After surge of shoppers, Falls Park Farmers Market looks to the future

Technically, the Falls Park Farmers Market opens at 8 a.m. each Saturday from May through October.

In reality, customers start showing up as early as 6:45 a.m.

“They all understand we’re still getting ready and they have to be patient,” said vendor Nate Van Zweden, who also serves on the market’s board of directors.

“The vegetable vendors, the coffee vendors, are usually ready by 7:30 a.m. If you’re there … and there’s stuff sitting out, you can buy it.”

This season, customers were lining up — and buying up — as fast or maybe faster than ever, veteran vendors say.

Van Zweden, whose wife, Alissa, is the namesake of their business Alissa’s Flower Farm, has the longevity to know. Their business is now the longest-running at the market, going back 23 years to when there was no open-air structure.

This season was “definitely considerably better from last year, at least from our standpoint,” he said. “We had our end-of-market meeting … and everyone at the meeting, which was probably 90 percent of our vendors, said it was a good year this year.”

For Songbird Kombucha, “it’s a little inconceivable; it’s gone so well,” co-owner Elsa Fokken said. “I’m just a little in shock how many people came this season, but at the same time, I think we could double our numbers if we wanted to, just because there were so many people in Sioux Falls that still might not even know the Farmers Market exists.”

When she and her husband, Jacob, started their business in 2020, they launched it at the market with the help of a mentor.

“It just took off the first week we were there. We ended up selling out, and each consecutive week, we continued to sell out,” she said.

“Having the Farmers Market as our incubator to test products on customers before we solidified a physical location was a really important jumping-off point.”

She now serves on the board and credits the crowds at the market to a number of factors, including newcomers to Sioux Falls in the past few years.

“A lot of transplants from other states — California, Oregon, other East Coast states — one of the first things these transplants search for when they get to Sioux Falls is a local farmers market because markets are so prevalent in other large cities,” Fokken said.

“As a health-centric business, we would like to assume people are trending more toward health-conscious and local economy, so there’s a possibility the collective consciousness of our city is a little more green and less big store, and that could play a part.”

As Van Zweden talks with customers, he also discovers many tourists, either in town visiting or on their way west. But about 90 percent of the business is local, he estimates.

“Our vendors are really good at being consistent, and it’s just really helpful to know week to week that you can get local produce and what’s going to be available,” Fokken added.

Next month, the city of Sioux Falls plans to release a draft of its new master plan for Falls Park, which will address the Farmers Market.

“The plan does show expansion of the Farmers Market area, just knowing how they add vendors every year and it’s more popular every year,” park development specialist Mike Patten said. “We’re utilizing Falls Park North as expanded space for the Farmers Market and (would) add more parking to the park but do it on the perimeter as opposed to the middle.”

The city met with the Farmers Market leaders early in the process to gather feedback, he said.

“They’re very passionate about what they do, and they like their location,” Patten said. “I’m confident they’re going to like what they see.”

For their part, the Farmers Market organizers also are looking at continued improvements. Fokken said she hopes to do more promotion as far as new vendor offerings and what music will be featured each week.

Van Zweden said organizers are cognizant of feedback from guests about being asked to sign multiple petitions near the structure and are looking for alternative areas for them.

They’re also hoping to find expanded space to add vendors.

And there continues to be interest in finding a way to offer some sort of market experience in the off-season.

“That would be really interesting,” Van Zweden said. “Some of us don’t have product for winter. We (at Alissa’s) would have product probably through December, but it’s just an interesting concept to work on and grow.”

The Farmers Market wraps up for the season Saturday.

“Every single vendor this year has said it was just an incredible year for their businesses compared to previous years,” Fokken said. “Honestly, I think we could probably double our vendors. That’s at least my hope because there are so many amazing local producers in this city and some of the surrounding cities. I really think we could double our vendors within the next 10 years. The only consideration would be traffic and ease of movement and having enough parking.”