St. Jacobs Farmers Market Back In Business

Waterloo, Ont.’s St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market will be open for business this Christmas season when it opens its newly built “Harvest Barn” structure on Dec. 12, three months after a fire that destroyed the market’s main building. The new building, affectionately named the “Harvest Barn” by the market’s Facebook community, will house 49 of the vendors who were displaced by the fire. “We are absolutely thrilled to be opening the Harvest Barn right before Christmas,” said Sheila Shantz, general manager of the St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market. “The Waterloo Region community has been a true source of inspiration for us and the support that we have received over the past three months speaks to the tremendous character of the community that we live in.”

On Sept. 2, the main building of St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market was destroyed in an early morning fire. The unaffected areas on the market grounds were able to continue operation only days later, but dozens of vendors that were housed in the main structure were displaced. Currently, Mercedes Corp., which operates the famed market, is planning the construction of a new main building elsewhere on site, which is expected to be completed in late 2014.