Starting this summer, the parking lot of the Manchester Elementary School will blossom with produce and sundries once a week as part of the new Lake Region farmers’ market that was announced last week.

Organizer Bob Wehmeyer, of Windham, said the market will run every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon from May 12 to Oct. 13. The Manchester Elementary School was chosen because an average of 20,000 cars go by it each day in the summer, according to Wehmeyer.

Wehmeyer, a retired social worker who runs a garden nursery business, recently submitted the paperwork to incorporate the farmers’ market with the state with the help of three others. They are beekeeper Allen Pollock of Windham, Scott Libby of Raymond who raises vegetables and flowers in a greenhouse and Mercedes Foster, who Wehmeyer described as “just a good gal helping us out.”

A farmer’s market is a public market where farmers and other vendors come together and sell their wares directly to the public. With no middleman, the sellers are able to make a larger profit while buyers know they are getting local products.

“Plus, it’s kind of fun,” said Pollock.

State law requires farmers’ market vendors to produce a minimum of 75 percent of what they sell on their own land, or on Maine land under their supervision.

Potential vendors must be from an area within 25 miles of the shoreline of Sebago Lake, Pollock said.

“We wanted it to be inclusive of folks in the area, not just Windham,” said Pollock.

Vendors will have to pay a membership fee. Wehmeyer said they are still looking for vendors to sell items such as cheese, baked goods, crafts and cuts of meat, such as lamb.

Pollock said a four-session class on how to get involved in a farmers’ market will be offered by the Windham Adult Education program, starting Feb. 28.

Pollock said the average age of farmers is increasing, and that his group will encourage youths to try agriculture as a way of making some money on the side. Hopefully, Pollock said, this will have some impact on the problem of the aging farming community.

“We want to make sure there’s young blood coming in,” he said.

Pollock said Windham used to have a farmers’ market in the ’90s, but that one fizzled out. Recently, however, the Department of Agriculture surveyed the Windham area and an “overwhelming” number of people wanted one, according to Wehmeyer.

“The idea had been kind of floating around superficially for about four years,” said Wehmeyer. He said that Windham Community Development Director Roger Timmons helped the four incorporators come together now that there is a public interest in the project.

“It’s a ripe opportunity,” said Pollock.

For more information, or to become a vendor, call Bob Wehmeyer at 892-0293, Allen Pollock at 318-9106, Scott Libby at 831-1623 or email Mercedes Foster at Mercedesgfoster@yahoo.com.