Sunny start for Ennistymon Farmers’ Market

THE first Ennistymon Farmers’ Market was held last Saturday, in sunny conditions.

The market, which was held beside the West Clare Art Gallery on the Ennis Road, opposite the garda station, received a good response with large numbers buying produce.
Kate Conway is secretary of the farmers’ market group and she said that last Saturday was the culmination of months of preparation.
“We had the first meeting last summer and we would have had some kind of meeting every week since so there was a lot of preparation involved,” she explained.
Ms Conway said that there had been a very good response on Saturday.
“It was fantastic, there were hundreds and hundreds of people there, we couldn’t get over it. Most people were sold out by 1pm. There was a huge amount of local support, and around 20% would have been people who were going to or from Lahinch.”
There was a wide variety of produce on sale and she says that it’s hoped to have a large number of stalls there every week. “There were 21 there on Saturday and we’ll possibly have 25 next week. We would hope to have a minimum of 20 there every time. Hopefully, we’ll keep it going until Christmas, and have a Christmas market then. After that, we’ll have a break and then start up again in March.”
Gerry McDonagh of the Clare Local Development Company was also involved in getting the farmers’ market established and he was also happy with the support. “We were delighted, there were an awful lot of people there for the first day. The stall holders were pleased with the response as well. There was a very positive reaction all round and the weather helped as well,” Mr McDonagh said.