LZ Farmers Market Ends First Season

Lake Zurich Farmers Market at Paulus Park is ending its first season Friday, a season that organizers called a rousing success.

“I went there every Friday to talk to all the vendors and make sure everyone is happy,” Village President Tom Poynton said. “We have to sustain it. I wanted to make sure it was going well.”

“From my perspective, it was a rousing success,” he said.

Poynton lead the effort to bring back a Farmers Market to Lake Zurich. A group of volunteers came forward to help plan the Market in a matter of months. The market opened on June 14 and had 26 vendors throughout its 16-week run at Paulus Park, 200 S. Rand Road.

LZ Farmers Market had an eclectic selection of vendors from a booth where people could sharpen their knives to organize bison meat, said Dave Peterson, manager of Parks and Recreation. He also managed the Farmers Market.

“The farms are the big draw,” Peterson said. “We learned that quickly. You would see eight to 10 people deep at the farm booths every Friday.”

“We are looking to expand next year,” he said. “We’d like to add another seven or eight vendors. We probably turned away a half dozen vendors, we had to turn away when they came to us in June and July because we wanted to start out kind of small and evaluate our space.”

“We feel there is a demand,” Peterson said.

LZFM volunteers, along with Poynton and Peterson, have begun talking about what worked this season and making changes next year.

The location was a plus, Peterson said. He estimated between 300 to 500 people attended every week.

Volunteers also marketed the LZFM very well, providing updates on Facebook, posting signs all over the village and running ads in local newspapers. It was an aggressive effort, he said.

LZFM will look at increasing the number of vendors, adding musical entertainment, children’s activities and themed days, he said.

“The vendor feedback was wonderful, almost all want to come back next year,” Peterson said.