SPRINGFIELD – The Lane County Farmers Market teamed up with the City of Springfield last week to debut a Springfield Farmers Market.

The library parking lot and Fountain Plaza were filled with vendor booths selling fresh produce, plants, and homemade goods. According to a news release from Orion Lawrenz of LCFM, the expansion aims to increase food access in rural parts of Lane County.

Some vendors might have looked familiar; that is because many of them were at the Saturday Market in Eugene the day before. From 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., community members could check out and purchase goods from Fox Hollow Farms, Aji Peruvian Inspiration, Cross Roads Farm, Wild Child Farm, The Flower Lady, Oregon Spore, and Bee Loved.

Christina Bentrup, Springfield resident, farm owner, and booth operator of Bee Loved, said opening day was a success.

“The opening day has been awesome. Lots of community members showed up,” she said.

“The nice thing is we do one harvest for both markets, and then the trucks are already loaded, so in some ways it’s easier to do two markets back-to-back.”

Kiddos ran around wearing colorful balloon crowns and animal balloons. The source was another familiar face, Vincent Sansone. Sansone has been making balloon animals at the Eugene Saturday Market for the last 15 years.

“I do it partly for the income, but mostly for the fun,” he said. “I started doing the farmers market in Eugene, and they encouraged me to keep coming back.”

Decked out in his own white and purple dragon balloon hat, Sansone started blowing up another critter for his next customer. His creations include pigs, dragons, flowers, swords, giraffes, elephants, wings, and more.

Sonya Brown helped run the information booth, where she explained a passport program at the Springfield market in partnership with Lane Transit District.

“We’re partnering with LTD, and we have a bunch of different activities on the inside that you can get stamped off, doing things like riding the bus. You can grab a free tote bag and get that stamped off, and you can turn it back into us for a chance to get a grand prize,” Brown said.

The partnership encourages residents to use public transportation, such as the bus, and to engage in market activities, such as trying a new food or picking up a recipe card.

“I hope to be here every Sunday until October, and hopefully next year,” Bentrup said. “I’m hopeful they’ll actually expand the season, that is, if this is a really good season, they’ll start it sooner and end it later.”

One community member shared how pleased she was that Springfield residents now have easy access to a farmers market.

“I’m so happy it’s every weekend. We’ll be back next week, for sure,” she said.