David Williams of Naperville was a little sad Saturday morning as he walked along the many booths on the last day of the season for the Aurora Farmers Market in downtown Aurora.
“I’ve been coming here a lot of weekends. It’s the end of the season and we always bring the dog and the grandkids. When the kids come here, they have to get doughnuts,” Williams said. “We do the vegetables. I got some microgreens today. Absolutely it’s going to be a long time until June comes back again and this reopens.”
Hundreds of regular customers came out to say goodbye until next year on Saturday as the state’s oldest running farmers market came to a close for the season. The market has been running every Saturday morning since June 7 at 65 S. Water St.
This season, a reconfigured area for the farmers market in a parking lot at Water Street Square allowed the event to grow, with an average of nearly 55 vendors a week with room for more, something that Aurora Farmers Market Manager and Community Events Coordinator Felicia Freitag said proved to be an important change over previous years.
“It’s been really well received having more people there and I think it keeps visitors here longer and getting to shop different vendors that they haven’t seen before. It’s been great for us,” Freitag said before the market opened at 8 a.m. Saturday. “We probably averaged about 52 (vendors) throughout the summer.”
Thaise Rodriguez of Aurora said she noticed the new configuration and, like Williams, said that she too was sad about the market coming to an end for the season.
“I’ve been coming every single Saturday. We get our coffee, our veggies and we love it,” she said. “I am a frequent flyer. I love the fruit, and definitely the variety of vendors. I think there are a lot more craft (vendors) this year. I love my coffee in the morning and just the activities the city has been putting together and things for the kids. I did notice the reconfiguration and I feel that it worked well.”
Freitag said vendors are eager for take part in the Aurora Farmers Market.
“I think as the market grows – we have really dedicated vendors that have been there for several years and they all do a lot to promote the market, especially if they do other markets,” she said. “They’ll talk to other vendors and say, ‘Hey, Aurora has a great market, you should come and check it out sometime,’ so I think we get a lot of new vendors by word-of-mouth that way.”
One of the market’s longtime vendors, Gregg Weinstock of Yorkville offering his The Finer Edge knife sharpening business, was also sad to see the season end for the farmers market.
“I’m sorry it’s over,” he said. “We have a lot of repeat customers and it’s nice to see familiar faces even if they’re not getting a knife sharpened.
“It’s a little sad, but seeing so many people you know is wonderful,” he said on Saturday. “This is the only market I do. To me, this feels like home.”
Sara Dreiser of Batavia was sporting a Halloween hat at Saturday’s market and said she was sorry the market was closing for the season “as it’s still so beautiful and warm.”
“It feels like this should go on longer,” she said of the market. “It’s going to be a long time till next year.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
