If you have been parking in front of Premiere Theatres on Saturday mornings for the last decade, you already have a mental map of the farmers market. Folding tables. A few coolers of eggs. Somebody's tomatoes. You know where the good sweet corn usually sits and which vendor runs out of maple syrup first. That map is out of date.
This year the Carlton County Farmers Market signed up 56 vendors, ten more than last year. That is not a marginal bump. It is the kind of jump that changes what a Saturday morning in Cloquet is actually for, and if you have not walked through since spring, you are still shopping the old version of it in your head.
The market grew by ten vendors, not by accident
The market has run continuously since 1982, set up every Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon in front of Premiere Theatres, June 6 through October 17 this year. That is 44 seasons of the same weekly ritual in the same parking lot, which makes the size of this year's jump worth pausing on. Going from 46 vendors last year to 56 this year is roughly a 22 percent increase in a single season.
Market organizer and vendor Allen, who co-owns Songbird and Co. and sells soaps, shampoos, perfumes, and farm-fresh eggs at the market herself, put the growth simply: "Every year we seem to get just a little bit bigger." That is a modest way to describe a market that now runs a full slate of specialty vendors alongside the produce stands, on top of the smaller Tuesday market the same organization runs in Carlton.
What is more telling than the number is what filled the new space. This year's new vendors were not more of the same vegetable growers. They were:
- Blackhoof Naturals, which makes tallow skincare products
- Daisy Doo Sweets, a baker specializing in simple and gourmet muffins and cookies
- Gookomis' Gifts, which specializes in foraged and cottage foods
None of those categories existed at a table here five years ago in any meaningful way. A skincare line built on tallow, a baker running a muffin-and-cookie specialty rather than a general bakery table, a vendor selling foraged goods rather than farmed ones. Allen's read on it: "There's really just something for everybody." That is the actual shift. The market did not get bigger by adding more of what was already there. It got bigger by adding categories that were not there before.
It runs like a neighborhood, not a transaction
The other thing that separates this market from a roadside produce stand is how it is organized socially. Allen described it this way: "The Carlton County Farmers Markets in Cloquet and Carlton are really and truly a family. All of the vendors support each other, people help others set up and tear down, and our customers are wonderful."
That framing shows up in the market's actual programming. The Saturday market functions less like a grocery run and more like a standing weekly gathering, where regulars snack on pastries and sip coffee while catching up with neighbors and the people who grew their food. Allen calls it "a really great fun event every Saturday morning," and the market's structure backs that up. There is a kids' "tinkering tent," which started in Cloquet last year and returned this season, keeping younger visitors busy with activities that change from week to week while parents shop. Earlier this season, the tent's activity centered on kohlrabi, which the market named its vegetable of the year. It is a small detail, but it tells you the market sees itself as something closer to a community program than a sales floor. You do not name a vegetable of the year for a customer base that is just there to grab zucchini and leave.
Practically, the market has also caught up with how people actually pay. Cash still works, but more vendors are now taking credit cards and apps like Venmo, which matters if you are the kind of shopper who used to skip a table because you didn't have exact change.
The rest of the morning has its own regulars
The market is the anchor, but it is not the only fixture that shapes a Cloquet Saturday. A lot of the same people who work the farmers market crowd also route through Bearaboo Coffee Escape on Stanley Avenue at some point in the morning. The shop has built a small local supply chain of its own: the coffee is sourced locally in Minnesota, the sandwich ingredients come through Cloquet's own Upper Lakes Foods, and the mugs on the shelf are made at Dragonfire Pottery Works over in Wrenshall. The house-made chicken salad croissant is the shop's top lunch seller, with the turkey and provolone on cranberry wild rice bread close behind, and the drive-thru keeps dog treats on hand for anyone rolling through with a passenger in the back seat. It is a small operation with an outsized local footprint, which fits the same pattern the farmers market is showing: growth that stays rooted in named local suppliers instead of a generic supply chain.
If your Saturday morning has room for more than a coffee and a market bag, the paved Willard Munger State Trail runs through the Cloquet and Carlton area on its way toward Jay Cooke State Park, and it is open to dog walkers as well as bikers, which makes it an easy add-on for anyone who already brought the dog to the farmers market. On the other end of a market run, Cloquet Veterans Park has a covered pavilion that regulars use for exactly the kind of picnic that a bag of fresh muffins and market vegetables sets up well, with a choice of full sun or shade depending on how the morning is going.
What this actually changes if you live here
None of this is really about the farmers market getting bigger for its own sake. It is about what "bigger" means in this specific case. A market that simply added more produce tables would still be the same Saturday morning, just longer. A market that added a tallow skincare line, a foraged-goods vendor, and a specialty muffin baker, while also formalizing a kids' program and naming an annual vegetable, is signaling something different: it has become the kind of institution that people build a weekly rhythm around, not just a place to restock the fridge.
If your mental picture of Saturday morning in Cloquet still stops at "corn and eggs," you are missing most of what is actually happening two blocks from where you probably already park. The market runs through October 17 this year, which leaves plenty of Saturdays left to walk it with fresh eyes.
Living in a town means knowing which parts of it are quietly changing shape. If you are thinking about how a Cloquet address fits your next move, whether that means finding more room for a growing family or figuring out what a specific block is really like day to day, Michelle Ryan has spent years paying attention to exactly these kinds of details. Reach out for a free home valuation or a straightforward conversation about what living in Cloquet actually involves, week to week.
