Staff
Despite some seasonal weather recently, it’s a safe bet that spring is still a ways away but that didn’t stop many of the ladies in attendance at the 24th annual Rimbey Women’s Conference from stopping by the booth of local market garden operator Gayle Rondeel and asking a few questions.
Rondeel, who moonlights as the manager of the Rimbey Farmers Market, also gave a presentation to the gathering about the planning of a garden and the health benefits of organic gardening.
“I think it’s great,” Rondeel said of the conference. “The presentations this morning and the film we saw was very good and very inspiring and the lunch was fantastic.”
Rondeel said local gardeners are getting hit with spring fever and looking for a bit of advice.
“I’ve gotten a lot of phone calls about it already and people are wondering what kind of produce we’ll be growing this year and what markets we’ll be attending,” Rondeel said. “Also, we take suggestions from people for varieties they want but don’t garden themselves, and we’ll grow it for them. We also have a community supported agriculture program where we deliver fresh vegetables door to door once a week.”
After operating her market garden for the past 15 years and working as a vendor for the better part of 30 years, Rondeel and the Rimbey Farmers Market were recently recognized by the provincial organization for their fine work.
“First of all, I’d like to say that we won the Rise and Shine Award from the Alberta Farmers Market Association. It used to be called the Market Manager of the Year Award, but they changed it to include managers and sponsors,” she said. “We won the award for our promotions and our innovativeness and getting the market up and running and making it such a good market. There are over 100 in Alberta so it’s pretty nice. We just heard about it a week ago so we’re very excited about it.”
Rondeel said patrons can expect more of the same high quality products and possibly even more.
“We always celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and I’d really like to promote more of the local vendors,” she said. “The produce and the baking is really big, but I think we have to focus a lot on the vendors that do knitting, sewing and any sort of crafts from home because it’s all important and it all builds the local economy.”
Those who frequent the weekly market throughout the spring and summer can expect to see approximately the same number of vendors, which could be good news for both buyers and sellers.
“We have a really good vendor base right now. We’re averaging about 37 tables per market and really, we don’t want to get too big for our population because if we do we run the risk of maybe the vendors don’t do as well because we can’t attract as many people to the market,” Rondeel said. “So once we start attracting more visitors to the markets, then we’ll pursue more vendors.”
She also announced a bit of a twist that will be featured this year and could be very beneficial to those with aching muscles after toiling in the soil while planting their backyard gardens.
“I have found a masseuse that’s going to be in attendance and doing massages. I’ve been looking for three years for a masseuse to come to the market, so that’s really exciting,” Rondeel said. “I think it’s a good thing because there’s so many people out there, especially gardening people, that are worn out or tired. It won’t be a long massage or anything, maybe 10 minutes or so, but it’ll be a good promotion for the masseuse and I think it’ll be great for the people at the market.”