BY FORREST ADAMS [email protected]

The Chanhassen Farmers’ Market is growing again this season. The market opened last Saturday with 10 vendors, an increase over last year (seven vendors) and more than double the four vendors there in the inaugural season eight summers ago.

It was a good beginning to the season, and organizers are hoping for more good luck this Saturday when the popular Gloryland Gospel Band returns to perform.

Each Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through October, vendors sell locally grown fruits and vegetables, flowers and plants, in the parking lot south of Chanhassen City Hall. This year’s market will look similar to previous years but with more arts and crafts vendors, said the market director, Jim Bledsaw.

In addition to the fresh raspberries, apples, sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers and other fruits and vegetables that come from within a 50-mile radius of Chanhassen, Bledsaw said to expect handmade bird houses, fishing lures, greeting cards and wooden baby toys.

Bledsaw has been directing the Chanhassen Farmers’ Market with David Boorsma since its beginning. He is in the process of incorporating the market as a non-profit organization. He estimated about $35,000 worth of business is conducted there during the course of the summer.

Rain or shine, vendors will be selling on Saturdays, said Bledsaw.

“We’re not terribly affected by the weather because we’re under tents, so come on down. It’s a great community builder,” he noted.

‘FOR THE COMMUNITY’

Bledsaw, pastor of Bethel Fellowship, a small Nazarene church just across the border in Chaska, said the Chanhassen Farmers’ Market was originally envisioned by the Chanhassen Chamber of Commerce when he was part of a chamber effort labeled the “Downtown Committee.” The group was looking at ways to revitalize the city’s downtown. It was during these discussions the farmers’ market idea was born. Although the chamber eventually dropped the idea, Bledsaw and Boorsma took ownership of it, according to Bledsaw.

“The reason I do the farmers’ market is because I love to live here and think the market really brings people together,” said Bledsaw. “When we (Jim and Lynn Bledsaw) moved to Chanhassen in 2000, it was a real culture shock. We had just come from 28 years of inner-city ministry in Chicago (15 years) and Detroit (13 years). I think the farmers’ market is a neat thing for the community and the people of Chanhassen.”