An easing pandemic, and blistering heat has made for quite an interesting year so far at the Regina Farmers’ Market.

Wayne Gienow of Lincoln Gardens, is one of the market’s many vendors, and he says despite everything, business is going quite well.

“The vegetables are fine, we irrigate and take care of them,” said Gienow. “Stuff’s growing really fast, but demand has been pretty good.”

Gienow says the demand for local produce mixed with the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions has kept him busy all summer.

“It’s been busier this year, last year it was slow as everyone avoided the crowds here,” said Gienow. “On the other hand, a lot of other people came out to the farm and avoided the crowds, so our sales were higher there and lower here.”

Gienow says as hard as it is to plan for extreme heat like this, growers have to be prepared for anything.

“Next year we could have a record cold year, the weather’s just so varied from year to year now, you just don’t really know what to expect,” said Gienow. “But to expect it to be consistently hot, it’s going to be quite a few years before we get consistently hot summers, so we’re going to have spells where it’s going to be cool and wet.”

Gienow says the “buy local” movement has been incredibly beneficial to the Farmers’ Market through the pandemic.