The Carmel Farmers Market opened last Saturday and will continue until Oct. 5. The market is open from 8 to 11:30 a.m. each Saturday.

Ron Carter, founding member of the Carmel Farmers Market and president of the Carmel Farmers Market Committee, said customers can visit 64 vendors at the market that feature farm-fresh Indiana-grown produce. This year, however, Carter said visitors can look forward to the addition of four new vendors.

“We had four vendors come in to present their products at the City Hall in mid-March and they were buying for one spot,” Carter said. “But it turns out they were all so good we decided to actually add some additional space that we didn’t think we could do just to get all four of them in.”

Also new this year is the Young Farmers Market, a place where children from the ages of five to 12, who grow produce in their own yards in Carmel, can sell their food for profit in the Carmel Farmers Market as well. Carter said setting up those vendors are great ways children and adults can start up their businesses.

“Maybe people don’t realize it, but Holy Cow, Cupcakes! began its rise to progress in the community by selling their cupcakes at the Farmers Market, and we’ve had other vendors go from doing that to their own store,” Carter said.

Junior Shelby Lewis, granddaughter of Carter, said her family owns The Walking Waffle Company and began selling waffles when she was six years old.

“We started from going to the Cincinnati Farmers Market with the waffle business there, so my grandpa was like, ‘It’d be fun to have one like this in Carmel. We could do it too.’ So it started off really slow and only for our family, and we weren’t expecting it to turn out really far but it turned out really well and we make a lot of money from it,” Lewis said.

Lewis said the market is a great way for businesses to grow and for customers to have fun with their community.

“It might be kind of expensive, but in the long run the food there is really good for you. A lot of people are there to meet new people and learn about the community and just get involved and that’s something I really enjoy about it,” Lewis said.

According to Carter, the market reached a record attendance count last year with 61,000 visitors. He and Lewis said they both have high hopes for the market this year and believe it will be a memorable one.

“It’s the place where you can go on Saturday morning to say to your neighbor, ‘Hey, what’s happening in your week?” Carter said. “I definitely look forward to it.”