Rock Garden Farms provides backdrop for fifth annual Fall Fest Market

By KATHRYN FRASER

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

On September 13, the Prestige Market hosted its 5th annual Fall Fest Market at Rock Garden Farms. 

The event featured more than 60 vendors all with unique items for sale, from jewelry to crochet to soaps, perfumes and much more. 

There were also more than 20 food vendors with one of the most popular being the Shaved Ice vendors. 

This free event was open to all and had a wide variety of activities, including face painting and a bouncy castle for children that attended. 

Live entertainment for the day was provided by Dylan, also known as DJ Good Vibes, who has been participating in this event since it started. 

Organizer and founder of Prestige Market Melissa said it is special to have the community continue to support this event every year. 

The idea for the event came from an idea Melissa and her friend had during COVID when everyone was isolated and couldn't support local businesses in person.

Focusing on the importance of providing support for local businesses, Melissa decided that once everything opened and restrictions were lifted, they would throw a market. 

After going ahead with the plan and looking for a location to hold the event, Melissa got in touch with Margaret of Rock Garden Farms who was more than happy to have the event hosted there. 

Since then, participation from local businesses has only grown, with many vendors continuing to come back over the years. 

One group enjoying its third year at the Fall Fest Market was Last Litter, a non-profit that rescues puppies and dogs and helps to find them structured foster homes, and even their “furever” home. 

Last Litter works to break the cycle of careless breeding and disposable pets and work towards finding proper care for the dogs that they rescue. 

Chantal, a volunteer with Last Litter has only been with the organization for two months and in that time, they have been able to find safe forever homes for over 17 dogs. 

This past weekend they had five dogs with them, and among those five were two small puppies that had been rescued from the Manitoba wildfires. 

Quiver and Dobby spent their entire day lounging around, playing with toys and meeting all the people that would come up to the booth and greet them. 

Chantal says events like these really help with finding these dogs forever homes and many may get adopted during the events. 

“We've actually had quite a bit of dogs adopted from these events. We've had one event [where] we brought five dogs and got all of them adopted over the weekend. Then we had another event that we had another five and was able to adopt them all out. So, we we're going home empty-handed each time and it's amazing,” says Chantal.  “As a foster, I know a lot of people say, how can you let them go after you've fostered them? But when you're here and meeting the people that they're going home with, you can see that they're going to be taken care of. You know that they are, so you can kind of do that a little easier.” 

Reflecting on the event, Melissa said she is grateful to all the support from the community as well as the sponsors that they have and is excited to see what is in store for next year. 

“Seeing how much the community comes out for us every single year, it's difficult to put into words because without their support we wouldn't be able to do this. Without it being, good for the vendors to connect with the community, we wouldn't be able to continue this. It's beyond any gratitude that I can express in words, because not only is it our local neighbours, family, friends, and the actual community that lives here and all around the GTA, it supports local and that's what it's all about,” says Melissa. “It's about allowing families to continue to have that little dream of theirs and maybe aside from their nine to five, this is something that they've wanted to do forever. It supports our dream and we're all about that, and having people come out and support that is beyond any ‘thank you' that we could give to them, because it's supporting somebody's home and their dream and their family.”