Andrea Jackson has owned Back Forty Farm in Spencer, Indiana, for three years. On Saturday mornings, she sets up her booth at the Bloomington Winter Farmers’ Market to sell pasture-raised pork, chicken bone broth and duck eggs from her 40-acre farm.
Typically, farmers markets are held during spring, summer and early fall when the weather is warmer, and farmers have the freshest produce to sell.
“Winter is hard,” Jackson, who has been farming for 12 years, said. “Everything just slows down, things aren’t growing and days are shorter. It's interesting because by the end of the summer, you’re kind of looking forward to the slowness of winter.”
The Bloomington Winter Farmers’ Market started in 2005 to provide fresh produce to the public and help local farmers. The market is open from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every Saturday from November through March at Switchyard Park Pavilion. The market works with the Farm to Family Fund and accepts Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
Though the farmers have an assortment of goods to sell each Saturday, many face challenges during the winter that can make running their farms difficult and affect their crops and animals.
Allen Kitscher is the owner of Moon Valley Farm in Gosport, Indiana, and sells produce at the Winter Market. Kitscher said he’s been working a lot this winter to ensure his farm stays viable.
Kitscher uses a high tunnel with plastic metal hoops and reemay — a type of non-woven cloth-like material — to protect the crops in his garden and extend its growing season. A high tunnel is a shelter that is like a greenhouse but lighter, more flexible and less expensive.
However, when the temperatures drop, snowfall can crush the hoops and reemay.
“It’s really hard to protect stuff,” Kitscher said. “I'd have to have a heated greenhouse or something like that. The cost of heating a greenhouse kind of doesn’t make sense to me.”
Kitscher said he struggled when the city canceled one of the Bloomington Winter Farmers’ Markets, he was set to attend about a month ago due to bad weather.
“I have a lot of chickens, and they keep producing eggs, so I ended up just giving a bunch of eggs away,” Kitscher said.
Kitscher’s chickens produce about 80 dozen eggs in a week. With the cancelation, he had about 140 dozen eggs which he said he can’t sell at the market due to the high number of eggs the chickens were producing.
He had to give away the unsold eggs to people he knows and the St. Benedict Classical School in Bloomington, where he works.
Heartland Family Farm has participated in the Winter Market for 25 years, selling produce, meats and flowers.
Sarah McGee from Heartland Family Farm said the farm doesn’t face too many challenges during the winter season compared to other farms in Bloomington that have greenhouses.
Greenhouses, McGee said, can be an asset to farmers who provide product in the winter. But they can also be “a hardship,” she said, because they are expensive to maintain and can be damaged by winter storms.
In the winter, Heartland Family Farm stores winter squashes, turnips, potatoes, dried heirloom beans and meats indoors. The farm also sells products such as dried floral wreaths and bouquets.
When freezing occurs, it makes it difficult for their farm to keep the water open for the animals because it will freeze.
Despite the cold, snow and wind this season, the vendors still come out on Saturdays to build connections with the community and talk about their farms or businesses.
A variety of goods are featured for sale such as fresh vegetables, frozen fruits, meats and poultry and eggs.
There are also baked goods such as croissants and angel food cake, flavored honey, teas and kombucha.
Besides food and drink goods, there are dried flowers, handmade candles and soaps, dog treats and crafts.
Some of the vendors’ goods sell out within the first hour of the market. On Saturday, gourmet mushrooms and flowers were among the first to go.
