WALLACE — Almost 300 people showed up to celebrate and support St. John the Baptist Parish’s Creole Farmers’ Market when it opened for the first time Dec. 13.

Less than a year later, parish officials and volunteers are hoping to recapture that spirit with some strategic changes in reopening the market.

St. John Communications Director Paige Falgoust said the market has been closed since Aug. 1 due to heat concerns and little crop availability.

“Farmers are needed for the market to be successful,” she said. “In order for the market to succeed, farmers are needed to operate and provide fresh products to the visitors.”

According to Economic Development Director Torri Buckles, the market presently has commitments from six vendors, compared to 13 when it launched 10 months ago.

Longtime market supporter, community activist and St. John Economic Development Member Nora Pierre said the Farmers Market is the realization of a dream, although only “partially realized.”

“I was disappointed that we had to close due to the weather,” she said. “That was just one of those things that was unpredictable. I didn’t expect farm products to be so late in coming up. That is something we have no control of.”

The market, located at 5793 River Road in Wallace at the foot of Veterans Memorial Bridge, was open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday following its grand opening in late 2014. In August, the parish announced the Farmers Market would close due to extreme heat, reopening Sept. 12 with the promise of a variety of fruit and vegetable options for the fall. New market hours were announced from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

On Sept. 25, the parish announced the closing would continue to allow vendors to prepare for the upcoming fall and winter seasons and for the accumulation of additional vendors.

Pierre and many volunteers are working to reopen the market Oct. 31. A community activity is planned a week earlier, Pierre said, from 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 24 in which area children are invited to celebrate PumpkinPalooza with a pumpkin-carving seminar and contest.

“I see the Farmers Market as being a great blessing, not only to the community of the West Bank, but to the parish as a whole,” Pierre said. “We get lots of customers from Reserve, LaPlace, Lutcher, so the customers are coming.

“I realize the customers’ frustration that sometimes when they come looking for a specific product and we don’t have that specific product, for example tomatoes or cucumbers, it’s frustrating. If they come looking for that one thing, that is what they expect to find. That’s unfortunate.”

She said market organizers are working with a variety of local farmers and will open again with greater options.

Silas Cook, an Edgard farmer who serves the market as site manager, said he is getting farmers together with good crops.

“We had a good beginning,” he said. “Recently, in August, we had all of this hot, hot weather with so many 100-degree weather days. It did a lot of damage to all the guys who were farming around here.”

He said the market didn’t ultimately get the vendor participation many thought it would; however, he sees a change in that as preparation continues for its re-launch.

“It actually started out very nice to where we had an average of 200 people coming,” Cook said.

“We have competitors, and I think that is what cuts us down with participation. It’s a great spot. The parish has really worked with us. Everybody is working with us but Mother Nature.”

Cook said organizers need to get the word out about their efforts, adding participating vendors and parish officials are doing so.

“We just have to get people to come on out,” he said. “It was a bang in the beginning, and it kind of drizzled out. We’ll have to make a continuous effort putting the word out.”