WOODSTOCK—Woodstock Farmers’ Market—a year-round, indoor fresh food market—was named Business of the Year by the Woodstock Area Chamber of Commerce at the organization’s annual meeting in February. Board President Gary Thulander presented co-owner and founder Patrick Crowl with the award in recognition of the Market’s outstanding spirit and contribution to the Woodstock Area Community.
The Woodstock Farmers’ Market opened in 1992 with a staff of six and a modest selection of local and regional products, an off-site kitchen that made and delivered a dozen sandwiches a day to the store, and sales that first year of $200,000. In the past 23 years the staff has grown to 70 full- and part-timers, a huge selection of local and international products, daily sandwich numbers in the hundreds, and almost $7 million in annual sales.
“It really takes a village to make a food business like ours grow and succeed,” said Crowl. “I thank my partners and my team for their continued passion to bring great food to our customers. And we thank the Chamber for selecting Woodstock Farmers’ Market as a leader in our community.”
Crowl and his team have received national recognition for their dedication to procuring the very best products to be found, both locally and globally. Throughout the decades Woodstock Farmers’ Market’s has remained steadfast to personally knowing as many of their growers and producers as possible to fully understand the backstories of the products they sell. Consequently, the Woodstock Farmers’ Market was recognized as an outstanding Retailer of the Year by the Specialty Food Association in 2009, and has received the attention of Yankee Magazine, Martha Stewart, The Huffington Post, Forbes, Boston Globe and many other news outlets for its unwavering dedication to quality, sourcing and customer service.
