Wildflour’s first farmers market a resounding success |06 July 2020

Wildflour Café’s first pop-up farmers market, organised at the Espace building on Saturday, drew a large crowd and was a resounding success.

Elza Frichot-Dahoo, owner of the Wildflour Café based at Espace, initiated the farmers market to better connect farmers, sellers and entrepreneurs to the consumers, and to help them sell their wares especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of 12 stalls were set up to provide fresh produce, flowers, fruits and vegetable plants, local honey and jams, jewelry, printed textiles and locally made beauty products.

These were being sold in a very relaxed and convivial atmosphere, with Wildflour offering its usual freshly-brewed coffee, iced teas, baked goods and lunches.

Mrs Frichot-Dahoo noted that the vendors present consisted mostly of her café’s frequent suppliers and partners, as well as several other sellers who had been interested in taking part.

“The farmers market is something we have wanted to organise for a while. After the …………lockdown following the coronavirus outbreak here, it was really a time of reflection for everybody, and we are a local coffee shop that interacts with a lot of suppliers so we wanted to organise an event in which they could come and meet our loyal customers,” said Mrs Frichot-Dahoo.

Due to the current public health crisis, Wildflour Café had to seek permission from the department of health and opted to keep the farmers market small with only 12 vendors.

“We wanted something small and quaint, all in the spirit of the ‘Wildflour’ to bring back a sense of community,” said Mrs Frichot-Dahoo.

Seybees, a small backyard beekeeping business, was one of the standout stalls with its pots of local raw honey almost running out only two hours into the farmers market.

Owners, Annalisa Savy and Pascal Desnousse, described Saturday’s farmers market as a success and commended the Wildflour Café for organising an event that encourages people to buy local.

A few metres away, the ladies of Seyvenirs were displaying their textiles, bags and other Seychelles-inspired crafts.

Hugely impacted by COVID-19 and the dearth of tourists in Seychelles, Seyvenirs has had to modify its products to better cater to the local community.

“It has been going very well and I’m happy to have participated. Seyvenirs was geared towards tourists but now we have changed a bit of what we do for the local people,” said Susanne Bastienne of Seyvenirs.

Marie-May Madeleine from Grand Anse Mahé said the sales of her plants and flowers were satisfactory since people are becoming increasingly interested in gardening, perhaps an aftereffect of the lockdown.

The consumers were also very appreciative of the initiative, with some noting that they were on the lookout for vegetable and fruit plants as well as herbs to grow their garden and not have to depend on others in this coming recession.

“There is a large variety of flowers, but not so much for vegetables such as tomatoes. I do hope they continue on with the farmers market,” said Sharon Quatre who was purchasing some ornamental plants.

“It’s well organised and the turnout out is fantastic. A farmers market like this is very much needed, perhaps every end of the month. It is an initiative well done,” Annick Faure added.

When asked whether Wildflour Café will host additional farmers market, Mrs Frichot-Dahoo said: “judging from today yes we would like to, as long as our suppliers are open to the idea.”

The accompanying photos were taken by Thomas Meriton.

Elsie Pointe