Opening Day at the Scarborough Farmers Market

On Saturday, 12 September, alongside the smell of fresh coffee and the buzz of a Saturday morning crowd near Hinderwell Street, something new opened along the coast: the very first Scarborough Farmers Market.

  We packed the car early — a few lamps, a power board, the table we've used since day one — and set up between growers, bakers and farmers on the grounds of Scarborough Primary School. It felt right. We're a two-person studio a few streets from here, and most Saturdays we're the ones walking past these stalls with a coffee in hand, not standing behind one.

The market is run by the Scarborough Primary School P&C — a proper community effort, built to put fresh, local produce and local makers within walking distance of home. Opening day had growers like West Road Farm and Truly Organic Farm, fresh fish from Riccardi's, eggs from The Farmers Pantry — good company for a lamp stand.

  What we loved most wasn't the sales. It was the conversations — people picking up a lamp, turning it over, asking how it's made, why the shell is shaped the way it is, whether the cord is really replaceable (it is). That's a conversation that doesn't happen online. It's the whole reason we make things by hand in a small studio instead of ordering a container from overseas.

  We'll be back most Saturdays, 8am–12pm, at Scarborough Primary School, Hinderwell Street, Scarborough. If you're nearby, come say hello — bring a coffee, we'll have the lamps switched on.

  More on the market and the full list of stallholders:  scarboroughfarmersmarket.com.au

  — Leo & Orne, two waves