Sydney Leonardo, 10, stood proudly beside a table of handmade skincare products, her favorite scent, southern peach, filling the warm spring air for the opening of the 2025 Dartmouth Farmer’s Market season.

After recovering from cancer, she and her family begin their business “SJ Homespun,” with a mission to encourage others to live cleaner and more naturally, which was featured for the first time at this year’s Farmer’s Market. 

“We turned our lives around as far as what we’re going to put into our kids’ bodies and our own,” said her mother, Lindsey, who now makes tallow-based products using ingredients from a local butcher. The family, from Acushnet, hopes to spread the word and encourage others to consider natural alternatives for skin conditions, such as eczema.

They weren’t the only first-time vendors at the market’s opening day on Friday, June 6. Amanda and Jake Brownell of “Brownell’s Bakery” also made their debut — leaving behind their careers only three months ago to start their home-based business in Westport.

“My husband's been baking his whole life,” Amanda said. “I was actually a biochemist, so it kind of goes hand and hand. We took his recipes and a little bit of just love and kind of improved the formulas.”

Now held every Friday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. through Oct. 24, except the Fourth of July, the market is back at its longtime home beside St. Mary’s Church at 789 Dartmouth Street. 

After a midweek shift last year, new manager Brenda Levasseur of Dartmouth returned the market to Fridays, which is a change that vendors like Donna Cordeiro of “Crochet by Donna” say makes all the difference. 

“It’s when people in Padanaram come down to shop for the weekend,” she noted

Looking ahead at her 10th year with the market, Cordeiro said: “I’m confident it will be a successful season for all of us.”

Levasseur, also a decade-long market vendor through her business “New Bedford Soap Company” and now first-year manager, added a new kids’ area this year. Living music remains, with Boston duo Willie T & Doctor X having kicked off the season. 

“It’s nice seeing people again I haven’t seen all year,” she said.

For updates and vendor info, visit www.dartmouthfarmersmarket.com.