT and market match resources at the Wednesday market. And that’s a resounding yes. So we definitely encourage people to shop at both markets.

Scott Cowan [00:51:25]:
All right. And then the last so these were bullet points and so I’m not going to break down. Well, actually I will. EBT was 37, matching incentives was 33,000, WIC checks, 3000. Senior checks, 12,000. But the next line item is that the Bellingham Farmers Market vendors donated 14,000 pounds of fresh produce to hunger relief agencies in 2020.

Lora Liegel [00:51:48]:
Yeah, we have a great relationship with the Bellingham Food Bank. And I was going to mention that earlier in terms of usually they come between June and October and then any food that farmers want to donate at the end of the day so things that don’t get sold can go directly to the Bellingham Food Bank. And then that goes right back to folks that need access to local healthy produce. So it’s been a wonderful program.

Scott Cowan [00:52:18]:
That’s great.

Lora Liegel [00:52:19]:
In 2020, we were able to pay our vendors for that produce. We had a special grant in conjunction with the Bellingham Food Bank and we hope to continue searching for more funding opportunities in order to pay our producers for those donations.

Scott Cowan [00:52:37]:
Okay, that’d be great. What else didn’t we cover about the farmers market?

Lora Liegel [00:52:45]:
Well, I was thinking about just in terms of, like I said before, I think the Bellingham Farmers Market is probably one of the best in the state, but there are so many other wonderful farmers markets throughout Washington State. And I know that your listeners are probably located all over the place. If they’re looking for their own local farmers market or a farmers market close to them, they can go to the Washington State Farmers Market Association web page. It’s our sort of larger organization that helps all the farmers markets out there within the state. And I would encourage folks to go.

Scott Cowan [00:53:27]:
There and we’ll put links to both your market and that in the show notes so that they can easily click on it. Well, when you’re not having a leisurely Saturday or a leisurely Wednesday, what do you and the family like to do in Bellingham? What’s, what’s, what’s a give me, give me a couple of yeah, give me a couple of suggestions of things to do in Bellingham.

Lora Liegel [00:53:54]:
Okay. Yeah. I love getting out there with with my family. Like I said before, it’s one of the primary reasons why we moved up here, just in terms of the accessibility to nature. We love going to Lake Paddon and blowdell Donovan Park in the summertime to go swimming. We were talking about coffee before. There’s a woods coffee shop down at Boulevard Park. So beautiful, right by the ocean. A great place to take the family for a walk and yeah, we just like to get out there and all kinds of different parks in the area. One in my neighborhood is called Laurel Park and we can walk there, so it’s one of our favorites. And Harriet spinel. Yeah, I think, like I said, I’ve been here about three years, so I’m still getting to know Bellingham in the area, but there’s so many things to do outside and whether it’s the winter months up at Mount Baker and go skiing or hitting the trail on the inner urban along Chuckernut Drive, definitely recommend it.

Scott Cowan [00:55:07]:
Have you been? To the Spark Electrical Museum.

Lora Liegel [00:55:10]:
I haven’t been there yet. We used to go to what’s called the Fig, which is an interactive place with the kiddos. But yeah, since the Pandemic, we haven’t been back yet. But we recently went to the public library and got some books out. So, yeah, we’re getting out there more and more.

Scott Cowan [00:55:30]:
I don’t mean to laugh, the fact that the public library has now become an adventure in the sense it’s just this whole the last two years that my mom, I was talking to my mom Sunday, so a few days ago, and she goes, I’m going to the library. It’ll be my first time since the snow. And I was just kind of chuckling because I grew up going to library all the time. So, I mean, I’m an avid reader, so I love libraries, but the fact that the library is now becoming a noticeable destination in our lives definitely changed.

Lora Liegel [00:56:09]:
Yeah, my own world would gotten kind of small and so looking forward to sort of getting out there, growing and widening. And I’ll make mention, too, that for those folks that have been to the farmers market with us the last two years, with all of the changes with mask wearing and things like that, we’re moving toward a recommendation with masks instead of a requirement. Like I said before, we’re going to be bringing back a bunch of prepared food and so people can eat on site. And so it’s really like a step process. As we move forward into 2022, we’re hopefully going to be bringing back some of the things that we used to have, like in 2019, and we’ll just continue evaluating our COVID-19 protocols as we move along.

Scott Cowan [00:57:04]:
Right. Dogs. Yes, dogs. No.

Lora Liegel [00:57:08]:
No dogs at Saturday market. Well behaved dogs on leashes. We’re trying at the Wednesday market.

Scott Cowan [00:57:15]:
Okay, yeah, dogs are great. Dogs are great, but they can be.

Lora Liegel [00:57:25]:
Yeah. Our Saturday market, we just have a little bit less space. So that’s one of the reasons it’s a little bit more a little bit more crowded.

Scott Cowan [00:57:32]:
Okay, I’ll give you the last word. I’ll just cheat and use my get out of jail free card.

Lora Liegel [00:57:40]:
What?

Scott Cowan [00:57:41]:
Didn’t I ask you that? I should have. I mean, there you go.

Lora Liegel [00:57:44]:
Yeah, I think we covered it all. I would just encourage folks, new and seasoned customers to come check us out. Like I said, we’re going to our weekly schedule in April, and as Canada even opens up, maybe we’ll see more Canadians. We used to see a bunch pre COVID, so, yeah, just come on down and check us out. And your support, our customer support makes a huge difference. It’s because of the customers and vendors that we’ve been able to stay open that we’ve been around for 30 years. And so I just want to say thank you in particular to the customers for helping us and supporting us the last 30 years.

Scott Cowan [00:58:26]:
Okay, well, Lora, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today. I appreciate it. And I am looking forward to the summer getting out to Bellingham for lots of reasons. I’m a huge baseball fan, so I’m going to come up and see the Bellingham Bells play, and so that’ll be fun. And I’ll probably try to time this on a Saturday so I can hit the market before I go to the ball game. So I’m looking forward to that. And yeah, thank you so much.

Lora Liegel [00:58:53]:
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity, Scott.