Loca-vore Festival Includes More than 40 Local Vendors at the Waterfront Pier

This weekend the city of Houghton will kick off the city’s farmer’s market season while inviting the community to the waterfront pier. Tomorrow will mark the first Loca-vore Festival organized by the city and chamber of commerce. The festival will have several of the summer’s farmer’s market vendors that’ll be found throughout the area starting in June. Earlier this week Visit Keweenaw and the City of Houghton released the official map of the festival’s vendor’s area and other activities for kids and families.

“Last year it had grown, and they’re suspecting this year it’s going to grow even more. It’s just a great group of both farmers and artists that are selling their wares down on the pier and in my opinion, the vibe is great.” – Amy Zawada, Business Development Coordinator, City of Houghton

While at the festival attendees can take advantage of the food assistance program if already enrolled. Over the last weekend, various vendors came together with the From the Ground farmer’s market collective to review and learn about the different programs the farmer’s market will work with to make healthy food options more convenient for residents.

“Those programs and the farmers market working together can kind of close some of these gaps in the availability of produce and doing it in a local fashion where you know this food is grown straight here in good old-fashioned Keweenaw soil. It’s brought to these markets extra fresh just harvested and it’s bringing folks from every element and generation of our community and it’s our elders. It’s great for the kids at school, making sure that everyone has fresh food every week, multiple times a week. Because they can use these programs at all of the different markets, Houghton Hancock and Calumet. – Amanda Makela, Co-Manager, From the Ground Farmer’s Market Collective

The Loca-Vore Festival will open on the Houghton Waterfront Pier at 12 pm tomorrow, and run for three hours. The event expects to include over 40 vendors offering items from regional honey, fresh produce, art and jewelry, and much more. While there check out the United States Coast Guard docked at the pier. Find more details on the Loca-Vore Festival here.