Lower Cape TV To Host Orleans Farmers Market

ORLEANS – The Orleans Farmers Market has a new wintertime home.

 The market, the longest running of its kind on the Lower Cape, will situate itself inside Lower Cape TV on Namskaket Road through the end of April. Vendors started selling their wares in the space on Dec. 7.

 Gretel Norgeot, the market’s longtime director, said Saturday’s market was well attended, with steady crowds stopping by to visit the 20 vendors onsite. Those included students involved with the Nauset Regional Middle School greenhouse and the Green Club at Nauset Regional High School.

 Lower Cape TV, which provides public access and other programming for the towns of Orleans, Brewster, Eastham, Wellfleet and Truro, has occupied the building at 5 Namskaket Rd. since 2001. The nonprofit recently undertook an extensive renovation of its studio space and offices with the goal of opening the space up to broader use by community groups.

 “We’re very excited to be the spot that the Orleans Farmers Market will use for the winter months,” Teresa Martin, executive director of Lower Cape TV, said in a statement. “This is part of our mission, to use our new headquarters not only as a public access television station and regional newsroom, but also as a community space, whether it’s for meetings, pop-up galleries, community gatherings, regional meetings, shared workspace or farmers market.”

 The nonprofit has also used its space to host meetings, talks, screenings and panel discussions. Most recently, Lower Cape TV  received a $10,000 donation from the Alpha Ridge Fund through the Community Foundation of Cape Cod to further its efforts at creating a co-working space.

 The farmers market, which turned 30 this year, is a fixture during the summer months in the space behind the Artist Cottages off Old Colony Way, where local vendors set up to sell fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, baked goods and other assorted items. In recent years, the market operated indoors at 44 Main St. during the winter months. But Norgeot said the market had outgrown the building’s tight quarters, which she said only accommodated 10 vendors. 

 “This is a great collaboration between Lower Cape TV (LCTV) and the Farmers Market,” she said. “LCTV was looking for a way to spread the word about what they do and where they are and the market needed a larger inside winter space.”

 The market will operate on Saturdays at Lower Cape TV from 10 a.m. to noon. Norgeot said the market will be open on Dec. 14 and 21, will not be held the Saturday after Christmas and will resume again on Jan. 7.

In an email Monday, Martin said that Lower Cape TV hopes to continue hosting the market beyond this winter, but that for now the focus is on the current season.