Second Olympia Farmers Market Vendor Suspended; City and Port Say They Don't Run the Market

A second vendor has left the Olympia Farmers Market after a suspension, and city and port officials say they have no say in how the market manages its vendors, The Olympian reported Monday, Oct. 26.

Ryan Bally, owner of Odin's Alchemy Brewing, which makes and sells mead, said in a Facebook post that market management permanently suspended the business after a customer got past its barricade and reached sampling bottles while he stepped away for a medical phone call, according to The Olympian. Bally said he will not return after failing to be reinstated. He had sold at the market for three of his five years in business.

The Olympian reported that Bally's suspension, in late September, came before the market suspended knife maker Crafted Restorations in October over display safety and liability insurance. Owner Kevin Box told the paper he has bought clear acrylic display boxes and is working to comply, but as of Oct. 26 he had not been reinstated and had heard nothing from the market.

The market did not respond to The Olympian's requests for comment. One board member could not be reached and another declined to speak on the record, the paper reported.

The market has addressed the knife maker's case before. In a statement shared earlier this month with The Olympian, vendors and people who emailed the market, its board of directors said the liability-insurance requirement had been sent to all vendors through Market Notes and "was not directed solely at Crafted Restorations." The market has not published a statement on Bally's suspension.

Who oversees the market

The market has operated for 30 years at 700 Capitol Way N., on Port of Olympia land that the city leases from the port, according to the market and The Olympian. The city owns the market buildings and has a maintenance and operating agreement with the nonprofit market.

"The city doesn't tell them how to run," Scott River, the city's liaison to the market, told The Olympian.

City spokesman Brandon Chapman said the operating agreement requires the market to carry at least $2 million in general liability coverage per occurrence, with the city named as an additional insured, but he did not see a requirement that every vendor buy a separate policy, the paper reported. River said that requirement is likely between the market board and its vendors.

Mike Reid, the port's community and economic development director, told The Olympian that the market's rent is a percentage of its revenue. The market paid the port $145,000 in 2025, up from $113,000 in 2022. City figures put the market's 2025 gross sales at nearly $9.7 million, about $7 million of it from farmers.

The market's director, Alvi Stuart, replaced former director Isabel Thomas in April, according to the market's website as reported by The Olympian.