Jacob Dimond / jake@yelmonline.com
As the beautiful weather continues to roll into the Nisqually Valley region, the Yelm Farmers Market is gearing up to return from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. this Saturday, May 3, at its location near Yelm City Park.
Following the first Yelm Farmers Market of the year on May 3, the event will return each Saturday, at the same location and time, each Saturday until Sept. 27.
Jon Jamieson, the Yelm Farmers Market manager, said the first event of the 2025 season is shaping up to be the largest outdoor sale Yelm Farmers Market has ever hosted.
“It’s actually going to be the largest opening and largest market we’ve ever had. We’re still waiting on a couple vendors, but I can confirm that 35 vendors will be here this Saturday,” Jamieson said on Monday, April 28. “It tells me the market is growing, especially after COVID, which evolved the way farmers markets occur and how people socially interact. It was definitely a downturn for markets as a group, especially for us. We lost a lot of farmers and lost a lot of good vendors, but we’ve been rebuilding since then. It shows what we’ve been doing is working.”
In addition to the returning market being the largest event the Yelm Farmers Market has hosted, the organization is looking to host raffle giveaways throughout the year and potentially introduce live music to the weekly sales.
“We’re always growing. We’re always trying to introduce new vendors and new things to do at the market. We’re trying to get live music lined up. We have a few people interested, so hopefully we’ll be doing some live music this year,” Jamieson said. “We’re going to be side by side with some awesome groups and events, like Prairie Days, the Nisqually Valley BBQ Rally, Jazz in the Park, and Galaxy Fest this Saturday. It brings foot traffic, but what it does most importantly, as small as Yelm is, large at the same time, there’s a lot of people who don’t even know we exist. When these other activities go on, people show up and say ‘we didn’t even know you guys existed but now we’re coming back.”’
The Yelm Farmers Market will be hosted at 206 McKenzie St., near Yelm City Park, for the second consecutive market season in a row. Jamieson said the vendors are hoping to see the McKenzie Street location serve as a “forever home” for the Yelm Farmers Market.
“The community likes it being by the park. Our vendors like it for easy access. It’s a really easy place to take care of. There’s no major cleanups. We feel like it doesn’t affect the city traffic as much either since we’re a couple blocks off the main road and hidden from main streets,” he said. “This is a family event for all ages. We really have an awesome kids program for ages 5 through 12 to receive POP Tokens. It’s $2 every Saturday, and it’s a free program. Those tokens can be used to buy fresh fruit every Saturday.”
Jamieson also highlighted the free Powers of Produce program, known as POP. Jamieson said young market goers can sign up for the program to earn POP Tokens to spend on fresh produce from select vendors within the market. He believes this is a great way to teach children to be financially responsible and also learn of the importance of fresh produce.
“It teaches kids about getting money in a sense, because they are tokens, like money, and spent the same way cash is. It helps them learn to budget and how to shop, but it also introduces fresh vegetables into the shop,” Jamieson said. “It’s a program we’ve had for years, and once again with COVID, we saw those numbers drop off because kids weren’t out as much. It used to be a big program years ago, and now we’re trying to rebuild it and let folks know that it’s still around. We’d love to see more people use it, because that’s what it’s here for.”
