ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — On the edge of Churchill Square, there’s a faded sign with drawings of peas, carrots and cabbage, but the yellow paint is peeling off the “open air market” sign that is decades old.
On a weekday morning, people are lined up in front of Fagan’s Farm truck while Joselyn Fagan and her daughter-in-law, Jackie, trim carrot tops and bag turnips, potatoes, onions and other vegetables.
“What’s the skinny on the blueberries?” Vera Schofield asks in jest, chiding Fagan.
“Can you not just manufacture them?”
“Yeah, I’ll just do that,” Fagan replies, as both of them burst into laughter.
But then Fagan, sunglasses protecting her eyes from the autumn sunshine, explains the effect the summer’s earlier cold weather has had on blueberries and other berries.
“I was talking to one of my pickers Tuesday and he said they are waiting for them to ripen. It’s not worth going over … they’re not good. … Sure, they were picking bakeapples this year in August,” she said incredulously. “Bakeapples were always over in July. … And people were picking them last week. … That will tell ya,” she said.
As with Schofield, there’s an exchange of familiarity, a quick catching up of all the news when customer after customer steps up.
Fagan asks one man how his eye appointment went.
Another customer, Dave Moores, explains to a reporter he’s been coming to Fagan's stall since his son was a toddler, and his son is now grown up and has a six-year-old of his own.
"Three generations for sure,” Fagan said of her customer base.
Asked to explain his loyalty, Moores holds out his backpack and says, “Smell these onions.
“I mean, really. For the few weeks of the year (growing time) this produce here is as good as any place in the world,” he said.
When Fagan first was encouraged by fellow farmers in and around Foxtrap about 30 years ago to begin selling at Churchill Square, there were about 25 vendors on the parking lot, she said, describing the layout of the place’s former entrance and exits while gesturing toward Ben’s pub, where there used to be a drugstore, and across the square to a pita place where there used to be a liquor store.
The Fagans have had a bunch of different trucks over the years and out of those trucks have passed thousands of pounds of vegetables.
Most times, though, in recent years, besides the Ziggy Peelgood’s french fries truck on the opposite side of the square, it’s just been Fagan’s in this open-air market, which existed long before the St. John’s Farmers' Market — several streets away in an overhauled bus station on Freshwater Road — became a trendy shop-local destination among hipsters and others.
The Fagans are busy on Saturdays at Churchill Square and have not been down to that market.
Spread out over about three parking spots, they have folding tables lined with vegetables, along with eggs, salt beef, preserves and knitwear from other suppliers.
Other mobile vendors who frequent the square are a fish truck in season, and, at Christmas time, a tree lot.
Fagan had some company in the square this week from Lester’s truck.
Over the years, some of the original Churchill Square farmers retired, died or gave it up because of city policies, Fagan said.
For a while in the early 1990s, the city passed the running of the market on to a committee, which then started holding a lottery and tried to squat them over to the other side of the square, she said.
Some people turned away from that, and the draw reduced the number of vendors to about 10, she said.
The market went back to city control, but others were turned off by the requirements to carry a $2-million liability insurance, which she said costs her $1,000 a year on top of the $250 per parking space licence fee.
There is no cap nowadays on the outdoor vendor space at Churchill Square, according to a city spokeswoman. But that’s because there’s no demand. If a big demand did return, the city would have to revisit the issue of licence availability. Years ago, there was high demand, which led to the previous cap, as there was a need to balance the number of vendor spaces against regular parking spaces, some of which are not metered.
When the St. John’s Farmers' Market started (at the Lions Chalet off Allandale Road, and now in its permanent Freshwater Road home), Fagan said, she wasn’t interested in moving because it was just one day a week, as opposed to the five she needs, because the farm operation is her only source of income. Two days wouldn’t cut it, either.
"These people have been here a long, long time. It’s good value for your dollar. You don’t get bad produce like in the supermarket." — Gary Fry, customer
Jackie Fagan explained spring and summers are spent working the Foxtrap farm’s fields, and fall and winter are on-the-road days — meaning selling in the square until all the vegetables are gone, which sometimes lasts into Easter.
When Joselyn Fagan and her husband, David, who came from a farming family, first decided to go into farming in the late 1980s, they had to clear the wooded land and couldn’t afford a tractor, so they used their horse and a plow, and picked rocks by hand.
But as she recalled the story, she smiled and explained that working for yourself is a different lifestyle — she had worked for 17 years for a supermarket chain.
She and Jackie stand out in all kinds of weather — Thanksgiving being their busiest time of year.
Often people drop by with granola bars and other treats, including jams and food made with products customers bought from the Fagans.
A lot of their customers Thursday said they had never been to the St. John’s Farmers' Market and remain loyal to the Fagans.
Garry Fry said he goes out of his way to buy local.
“Other vendors don’t last long (in the square). These people have been here a long, long time. It’s good value for your dollar. You don’t get bad produce like in the supermarket,” he said, stretching out his hands to describe an 18-inch head of lettuce the Fagans sold last week to a customer.
They charged $3 — the same price as all the other heads of lettuce.
“Everybody needs to come here,” said Schofield. “Everything is good.”
“We’re east enders. It’s convenient for us,” said Bill Collins, another loyal shopper.
Meanwhile, Lester’s — which operates a farm store on Brookfield Road — plans to also occupy the square, from Thursday to Monday, according to Susan Lester.
But she said they’re not trying to corner Fagan’s market, but want to give their east-end customers a closer connection. They also sold at the summer night market downtown, so already had a mobile vendor’s licence, and plan to be at the farmers' market on Sundays as well.
“We know everyone wants to eat fresh as much as possible,” said Lester.
“There are not enough farmers for the demand. … It’s another way to reach out during the short season. … Competition is by any means not our intention.”
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