Bend Farmers Market Leaves Lawn Behind

A trip to the downtown Bend Farmers Market may look a little different. Starting Wednesday, the 30 vendors were required to move from the grass at the top of Drake Park to the nearby pavement of the Mirror Pond parking lot.

Disability advocates told the city the old site was too hard to get around.

“These are padron peppers from Spain, and they are cooked in light olive oil and rolled in sea salt as an appetizer,” farmer Rick Steffen from Silverton explained as he got his booth ready Wednesday afternoon.

He has some amazing produce.

Colorful varieties of potatoes, berries of all kinds, huge zucchini and green peppers, purple peppers, orange and red peppers are just starting to come in.

But as he set up, he had to cover up his peaches with a sheet and put boxes over his tomatoes to protect them from the hot sun.

Last week, all the vendors were under the shady trees of Drake Park.

But with the soft grass and a serious slope, ADA concerns came into the city council from folks in wheelchairs or powered scooters who said they couldn’t get around.

Carol Fulkerson of the Central Oregon Coalition for Access, or COCA, spearheaded the change.

“Several of our members who use mobility equipment said they didn’t go to the market or they go so infrequently because it’s so difficult to get around,” Fulkerson explained.

The easiest fix was to move all 30 vendors a few feet over, onto the pavement of the Mirror Pond parking lot…a level, hard, non-skid surface.

Perfect, right? Not totally.

Now the market will be taking over two-thirds of the parking spaces on Wednesdays, leaving 30 stalls with six ADA-accessible spots.

But more importantly, according to Steffen, “The produce is what’s really going to take the beating, because it’s going to be 30-40 degrees warmer on the pavement, because it’ll just be baking it. So you’re getting less quality of a product.”

But Steffen and the others who make their living going to sometimes eight farmer’s markets a week around the state say they’ll deal with it and adapt.

Vendors like Erin Cole-Baker, who sells produce from Junction City: “I haven’t really thought about it that much. We have good food, so I don’t think it matters.”

More accessibility means an even bigger customer base and that makes advocates like Fulkerson happy.

“I’m very happy,” she said. “It just makes it a more livable community for everyone.”

The downtown Bend Farmers Market runs every Wednesday through Oct. 12.

Over the off-season, the market board and the city will decide if it should stay there or move to another permanent location.