The Farmers’ Market at the Botanical Gardens was officially opened on Saturday by Craig Cannonier, the Minister of Public Works.

Deborah Swan feels the year is off to a good start.

“It took off really well,” she said. “We had a great turnout for the first Saturday. As a venue, I think Botanical Gardens is 100 per cent better than Pier 6, where parking was always an issue.”

Ms Swan sells organic vegetables and home-made soaps through her company, Roots Gardening — Naturally Grown Veggies, with her husband, Gabre.

The pair have been growing vegetables for 19 years on their four to five acres of allotments and specialise in purple and yellow carrots.

This year was not a good one for their cassava crop, she said. The trees were damaged from last year’s hurricanes and this year’s hurricane’s “finished off” what was left.

The Farmers’ Market secretary told The Royal Gazette: “We’re trying to have the market centred around health and the environment, with a focus on Bermuda-made and Bermuda-grown.”

Martin Hatfield, of Bermy Fresh, is selling the company’s shiitake mushrooms at the market.

He and Scott Tucker specialise in a variety of micro greens from arugula, sunflower, amaranth and beetroot to their popular South Shore cabernet mix — the fresh, young shoots of red cabbage.

They have been growing their produce in a hydroponic greenhouse in Warwick, where they can control the humidity, CO2, light and temperature.

This is their first year selling mushrooms.

“No one’s ever tasted in Bermuda such a fresh mushroom like this. We’re selling them within 24 hours of picking,” he said.