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Under a high, azure sky without a single cloud, Jag curled her claws into the sun-warmed, black fabric of Brereton’s sweatshirt and snoozed with one eye open in the warm morning sunshine. Meanwhile, hundreds of visitors to the long-running farmers market bustled back and forth across the pedestrian bridge over the Rock River at the ARISE Town Square.

Typically, the first few spring weekends at any Midwestern farmers market can be a bit light on produce as the growing season eases into play.

But Brereton and his pet iguana, which he keeps on a red, house cat-sized harness when he brings the pet out in public, considered the market’s 2022 opener a win.

“We got her some kale,” Brereton said, pointing at Jag as she rested against his chest. “She loves to eat kale. In fact, we get Jag most of her greens and micro greens from a vendor here at the farmers market, and that’s exactly what we got today. It was a beautiful day for it.”

Hundreds of others came and went Saturday from the market’s season opener, a kickoff that featured an even blend of produce sellers, bakers, artisans, farm-fresh meat sellers and food truck operators. The aroma of fresh-brewed coffee mingled the brittle, sweet tang of hot kettle corn for sale while a music group called the Frank and Co. Band played for tips and the love of The Beatles and Elvis Presley under one of the town square’s pavilions.

In all, market manager Emily Arthur said Saturday was the biggest vendor turnout she has seen in her time at the helm of the nonprofit farmers market. Even amid a cold-start spring that has kept the choke pulled out on the growing season, the market had 83 of 85 vendor spots filled Saturday—a blend of growers, artisans and makers that kept town square’s concourses on both sides of the river hopping all morning.

Arthur said she is hearing from local farm market growers that a chilly and predominately wet spring has set some spring and early summer produce—strawberries and asparagus, particularly—behind at least a few weeks.

But she said growers haven’t signaled they think a dearth of early-season veggies is afoot. And while the downtown Janesville market typically has favored produce sellers over peddlers of arts and crafts, Arthur said area artisans who create items from pottery to paintings to woodcraft to hand-crocheted wall hangings will feature heavier in the market’s early weeks this year.

The market, she said, has several new boutique farm vendors signed on this year. One such vendor is Kirby Bivans, who runs Old School Farmstead, a lavender field and emporium in Allen’s Grove, a small Walworth County burg between Darien and Clinton.

Bivans launched his lavender farm last year, and he has harvested about 2,000 plants, allowing him to hit Janesville’s market for the first time with products including lavender flowers by the bundle, lavender-infused balsamic vinaigrette and lavender face scrubs and beard oils.

Bivans sold his products late last fall and over the winter at the Janesville Farmers Market’s winter market, which has been held the last few years at Uptown Janesville.

As he rang up one woman’s order, a spray bottle of lavender-infused dog deodorizer, Bivans said he recognized some repeat customers from the winter market. Now they’re outdoors, browsing among more than 80 vendors on the downtown’s riverfront—a place Bivans said he saw for the first time ever Saturday.

The farmers market runs 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the town square every Saturday between May and October.

Bivans this spring, summer and fall will get to see the farmers market continue to grow and transform throughout its second season on the riverfront. Last year, the market moved from its home of 15 years on North Main Street.

It was a move that came with some angst for those involved in the market who were still feeling the financial burn from 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic year that forced the market to run under strict crowd limits. The market’s leadership had worried a move would inject turmoil into a new market season in 2021 just as pandemic-driven government limits on crowds and public gatherings were easing.

But last year, the farmers market saw a big rebound in both foot traffic and spending as customers began to return unmasked to the market.

If foot traffic mimics last years, Bivans later this year could get to experience some market crowds of 4,000 or 5,000 visitors.

Already, he said, he likes what he sees.

“It’s fantastic, just really cool. This is with live music and all the other shops around,” Bivans said. “I’ve never been to this part of Janesville, the center of town. But the activity here, it really makes me want to come back.”