London Inc. Early Summer 2024 - 10

Upfront Retail
ROOTING THE COMMUNITY
A passion project turned business, the Komoka Community Market
plays a vital role for vendors, consumers and community
AMY WATT GREW up on a vegetable farm, and when she
found herself " in a time of reflection in my life, " she says she
started growing produce and selling a little bit at local farmers'
markets.
It was at those markets that she noticed something: some of
those farmers she was selling alongside weren't farmers at all.
" They would pick up their stuff at the food terminal, come to
the market and pose as farmers, " says Watt. " They had all the
right lingo that people wanted to hear - homegrown vegetables
and things like that, but they weren't farmers. "
This experience was forefront in her mind in 2018,
when Watt and her husband decided to start the Komoka
Community Market (www.komokacommunitymarket.com).
More than anything, the couple wanted to do it right.
" We stuck to the priorities of quality and only local producers, "
she says. " We had a lot of resellers apply; we didn't accept
any of them. We really realized that this is important - for
all things to be local, made with local sources and to be really
helping the small local economy. "
Those principles - and their adherence to them - were
put to the test over the first two " super slow " years, says Watt.
10 | londonincmagazine.ca | EARLY SUMMER 2024
Amy Watt of the Komoka Community Market
And then the pandemic came along. Forced to deal with
uncertainty and mandatory closures (back in 2020, markets
were deemed non-essential and had been forced to close),
many regional farmers' markets scaled back or ceased operating
altogether. " We really had to make a decision: are we
going to invest in all the signage, barriers and all these things
that we're required to have? " Watt recalls.
The couple opted to invest the money to keep going - just
as several other markets in the area went the other way.
Meanwhile, the produce in the fields was still growing and
the crafters were still crafting.
" So, all of the sudden we had a lot of applicants who had vegetables,
produce and crafts to sell and didn't have anywhere
to sell them, " Watt explains. " Our pickiness was a huge problem
before, but now we could be a little pickier and it became
really evident that that was what was creating a good culture
and vibe. And that has just grown and grown since then. "
Today, the Komoka Community Market has swelled from
a dozen or so vendors to between 50 and 60, plus local musi
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London Inc. Early Summer 2024

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