Hamilton Farmers’ Market celebrates 20th anniversary this Sunday

Hamilton Farmers' Market is in The Barn at Claudelands Events Centre every Sunday morning. Photo / Hamilton and Waikato Tourism

The Hamilton Farmers’ Market is celebrating its 20th anniversary on Sunday.

What started as a fortnightly event with 15 stalls in the Wintec carpark on Collingwood St in 2006 has since evolved into an award-winning, weekly market with up to 50 stalls at The Barn at Claudelands Event Centre.

There are still four founding stallholders attending every week: butchery Soggy Bottom Holdings, Monavale Blueberries, The Lettuce Man and Southern Bell Orchard.

Besides the locations at The Barn and the Wintec carpark, where the ACC building now stands, the Hamilton Farmers’ Market was also held at Sonning Car Park on River Rd from 2008, before moving to Te Rapa Racecourse between 2014 and 2016 and finally to Claudelands.

Market manager Jen Wilkinson, who joined the team in 2021, said it was a true community market.

“It’s a market family really, an established community.”

She said some of the regular customers had been attending since the market began and some of the businesses selling goods were in the next generation.

“I’m passionate about supporting small local businesses,” Wilkinson said.

“Seeing stallholders thriving, their success stories, is really rewarding.”

And there were many success stories, Wilkinson said, including Kaimai Eggs, which started attending as a small operation and had since grown to “quite a successful business”.

While Wilkinson was reluctant to pick a favourite stallholder, she highlighted Monavale Blueberries.

“I absolutely love [them] ... It’s the story and their organic practices.

“They are in their third generation now and quite hands-on. Everybody [in the family] contributes.”

In her five years with the market, Wilkinson said there had been a couple of memorable moments.

“One highlight was in 2023, when we won the Organic NZ Farmers’ Market of the Year. I got to go down to Wellington [to accept the award].

“It was a huge, huge thing for us. It’s probably my proudest moment.”

Another highlight was a surprise jam from Six60 recently, and a visit from the Hawaiian Farmers’ Market Committee, who were in New Zealand for Fieldays.

“They were really impressed [with the Hamilton Farmers’ Market].

“It’s quite a different look than other farmers’ markets around the world.

“They hadn’t seen a farmers’ market inside before, normally it’s all gazebos outside.

Jono runs the farm and butchery and sells his pork products at the Hamilton and Cambridge Farmers' Markets. Photo / Supplied

“We also have the wooden stall tables that we made ourselves.”

Wilkinson’s birthday wish for the market was for it to keep it going and growing.

During the peak season, the market has between 40 and 50 stallholders and on average, 2000 people come through the doors on Sundays.

Wilkinson said she’d happily see it grow to 60 stallholders and 3000 visitors.

She said the customer base was quite broad, including a mix of different generations.

“It’s people that want to shop local.

“It’s fresher ... the people you are buying from know about their products. Produce is [often] picked on the Friday ... You can’t beat that.”

For their anniversary market, apart from the usual fresh produce on offer, there will be cake, donated by Volare, a special display of photos of the market through the years, and customers can go into the draw to win tickets to a Chiefs home game as well as a Magic netball home game.

• The 20th anniversary market takes place on Sunday, March 22, from 8am to noon at The Barn, Claudelands Event Centre, Hamilton. For more information, visit waikatofarmersmarkets.co.nz.