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‘Super excited’: Jaffray-Baynes Lake Market returning for 31st season with refurbished space

The market location has had some recent enhancements thanks largely to a CBT grant
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A photo from a previous Jaffray-Baynes Lake Market posted to the market’s Instagram page. (Courtesy of Shaun See)

The Jaffray-Baynes Lake Farmers’ Market is about to launch its 31st season, and the location got a recent makeover thanks to the Columbia Basin Trust (CBT).

“Yet another sign that summer is here!” reads an email from Shaun See, market manager alongside his wife, Treanne See.

“With Covid mostly behind us, we are really looking forward to seeing all our friends and neighbors once again!!”

People are invited to the market at 468 Jaffray Baynes Lake Rd. on June 18 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Markets will be running on Saturdays until Sept. 3. The market ran last year but took a year off in 2020.

The market space will look somewhat different this year due to a $68,000 CBT Farmers’ Market Enhancement grant, applied for in cooperation with the Baynes Lake Community Society, who contributed 15 per cent of the grant sum.

“We did a lot of improvements, capital improvements, at the community hall area where we host the market,” Treanne said.

One of the those improvements was to plant 25 trees in May to create shade for the vendors and make the space more like a park, she said. Included in the new tree arsenal are firs, elms, ashes and maples.

“It looks beautiful, it’s just made a big difference in how it looks over there.”

They also added 18 new picnic tables for the pancake breakfast and market, refurbished an aging double outhouse, refurbished a shed and market stage where buskers perform, added more animal-proof garbage cans and park benches, and generally did a survey of the full property (including the fire hall, park and playground), with the goal to create a long-term strategic plan for the area.

See spoke to their gratitude to the CBT, “not just for this grant, but just so many different ways that they help out.”

“It’s just amazing how much the Columbia Basin Trust makes a difference in little communities like ours.”

As of June 10, there were 91 vendors registered for the 12-market season, according to Treanne. Not all the vendors are necessarily present at each individual market.

Items on sale will include things like honey, meat, seafood, baked goods, garden produce, home decor, wood crafts, toys, knitted items, jewellery, clothing, and more, according to a bulletin notice for the market.

“The creativity of the vendors is amazing,” See said.

Pancake breakfast, food trucks, and buskers are also features of the upcoming event.

“We try and make it as family friendly as we possibly can.”

See said they’re ‘super excited’ to get it underway.

“(We are) looking forward to having a lot of fun.”

For more information about the market, visit www.jblfm.ca, or get in touch with one of the Sees at (403) 370-3262 or info@jblfm.ca. They also have an Instagram page and Facebook page where they post updates and pictures.

READ MORE: Earth Day-themed market held at Grasmere’s Pioneer Hall, first farmer’s market in town in over 30 years

READ MORE: Jaffray-Baynes Lake Farmers’ Market set to open


@fishynewswatch
josh.fischlin@thefreepress.ca

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