Envision a cold, rainy, fall day not fit for a farmers market. Battle Ground Farmers Market Director James Townley has the answer as he's been leading the vision for an indoor market space that is slated to begin on Saturdays later this month.
"It rains a little bit over in the Pacific Northwest, and so I saw an opportunity," Townley said. "There's lots of markets that are all the way south or north, not much in between as far as Clark County goes. Also the fact that there's a ton of agricultural farms and businesses, it's a huge pie."
Townley said their indoor market space just north of Al and Ernie's Bakery Cafe on Northeast Grace Avenue has been flooded with vendor applications — all in the agriculture realm. But thankfully, the enclosed space will not be flooded by rain.
Townley said in order to get the building ready to host an indoor market, they had to redo the roof, redo all the lighting, install a new HVAC unit, and even build bathrooms.
The inside required a lot of work, but so did the outside to create the cozy curb appeal.
"We poured a ton of concrete to make it an extended patio, so there will be some nice seating," Townley said, mentioning that once summer comes back around he envisions some outdoor vendors or eating space.
On the inside, the number of vendor stalls is slated to be around 25 to 30, but the spaces can also be custom-fitted for vendors, as the dividers are on rollers. Townley said the anticipated start date is tentatively Saturday, Sept. 20 and will run on Saturdays through November. Hours of operation are planned to be 9 a.m.-2 p.m. each Saturday during the market season. Once spring rolls around, Townley anticipates the market will continue through the rest of the year, with possibly more days open and some special events.
"We're treating this like kind of a soft season open since we're opening in the fall," Townley said. "We've missed berry season, and we've missed some season for agricultural products, so we know that we're going to kind of use this as, 'Hey, let's open this fall just on Saturdays. Learn what we don't know, make mistakes and figure things out and find our rhythm.'"
As for parking, which has been a concern for some on social media, Townley said that the market is in the works with local businesses for Saturday parking contracts. There is some on-site parking, but Townley also envisions the farmers' market being a stop on a weekend outing to Old Town, where people would likely be parked elsewhere.
"The beauty about Battle Ground is it does have a lot of Main Street parking and First Street parking," he said. "And so if you treat it as kind of making your Saturday a walk of part of Main Street and getting a coffee and pastry at Al and Ernie's and then coming here and doing some shopping and you can actually make it a nice little Saturday and park a little further. But we are going to be constantly looking at different ways to open up parking."
Townley also said the space can be utilized for different events and the building will continue to see improvements made.
"We're coming at this humbly, and we want to grow, so we want feedback," Townley said. "But we also are asking for grace as we move forward and figure this out and make this the best that it could be for the community. But we don't obviously know all that up front. We have an idea, and we're hoping to develop that idea, and so help us, grow with us, support us, and let us know how we can make this a great space. We're here to be part of the community and not just a business."
To learn more about the Battle Ground Farmers Market, located at 15 NE Grace Ave., visit bgfm.org or email info@bgfm.org.
