One of the vendors at the Lupine market. Image: Lupine, Facebook page.
Organizers of a new night market in New Brunswick are bringing the philosophy of the slow food movement to locals.
Taking place Friday evenings at the Hampton pavilion, the Lupine market features local artists and farmers with the goal of promoting eco-conscious consumerism and an environmentally friendly lifestyle.
The market was created and organized by best friends Elizabeth Malatestinic and Gilliane Cormier, who in previous years both lived in Europe, including Italy. During their time there, they were introduced to the slow food movement, which promotes local food and traditional cooking and aims to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourage the local ecosystem.
“Both Gilliane and I spent some time in Europe and I think our time there and our exposure to the amazing food culture and where the slow food movement actually originated, that sparked our interest in markets and the market culture and the fact you can got to a fresh local food market every day if you wanted to and see fresh mozzarella being grated behind the booth, or speak to the person who had grown the vegetables. That food culture is super-rich for them,” says Malatestinic.
This is Malatestinic and Cormier’s first summer home in Hampton in a couple of years and they wanted to continue their diet of local foods. Though there are several local farmers markets in the Greater Saint John Area, they found they were spending a lot of money on gas to get to these places, which was counterintuitive to their goal of being more eco-friendly by eating local. They decided to create one closer to home.
“We really wanted to have a place full of food that was grown from farmers nearby, we wanted to create the Lupine Market to give people a platform and give people the chance to make an outing of their grocery shopping. So rather than seeing grocery shopping as a chore…you get your family together, you walk over to the market and you just enjoy this amazing atmosphere in the town square,” says Malatestinic.
“You just get more intimate with your food and your community and you ask questions about where things are from and where they’ve been grown. It just creates this kind of awareness and it’s this deeper-rooted appreciation for your food.”
The goal of the Lupine market is not only to be a source of local food but also a source of education.
“The market differs from others because we’re trying to incorporate it in being an enviro-fest as well as it is a market. So we want to provide a lot of education, even if it’s second-hand,” says Malatestinic.
“For example, we have a really good honey vendor who brings hives with him every week. So when someone buys a jar of honey for them, not only are they buying honey that’s locally created, they’re learning about the process.”
The first Lupine Market took place July 10 with 12 vendors. Now, they have 28 vendors and they have a wait-list of vendors. They estimate the market has been bringing in 600-700 attendees per week. Featured vendors range from textiles, product, baked goods, housewares and personal care, and wildflower bouquets and word workers. They also have a few prepared-food vendors.
“We wanted to include as many vendors as possible, but obviously with the restrictions of the pandemic, we’re making do with the space that we have and we’re trying to keep it more minimalistic than we would otherwise,” says Malatestinic.
This year, the Lupine market will run until September 18. Though they were limited this first year in how big they could go due to COVID-19 regulation, Malatestinic says they hope to be able to go bigger next year. They also hope to incorporate a wider variety of music and entertainment.
“Music and size will be something we’d like to see change,” she says.
Cherise Letson is the associate editor of Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
