GloucesterTimes.com, Gloucester, MA

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December 12, 2012

Cape Ann Farmers Market hosts holiday shopping event

Staying with the national movement to support local endeavors, Cape Ann Farmers Market will host its first “Holiday Fare” next Thursday with a special indoor farmers market for holiday shopping.

The event takes place Dec. 20 from 4:30 to 8 p.m. at Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church, at the corner of Middle and Church streets, and features 23 vendors offering everything from herbal products to smoked fish and eclectic recycled chairs for the extra visitors who often show up during the holiday season.

Other items for sale include local produce, meat and poultry, crafts, baked goods, cheese, pickles, preserves, candles, Trupiano sausage, honey, soup, hand-blown glass, guacamole, pasta, salsa and dog treats.

The organizers scheduled the Holiday Fare for the late afternoon and evening hours to accommodate busy holiday schedules. The church will offer cups of mac and cheese, chop suey, hot cider and coffee, and raffles to help support the historic downtown church.

Nikki Bogin of the Cape Ann Farmers Market said the local market event has grown, its summer season increasing from 15 weeks to 17 weeks. Then for the past two years, the Harvest Fair was added around Thanksgiving. Because of the pre-Thanksgiving market’s popularity, this December event was organized.

“Our farmers still had so much even well into the fall, and the Thanksgiving market has been successful for both years,” said Bogin. “Some people would like to see the farmers market run all year but we’re not quite there yet. However, this is a way to take it a little bit further and give our vendors more opportunities. For this event we are supporting 23 local businesses and giving them another season to sell their goods and offer unique items for local shoppers.”

The Cape Ann Farmers Market is an independent non-profit, started by and for the community of Cape Ann. To help underwrite expenses for the Holiday Fare, the Cape Ann Farmers Market will sell gently-used cookbooks along with merchandise, such as tote bags, T-shirts, and aprons. Special membership packages will be available, which make great gifts, as do raffle baskets, which include food and merchandise from market vendors, restaurant gift cards and Pilates class certificates.

Gail McCarthy can be reached at 978-283-7000 x3445, or gmccarthy@gloucestertimes.com.

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