Every week for almost ten years, vendors set up booths and tables in Covington’s Roebling Point business district where patrons can sip coffee, sample baked goods and buy freshly grown produce at the Covington Farmers Market.
In celebration of its 10th anniversary, the Covington Farmers Market is hosting a Farm to Fork fundraising brunch on Aug. 7 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Covington Yard.
“This year we’ll be celebrating the journey and success of the market over the past 10 years and energizing our most loyal supporters to continue to grow with us,” said Alexa Abner, Covington Farmers Market manager.
The fundraiser will feature chefs from the Nacho Average Taco Cart, Beards & Bellies BBQ and Talon’s Cincy Fried. Each of the chefs are preparing two menu items using farm-fresh ingredients from the market’s vendors.
Menu details are a surprise, since most of the ingredients are harvested and delivered just before the event.
“This is the most exciting and unique part about our annual Farm to Fork fundraiser,” Abner said. “We are truly working with the freshest in-season produce, which requires a lot of hard work from our farmers, creativity from our chefs, and cooperation from Mother Nature.”
The event will feature open seating and include a cash bar, yard games, photo booth, and music from Market Music Series regular Kryst Kruer.
The farmers market culture in Covington dates back nearly two centuries. In 1830, a market house was constructed on Park Street where vendors could sell meat, produce and other goods. Another market house was built on Seventh Street between Madison Avenue and Washington Street, between what is now Braxton Brewery and Klingenberg’s Hardware.
Today, the Covington’s modern iteration of their famer’s market sits on Third Street, next to Court Street, and hosts approximately two dozen vendors from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturdays.
Over the last three years, the Covington Farmers Market has grown from $95,000 to $285,000 in gross collective sales.
While gross collective sales tripled in 2021, the number of visitors actually declined during that period, dropping from 17,030 to 13,743. The COVID-19 pandemic affected how the general public utilized services such as farmers markets, organizers said.
“While we hope to return to pre-pandemic visitor counts,” Abner said, “we observed the shift of average dollars spent per visitor from $5 per visitor in 2018 to $21 per visitor in 2021. This leads us to believe that folks who shopped with us in 2020 to the current season have changed their perception of the Farmers Market from a ‘niche experience to buy something interesting’ to a place where they now spend more of their weekly food budget supporting farmers.”
As the farmers market experience evolves, Covington Farmers Market organizers have zeroed in on ideas to help expand the market’s presence in the city.
These ideas include the:
- mid-week market – which was temporarily held further south on M.L. King Jr. Boulevard on Tuesday evenings – will soon resume in a new location.
- $650,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds from the City of Covington in its recently passed budget to purchase a building or site, design and build a permanent Farmers Market. That work has not started.
The market hasn’t lost a critical aspect of its core mission, which is to help low-income families afford fresh produce, organizers said. The market offers Kentucky Double Dollars for participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the Women, Infants and Children Farmers Market Nutrition Program, and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program.
