A new Sunday farmers market has set roots in Lafayette this summer, offering the community another shot at buying produce, meat and other groceries directly from local farmers and producers.
The Lafayette Farmers Market debuted in early May on Public Road in Old Town. Peter Wanberg, who runs the market with his wife Margo, said the response has been “overwhelmingly positive.”
“People have come out and supported us really well,” he said. “There’s been steady foot traffic, good vendor support and just an amazing sense of community in Lafayette — people in tune with the rhythms of wanting to get their weekly groceries from local sources.”
The couple founded Denver’s City Park Farmers Market in 2021. They’ve been able to take a lot of those lessons, relationships and their love of local food systems to Lafayette.
“Lafayette’s been great because we’ve gotten a chance to take all of that maturing and all that understanding and launch with a very complete, organized farmers market on year one,” Wanberg said.
The new market includes more than 70 vendors offering a wide array of Colorado-grown and Colorado-produced goods. While Wanberg is still looking to plug a few holes, he said the mix already meets most needs for a weekly grocery run.
“We don’t have very many gaps in what the offerings are,” he said, “as far as what Colorado growing allows.”
Wanberg said the community was already primed for a farmers market. There are CSA pickups happening in town, farms in the area and even prior attempts to maintain a market in Lafayette.
“Our role is to be an additional brick in that foundation of what Lafayette is already offering,” he said. “The farmers markets — the primary purpose is to be a link in the local food supply chain, but they’re also more than that. They are a community hub as well.
“We were just connecting the dots that felt like they were already there, with amazing local growers and food producers and a community that’s receptive and ready for those relationships.”
The couple became market organizers after nearly a decade running a small coffee roasting company. Wanberg often tabled at markets around Denver and saw room to create a more vendor-focused model that would champion and uplift the farmers as central to the market’s identity and storytelling.
When they launched City Park, they started offering farm tours and producing a newsletter spotlighting farmers and their work.
“We want to be vendor advocates and vendor champions,” Wanberg said. “It was very surprising … how few farmers were even telling their own stories. Because for most of them, marketing is the last thing that they’re going to do, because they’re so busy.”
Some Lafayette vendors also appear at the Denver market, he said, but many are unique to Boulder County. Wanberg estimates about 20 to 25 vendors appear at both markets.
“Food systems are very regional. Denver and Lafayette are not very far away, so there’s definitely a mix,” Wanberg said.
Unlike City Park, which has no surrounding restaurant choices, Lafayette’s market sits in a more retail-rich area. As a result, the Lafayette market has fewer prepared food vendors.
The market runs every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through the end of October. Wanberg said there are no plans for additional craft or holiday markets beyond the six-month season. The focus, he said, is on doing one thing well.
