Brunswick's Saturday Market Is Asking for a New Name Before It Leaves Crystal Spring Farm

"But we were rich," Tom Settlemire joked. "We had $4,000 in the bank." He was remembering the early 1990s, when he and the other Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust founders learned that Crystal Spring Farm was for sale for nearly $700,000. He told the story at the Sept. 24 groundbreaking for the farmers market's new home, as Sandy Stott recounted in his "Your Land" column, reposted by the land trust.

That campaign put the Saturday market on Pleasant Hill Road, and it has stayed there for more than 25 years. Now it is moving across the road. The move is already decided. Excavators have been working at Dionne Farm since August, and the town and state reviews are done. One decision is still open to the public this fall, and it is the market's name. That window closes in a little over two weeks.

A Name That Points at the Old Address

The market's official name is the "Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust Saturday Farmers Market at Crystal Spring Farm." In its Oct. 2 post asking what to call the market, the land trust admits the name is a mouthful, with a lot of words to fit on signs, web pages and tote bags.

The move adds a more practical problem. The market's new address will be 262 Pleasant Hill Road, on Dionne Farm. The current market sits at 277 Pleasant Hill Road, Crystal Spring Farm. Once the tents go up across the road, the last four words of the official name will describe somewhere the market used to be.

The land trust wants a name that is "shorter, clearer, easier to find, and ready to grow with the Market into the future." The board will make the final choice, and it says it will weigh the survey results as part of that decision. The survey is short and linked from the land trust's post. It closes at midnight on Nov. 7. The post calls that date "the last day of the Market for the 2026 season."

The Saturdays That Are Left

This post comes out on Thursday, Oct. 22. On the land trust's calendar, that leaves three Saturdays at Crystal Spring Farm. One schedule detail needs checking. The main farmers market page still lists the season as May 2 to Oct. 31. The land trust's events calendar has a more recent listing for a Nov. 7 market, and the survey post calls Nov. 7 the last market day of the 2026 season. Nov. 7 is the better-supported date. Check the calendar before you plan around that last Saturday.

All season, the land trust has run a Market Move information booth at the Crystal Spring market, where people can ask about Dionne Farm. If you have a question about the new site, these last few Saturdays are the easiest time to ask it in person. As of mid-October, the Nov. 7 listing still showed the alternating and guest vendors as "TBD."

One Week From Pleasant Hill Road to Maine Street

If Nov. 7 holds as the last outdoor date, the Saturday routine changes location without skipping a week. The Brunswick Winter Market opens its 2026/2027 season on Saturday, Nov. 14, inside the Fort Andross Mill Complex at 14 Maine Street. It runs 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and promises "same time, same place" through the winter. The winter hours begin half an hour later than the Crystal Spring hours.

Familiar vendors may turn up indoors as well. Many names on the land trust's 2026 vendor page also appear on the Winter Market's vendor roster:

• Apple Creek Farm
• Alchimia
• Buckwheat Blossom Farm
• Fairwinds Farm
• Farmer's Daughter
• Hootenanny
• Pumpkin Vine Family Farm
• Six River Farm
• Spring Day Creamery
• Whatley Farm
• Winter Hill Farm

The Winter Market's roster also includes vendors that a summer regular may not know, such as La Nef Chocolate, Goranson Farm, Wild Fruitings Mushroom Company, Moses Dyer Coffee Company and Woodhaus Farm & Butchery. Its seafood seller is Pemaquid Lobster & Seafood. The roster page has no date, so take it as a list of vendors who have sold there, not a confirmed lineup for this winter. Opening day will show who is back.

What Gets Built While the Market Is Indoors

The winter months are when the work across the road matters most. The land trust says Phase One construction will continue through the fall. In August, communications manager Lydia Coburn told the Times Record that the work will likely run into spring 2027 and that the land trust hopes to move "sometime during the 2027 season," according to Katie Langley's report in the Portland Press Herald. Stott's column describes an opening "next summer." For now, 2027 is a goal, not a set date. The land trust's own FAQ says the market will stay at Crystal Spring Farm "through the 2026 season and into the 2027 season."

Phase One covers the market green, a pavilion and parking, at an estimated cost of about $2.4 million. Each piece answers a problem the land trust has named at the current site. The market draws as many as 1,500 people on a Saturday, it has 43 vendors, and more vendors want spaces than the current green can hold. Parking, traffic flow, accessibility and the spring mud seasons have all been ongoing problems.

The parking plan keeps the farm looking rural. About one-third of the lot will be paved and about two-thirds will be turf, used mostly on market days. The paved section is meant to support year-round uses of the property later. The large dirt piles on site now will mostly be spread back over the 262 Pleasant Hill Road property once the underground work is finished.

The land trust plans for the pavilion to be used beyond Saturday mornings. It could host outdoor classrooms, seasonal celebrations, pop-up markets and workshops through the year. For now, it is the only part of Phase One that could change what a Brunswick weekday looks like.

What Stays on the Crystal Spring Side

The current market green and its parking areas have no settled future yet. The land trust says that question is part of broader planning for the property. Trailhead parking for the Crystal Spring Farm South trails will stay open. The land itself isn't going anywhere. Stott writes that the Crystal Spring Farm holdings have grown to 360 acres, including the 25-acre Dionne Farm, where the market is headed.

Vendors seem ready for the change. Kelly Punch, catering and events manager at Brunswick's Mere Point Oyster, told the Times Record that the move will create a "safer, more communal vibe." She also called the new parking a welcome improvement, according to the Press Herald report. "We go every week, rain or shine," Punch said.

At the groundbreaking, agricultural programs manager Julia St.Clair called the market's "community spirit" the core of the new design. Stott recalled an old saying from former market director Rick Wilson, that the market is where "you get to meet the face of your food." The market will still be on the same road. Whether its name says "Crystal Spring Farm" in 2027 depends partly on survey answers due by midnight on Nov. 7.

Adrianne Zahner follows Brunswick's Saturday mornings at Crystal Spring Farm and Fort Andross as closely as she follows its listings. If a move to Dionne Farm figures into your own plans for a house on or near Pleasant Hill Road, Adrianne Zahner is glad to walk through what the coming season may mean for you. Let's Connect.