Another Farmer’s Market for Western Montana Starts Next Week

With the summer months upon us, whether the weather agrees with that or not, another farmer's market is about to bloom in our area.

Most of these events are clustered into Saturday morning/afternoon windows. Well, the Lolo Community Center is taking a different approach. If you have some free time on Friday afternoons, here's a great way to get your farmer's marketing fun off to an early start.

The Lolo Farmer's Market is welcoming not only customers, but vendors as well, for the ridiculously low space rental fee of just $15 weekly. These will take place on Fridays from 2:00 - 6:00 p.m, starting next Friday, June 3.

The Lolo Farmer's Markets will be outdoors on the grassy area on the north side of the Lolo Community Center, with a contingency plan to move indoors in the event of  inclement weather. Those familiar with the location of the center know there is really good visibility and high-volume traffic passing from both directions.

While the first market day will be June 3rd, 2022, there will be a Grand Opening Market Day on June 10th, 2022. One exception to the summer schedule will be June 24. There will be no Farmer's Market that day, as the Lolo Community Center will be participating in the Bitterroot Valley's annual 50-Mile Garage Sale event. But the center can give you details on how vendors can participate in that as well.

Something that might make the market more appealing to vendors selling baked goods: Montana has a Cottage Food Law that's been in place for a number of years now, in case you weren't aware. Labeling for home baked goods will now only require you to post one sign at your table for each batch of whatever is you make. You do not need to label each individual item. You're still required to include ingredients lists for items you are selling on your signage. And of course, you are more than welcome to label each individual item if you so choose.

More details and application form information can be found on the Farmer's Market page of the Lolo Community Center website. We hope it's a great harvest of summertime fun Friday afternoons for these folks.