Fresh Ideas and Produce Sought for Reviving Attleboro Farmer's Market

Picture it: a warm day in downtown Attleboro picking and choosing from baskets of fresh fruit, vegetables, homemade bread, farm-fresh eggs and locally grown flowers, all while children are entertained by a clown or magician or busy making crafts.

Sound too good to be true? It's not, according to Richard Conti, an Attleboro city councilor and the head honcho behind the effort to turn the small farmer's market in dowtown Attleboro to a place where farmers and vendors can sell their locally grown and homemade goods and residents can get fresh ingredients. 

"I’m not just talking vegetables and fruits, I'm talking artistan foods like home grown meats, such as ostrich, bison," Conti said. 

Currently, there is a small farmer's market located in between the A and Registry of Deeds buildings. The market is not easily visible to passersby. Conti believes the city is losing potential buyers who are shopping at , Boston and Pawtucket, RI. 

Heather Porreca, a local resident who has joined the effort, said she goes to the Pawtucket Farmer's Market on a regular basis.

"I'd prefer to stay here in town, but our farmer's market here in Attleboro is small, there is not a lot of variety and not a lot of competition," Porreca said.  "I’d love to be able to buy local and support local residents."

The plan is to grow the market so that it not only utilizes the existing spot, but also includes the parking lots of the and . The market would be free to vendors and free to shoppers.

"If I could buy fresh eggs from a local farmer and Attleboro honey, I wouldn’t buy it from a grocery store," Conti said."The idea is to build a plan to make Saturday mornings in downtown Attleboro really busy.

"If you get the people, you get the vendors," Conti added. "If you get the vendors, you get the people – it's a Catch 22."

The first thing on Conti's agenda is to get people who are just as an enthusiastic as he is to form a committee, create a plan and put it into action by May.

"What I need is people who can catch this vision with some enthusiasm, build up meetings to then present a plan to the mayor," Conti said. I need 10 people who don't have anything to do and that will not only build this plan, but will manage it."

Once a group is in place, Conti's plan is to create guidelines and a validation plan where the vendor's product is validated as homemade or homegrown. "We don't want someone going to, buying corn and selling it at the farmer's market to make a profit," he said. 

"This farmers market, I think, can breath some new life into the downtown market," he said. "People have gotten out of the habit of going downtown for a newspaper or dinner out. This could be one little thing that signifies a turnaround.

Now, if we can get 10 retired people to buck up and put earnest energy into this, this could be a success.

Can the city sustain a weekly farmer's market from May to October without losing interest from shoppers?

"I would absolutely be there every week," Porreca said. "As a mom, I like to try to feed my kids the best available produce. It’s a little less expensive and it is a family approach to supporting the community."

The plan is to have a variety of things to buy. That will be easy, according to Porreca, because one week it might be apples, the next week squash. 

"With every growing season there is something great to look forward to," she said.