At its first village market of the season, the Sawyerville Community Garden inaugurated its new wooden shelter. The new structure is meant to protect the local producers who come to sell their products during the Saturday markets, and will also be available for other activities of the Garden.

The organizer, Chantal Bolduc, was visibly satisfied with this new addition to the Garden. «It’s a great achievement. People are glad to see it. It’s welcoming.» Besides the village market, the shelter will also accommodate workshops and trainings, «whether about herbs, flowers, NTFPs, or mushrooms,» said Bolduc. NTFPs are non-timber forest products.
The new red roof will also be available for use by the public. Interested persons can rent the site, including the outdoor bread oven, electricity and running water, for private receptions such as baptisms or marriages. The funds thus received will be re-invested in the activities of the Garden.

«We work a lot with the materials that people give us, such as wood, gravel and straw,» said Bolduc. «I’m talking about donations of materials, but it took many human donations to assemble all of this here. It’s all volunteer work, what we’ve done here.»

The shelter, measuring a dozen metres long, can accommodate up to five producers simultaneously. The other exhibitors continue to use the canopies that have been used since the beginning of the Community Garden. These need to be assembled and dismounted for each market day.

Brenda Thomas and Suzanne Marrow of Légumes Korzina have been selling their fresh produce at the market for the past three years. They are among the lucky producers who were installed under the new shelter for the first time, alongside the Maraichers de l’or vert, the Fromagerie Caitya, and Le Sabot d’or farm. Thomas and Marrow were more than satisfied with their new roof, which does not risk to be blown away in the wind, as has already happened to them in the past.