Salt Lake plans to hold the farmers market year-round. We asked vendors what they think.​on June 7, 2025 at 5:59 pm

Steven Mountford said White Lake Farms has had a booth at Salt Lake City’s Downtown Farmers Market for about 15 years.

​Salt Lake City’s Downtown Alliance announced it will work with the city to construct a building in pioneer park and let the downtown farmers market run all year.  

Steven Mountford said White Lake Farms has had a booth at Salt Lake City’s Downtown Farmers Market for about 15 years.

The Pioneer Park venue has proved pretty successful for them and anyone who sells “a quality product,” he said.

Salt Lake City has proposed plans to construct a building in the park to let the market continue year-round, a plan announced at the city’s Downtown Alliance gala last month. Mountford thinks the area will continue seeing vendor success regardless of the time of year.

“I think it’s good,” he said Saturday, while selling raw honey and handing samples to curious patrons. “Local healthy food is a great option, and we need more of it, not less of it.”

In addition to goods available for purchase, he predicted the social aspect of a year-round market would bring “tremendous demand.”

Katie Cook, who said she visits the market about once a month during its current June-October run, said the social aspect might even cause her to visit more often in winter months when she said it’s harder to get out.

She did wonder how much fresh produce could be available outside of traditional harvest times, a consideration shared by Tamara Hed, who drives to Salt Lake City from Tremonton with her husband Randy Hed every Saturday during the market to sell vegetables for Blue Spring Farm.

Even if the traditional fresh-produce appeal of a farmers market wouldn’t last through the whole year, she said more and more people are beginning to grow crops in greenhouses or hoop houses to continue harvesting them out of their regular seasons, and she said they could still sell storage crops like onions, garlic, carrots, winter radishes or beets.

“They’ve been trying to get a year-round market for a long time, or at least the market management has been,” Tamara said. She said she thinks they are aware of potential issues vendors could face.

One such concern, shared by Kinsee Sprague, is if the construction of the building and other planned park improvements could disrupt the regular farmers market her family relies on for income with a Dragon Noodles booth, which sells ready-to-eat noodles and another booth selling raw pasta for their company, Tankinz.

But as long as there’s a place for vendors to set up and sell, she thinks moving to a year-round market is a good idea, though she doubts it would be as busy throughout the year as in summer months.

“Usually the sales do drop off around August,” she said.

Andres Escobar, a patron at the market, shared another concern.

“Maybe it would be nice to take care of some of the people that use this space for living or for some type of shelter,” he said. “I’d be interested to see what the city does there.”

The city and alliance plan to start construction in 2026 after finishing the details of their agreement this year.

Along with the building, the city has already approved about $18 million for improvements, including a pavilion at the north end of Pioneer Park and new sports facilities.