PORT TOWNSEND — Will O’Donnell, well known in Jefferson County’s agriculture community and among artisan cheese makers, is the new director at Port Townsend Farmers Market.
The market, which sets gross sales records each year and is the largest west of Seattle, announced O’Donnell’s hire last week.
The former market director, Wendie Dyson, who joined in March 2008, left at the end of that year for personal reasons.
O’Donnell, who has 15 years of farming experience, was co-owner, co-founder and co-operator of market mainstays Old Tarboo Farm in Quilcene, Finnriver Farm in Chimacum and Mt. Townsend Creamery in Port Townsend.
He has also served four years on the Farmers Market board and helped write and implement a Washington State Department of Agriculture grant that funded some of the market’s growth in the early part of the decade.
He is the husband of Kate Dean, Jefferson Landworks coordinator and Washington State University Small Farms Program director, and has lived in Quilcene, Chimacum and now in uptown Port Townsend, where the market launches its season May 2, the day after Hood Canal Bridge closes for six weeks to replace its east half.
Niche market
O’Donnell is unfazed by the bridge closure, saying he would try to uphold the pattern of success that the market has already earned.
“We have kind of a niche market with growing our own food,” he said.
“With the economic crunch that we’re having now, everybody’s going to have to do a little bit more with a little bit less, and farmers have been doing that forever, so we’re going to be just fine.”
The bridge closure is not likely to create scarcity when food is grown at home, he said, expecting instead an abundance of food this season, with more than 60 vendors uptown.
“We will have a little more cheese, meat, grain, cider vendors and more food in general,” he said.
The Saturday market runs from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and the Wednesday market, which kicks off June 10, is from 3:30p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The Saturday market runs until Nov. 21. The Wednesday market runs until Sept. 30.
The uptown Port Townsend market closes a block of Tyler Street on Saturdays and Polk Street on Wednesdays during the seven-month season.
Sales, shoppers
The market, which topped $800,000 in gross sales last year, drew nearly 50,000 shoppers with an average of 1,443 shoppers on Saturdays and 492 on Wednesdays.
The number of vendors participating in the market has tripled over the past seven years, with the Saturday market at capacity throughout the month of August.
Average vendor sales at the Saturday market increased 39 percent over last year, market numbers show.
Average Saturday sales improved for 80 percent of returning market vendors this year.
The Wednesday market produced total sales topping $100,000 in 2008, a 49 percent jump over 2007.
O’Donnell said the market would de-emphasize its success this year and instead try to help improve the success of those who supply it with produce and other food stuffs.
The market seeks federal nonprofit status, he said, “to develop it with an education mandate and provide more benefit to vendors.”
O’Donnell can be reached at 360-379-9098 or will@ptfarmersmarket.org.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
