A Place to Gather: Watching the Market’s Future Take Shape
If you visit the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust Saturday Farmers Market this summer, you’ll notice something new happening—not at the Market itself, but just across the road.
The meadow at Dionne Farm that will become the Market’s future home is beginning its transformation! Construction equipment and site work will be visible throughout the season as we prepare for an exciting new chapter.
For a little while, the landscape may look different. But what you’re witnessing is the beginning of a vision that will serve our community for generations.
The Market You Love Is Still Here
While work begins across the road, this summer’s Farmers Market continues just as it has for more than 25 years, and will remain at Crystal Spring Farm.
From the beginning, this Farmers Market has been far more than a place to buy fresh food. It’s where neighbors reconnect, children proudly spend their first POP Club Bucks, vendors share stories and recipes, and friendships grow week after week.
It’s a place where community happens, where we meet the people who grow and make our food, and where we cultivate deeper connections to the seasons and working landscapes around us.
Today, more than 42 local vendors participate each season, generating an estimated $1.7 million in local economic activity. On peak Saturdays, more than 1,500 people gather to celebrate local food, agriculture, and one another. Recognized as Maine’s Best Farmers Market by the American Farmland Trust for four consecutive years, it has become one of Midcoast Maine’s most cherished traditions.
Why We’re Moving
The Farmers Market’s success has also revealed the limits of its current location. Parking has become increasingly difficult, traffic flow is strained, and extended spring mud seasons have challenged vendors and visitors alike.
Just across the road, we’re creating a new home that preserves everything people love about the Farmers Market while providing the space it needs to thrive.
The new site will improve access, expand vendor space, and better welcome the growing number of people who gather here each week.
An integral part of the new Farmers Market will be a Pavilion—a year-round gathering place for educational programs, celebrations, workshops, music, community events, and, of course, the Saturday Farmers Market.
Looking Ahead
Construction sites are temporary. And by next summer, today’s work will give way to meadows, welcoming pathways, and a beautiful gathering place designed to reflect the character of Dionne Farm while better serving our growing community.
A local filmmaker whose daughters participate in POP Club once captured the spirit of the Market in a short film, concluding simply: “This market is what gives our community heart.”
That heart has never belonged to a single field.
It belongs to the people who gather here.
As you enjoy the Market this summer, take a moment to look across the street. Beyond the construction equipment and freshly turned earth, imagine families gathering beneath the Pavilion, children racing toward POP Club, vendors welcoming familiar faces, and neighbors lingering in conversation while shopping for their favorite foods.
The place we’re creating is enduring, and one that better supports a vibrant local food system.
Together, we’re building more than a new BTLT Farmers Market. We’re creating more room for community to gather, eat, connect, and grow.
