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SALT LAKE CITY -- Thanks to growing crowds, Salt Lake City's Downtown Farmers Market is expanding. The event's location at Pioneer Park will not change, but the way the market uses the park will.
For evidence of the growing success of the locally-grown food movement, take a visit north of Salt Lake City to East Farms in Layton. That's where Jeremy East surveys this season's plantings.
"Right out here, we have out zucchini and yellow squash just planted. We're going to hoe them next week, be able to harvest in three weeks or so," East says.
His operation is thriving, in no small part due to the Downtown Farmers Market, which he says accounts for half the farm's annual earnings.
The market too is thriving. Some Saturday mornings, the crowds number 10,000 people.
"It can be quite crowded down here. We hear it all the time," says Kim Angeli, market manager of the Downtown Farmers Market.
Some of the top complaints in the past have been that it's too crowded going from booth to booth -- getting past strollers, bikes and dogs.
"Everyone and their dog, literally, come to the farmers market on Saturdays," Angeli says.
To accommodate those crowds, the market announced Friday that it's expanding.
"In order to do that, we had to spread out, add some breathing room, some elbow room into our vendors," Angeli says.
Time: 8 am - 1 pm
Where: Pioneer Park (300 South and 300 West)
For more information click here
Vendor booths will now fill all the walkways on the perimeter of the park -- something the fire department, mindful of the need to respond to fire and emergency calls, applauds.
"It's a looming concern that we have access issues, [with] just the sheer number of people who attend the venue itself. They talk 10,000 people at times, and that's a lot of people in a small venue like this," says Salt Lake City Fire Chief Kurt Cook.
Likewise, farmers see the expansion as an improvement, hoping for a bumper crop of both produce and new customers.
"I think it will be great," East says. "It'll bring more customers down, and the variety will be a lot broader. So, I think it will be wonderful."
The expanded market will also increase the number of vendors from roughly 300 to 350. Some of the new vendors setting up shop this year will be offering interesting new foods.
"We'll have bison available at the market, as well as organic poultry," Angeli says.
Market goers will also find bicycle-powered smoothies and wood-fired pizza, baked in an oven imported from Italy.
The Downtown Farmers Market opens next Saturday, June 12.
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Story compiled with contributions from John Daley and Mary Richards.
