Harvest market regulars took a collective sigh while sleeping in Saturday morning, after organisers announced the market would temporarily cease due to the coronavirus.
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Market organisers, however, have launched an online marketplace for Harvest, making sure that Launceston gets its local produce fix.
Harvest committee member Kim Hewitt said organisers needed to think ahead of the coronavirus to make sure the market continued.
"We founded the market with the core ethos being to connect people to food, and we want to be able to continue to be able to do that," Ms Hewitt said.
"We're going to make sure we continue to ensure people are being connected to the fabulous food we have in the state."
In one week, Harvest organisers have pieced together an online platform for market-goers in the Launceston area to order from Harvest stallholders.
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Orders can now be placed until Wednesday at 3pm, to allow stallholders time to put together orders which will be delivered on Saturday.
"We'd already been planning for an online strategy, we were hoping to have a couple more markets," Ms Hewitt said.
"But we were working with limiting it to 500 people and we have over 2000 people at the market at once so we believed that from a public health and safety point of view, we couldn't continue with a market this Saturday."
Fellow committee member Caroline Williamson said it was great to see support from the community wanting to still buy from stallholders.
"We've had so many members of the public get in touch, wanting to support local and wanting to know how," she said.
"We're trying to future-proof the market for stallholders depending on where this COVID-19 situation ends up.
"Stallholders will still be able to get the precious local Tasmanian produce to the people of Launceston and surrounding areas so they can still support local growers, bakers and makers."
For many stallholders and farmers, the online platform will be new territory.
"We're asking our farmers to think in a slightly different way, and we're working with them to take them down that road," Ms Hewitt said.
"We've gotten a lot of support from our stallholders and they're busy thinking about how they can sell their products in a slightly different way than coming to the market."
About half of the stallholders have signed on to the online marketplace, with others expected to join.
"We are doing everything in our power ... it's been an enormous task to pull-off in just over a week," Ms Williamson said.
"We do ask the public bears with us, there will be teething problems but we'll work through them and we will make it happen because it's so important to keep that connection between the people and the farmers."
You can access the online Harvest Market at harvestmarketonline.org.au. Ms Williamson said market organisers are currently working on a way for the less technologically savvy members of the community to use the market. Organisers may also develop an order drop-off site depending on how rules around social distancing develop.
The Harvest committee will continue to review whether to host the market on a weekly basis.