This week is National Farmers Market Week and we just sent out the Aug. 4, 2020, edition of the Sitka Farmers Market weekly newsletter. Click this link to see the newsletter.

This newsletter features information about what items are available for purchase on Tuesday to Thursday, Aug. 4-6, using the Salt and Soil Marketplace website, and will be available for pick-up on Saturday, Aug. 8, at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm. It includes details about how to use SNAP and WIC benefits to access produce. It also provides information from the Sitka Local Foods Network about how the Sitka Farmers Market will work this year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our market has gone through some major changes this year and is greatly scaled back due to COVID-19 rules and limited space. There currently are two produce vendors — the Sitka Local Foods Network (SLFN) farm stand and Middle Island Gardens — using St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm as a distribution location, though new vendors may be added later this summer, such as Raincoast Flowers.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, all of our volunteers are wearing masks and gloves. Please wear a mask when you show up to pick up your produce, or stay inside your car until we get your name and bring you your order. We want to keep everybody safe and healthy this summer.

Here is a link to a story about the Sitka Farmers Markets from KCAW-Raven Radio, here is a link to a Morning Interview about the 2020 Sitka Farmers Markets. Here is a link to a Daily Sitka Sentinel story about the market.

We are using the Salt and Soil Marketplace online ordering portal this year, http://www.saltandsoilmarketplace.com. To order, you will need to create a Sitka account, then make sure you are logged in as a Sitka customer when you order. Don’t forget to hit the Confirm button when you are finished ordering, so your order is logged into the system. All orders need to be prepaid this year, and there will be no sales at our pick-up events. Also, our available produce is limited, so once items are sold there most likely will be no more that week.

We will have online ordering periods from 5 p.m. on Tuesday through 8 p.m. on Thursday each week we have a pick-up day scheduled. Our pick-up days will be from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm (located behind St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church, 611 Lincoln Street). We held a soft opening pick-up day on June 20, due to limited produce availability. And now we are hosting pick-up events every Saturday in July (4, 11, 18, 25), August (1, 8, 15, 22, 29), and September (5, 12, 19, 26).

Due to COVID-19, we will have some health and safety rules in place. Our volunteers will wear masks and gloves, and we ask you to wear masks and stay in your cars (with engines off in the parking spaces at the top of the hill) while our greeters bring you your produce order. If you walked or biked to the pick-up event on Saturday, we will point you to a place to stand. We want to encourage social-distancing so we don’t spread the coronavirus.

For assistance, contact market co-managers Ariane Goudeau and Nalani James at sitkafarmersmarket@gmail.com, or SLFN board president Charles Bingham at 738-7310 or sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com.