Become a Vendor

We're SO EXCITED about your new or growing enterprise. Our amazing and wide-ranging vendors are what make our market a unique, fun, and welcoming space! We welcome applications from everyone, at multiple stages of their business's growth, with a focus on folks who are just getting started. We hope you feel excited and welcome to apply!

If a written submission is a barrier to applying, just come chat with us and we can complete the paperwork together.

You can pick up a copy of the Vendor Guidelines & Application Form on our website or in-person at the Info Booth any Saturday.

We also host quarterly Open Houses for folks interested in becoming vendors at the market.

You can submit your application by text, mail, email or in-person. We only need those last two pages, the Guidelines are for you to keep for reference. The more information you provide us, the better! Feel free to include extra pages, photos and samples.

Read the Guidelines carefully. They aren't too long and have a wealth of information about the priorities at our market. Every market is different!

We strongly suggest grabbing a book and a tea and spending a full day at our market prior to applying, this will give you a good idea if our market is the right space for you and your products. Every market is different!

It's also super helpful if we've met you before we review your application, drop by the Info Booth and say hi! We're happy to chat through your application with you before you formally submit it.

Make sure your business or products align with our organisation's Principles of Operation:

Mission Statement

Farmers, friends, and food; bringing the best of Nova Scotia together.

Vision Statement

A thriving, vibrant, and unique marketplace providing good and local food all year long.

Values & Objectives

The Halifax Brewery Farmers’ Market is a non-profit member-run cooperative

organization. Our Market brings people together to build community and a strong local economy. It makes a statement about how we want to live and interact. We operate to support and promote small-scale, local food producers and artisans of Nova Scotia, and to be a positive force in the growth and sustainability of our local economy. The aim of the Brewery Farmers' Market is to provide high quality goods produced in Nova Scotia, with an emphasis on food.

We value:

• Cooperation, recognizing strength in diversity;

• Community, celebration, civic participation & social gathering;

• Equitable access to good food;

• Strengthening Urban to Rural Connections and increasing transparency, traceability, and agricultural education

Although we have no formal policy on application deadlines, it is unusual for us to be able to accommodate start dates sooner than a few weeks. The more notice you provide, the more likely we're able to find a great spot for your booth.

If you plan to vend prepared food, come chat with us first to understand our kitchen space and electrical limitations. Chat with Public Health about your menu ideas, but don't submit a formal application until you're approved by the market.

Our market is particularly mandated to support the local food shed, so we often find ourselves limiting craft vendors to once-month.

Notes we're always looking for:

• Your commitment to hiring locally, supporting the local foodshed, purchasing ingredients from fellow vendors.

• Commitment to low or zero-waste packaging

• Clear understanding of and commitment to the cooperative model

• Products available at a range of price points, to provide a more welcoming experience for a range of customers

• If you're an artist or crafter, we're looking for folks thatput considerable effort into making a unique product

Other tips:

• Look up our current vendor selection and be specific about how your business and product differs from those we currently have onsite.

• We consider your history of compliance with market guidelines & payments, positive vendor conduct - we do reach out to our fellow market managers and food safety specialists across the province to confirm.

• Let us know if you’re willing to be outdoors - this can significantly speed up your application

Frequent vacancies & customer requests:

• Deli meats

• Dairy (milk, butter, cheese)

• Seafood

• Full-time flower growers & perennial plants

• Wool, sheepskin products

• Anything that rounds-out a grocery shopping experience (sauces, grains & nuts, spice mixes, handmade snacks and chips)

We do permit primary and secondary producers at the market, where a primary producer harvests raw materials for direct sale or manufacture (ie. A crafts person can be a primary producer only if they harvests their own production material.)

Agrarian & Fishery Vendors are a person, family or collective who produces agricultural products from land that they own or control or has a license to harvest from. Examples include produce, eggs, dairy, honey, meat, fish, plant nursery products and fiber. An agrarian vendor may sell value-added products made from their own farm product. Our market exists specifically to support primary producers across Nova Scotia - priority is given to these applications.

• Priority is given to those regional farmers and producers who bring product to market that is 100% grown and harvested on farmland that they own and/or operate.

• Preference will be given to the most local producer when a space becomes available at the Market, without compromising quality or diversity.

• Farmers have priority over processed and on-premise prepared foods.

• Farmers who use environmentally responsible growing, breeding, raising, and harvesting methods will also have priority. Let us know about your growing practices (and hiring practices, if applicable!)

• We’re always looking for folks willing to attend market full-time year-round and are happy to support primary producers as they become year-round growers

• We’re also looking for seasonal producers that attend with a specific product when it is in-season (ie. berries, nettles, maple syrup)

• We’re especially interested in wild-foragers

• Prepared Food Vendors will be asked to provide samples of products.

• Ingredients should be sourced locally and from the market wherever possible. Your local chain grocery store is not “local” - we will ask you to list the primary producers from which you source your ingredients.

• Every attempt should be made to source ingredients grown locally over choosing an imported option. Imported means not produced or processed in Nova Scotia.

• We’re always looking for pantry staples to fill out our customer’s shopping bags. (ie. flour, salt, butter and spreads, crackers, dried legumes, drinks, vinegars, oils, preserves)

• We receive many applications from ready-to-eat food vendors with menus that far outweigh the ability of our space to reasonably produce.

• We are always looking for niche menus (reflecting a particular culinary history, region, a specific dietary requirement, etc).

• Access to electricity, water and the kitchen island are limited. Although your eventual goal may be to use a fully-licensed space to prepare food, include in your application if you’re willing to get started with a limited menu in a spot that doesn’t have water & electricity

Craft and Artisan Vendors bring products whose craftsmanship should be reflective of the artists’ considerable skill, time and effort to produce a high quality, finished product. Each item should be original and unique. When reviewing applications from artisans and crafters we’re looking for:

• Unique methods, designs, materials

• Products that reflect your heritage

• Use of natural and local materials in your designs

• Use of upcycled materials

• Evidence of significant effort in process