More Farmers’ Markets Expand To Year-Round

A grow­ing num­ber of farm­ers mar­kets are extend­ing their oper­a­tion into and through the win­ter months – even in cold-weather states like Massachusetts. The expan­sion comes as more farm­ers are pro­long­ing their grow­ing sea­sons with green­houses and other meth­ods. It’s also fueled by an increased num­ber of peo­ple who aim to eat locally pro­duced food year-round.

“It can’t be a five-month-long thing and then just stop and every­body go to Walmart,” said Dave Purpura, a farmer who par­tic­i­pates in the win­ter mar­ket at Plimoth Plantation, a liv­ing his­tory museum ded­i­cated to the Pilgrims. “If you want to be seri­ous about pro­mot­ing the local food econ­omy, you have to go through the winter.”

Purpura planted some veg­eta­bles late in the sea­son specif­i­cally for sale at the win­ter market.

Nearby, Donna Blischke sold pota­toes, onions and squash that she stores in a root cel­lar at her small organic farm in Carver. The win­ter mar­ket also gives her a chance to sell jams, jel­lies and sauces made from pro­duce left over from the fall harvest.

“It’s a way to earn a lit­tle extra money in the win­ter months, while still pro­vid­ing local foods,” Blischke said.

There are at least 898 win­ter farm­ers mar­kets run­ning nation­wide, a 17 per­cent increase from two years ago, accord­ing to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A win­ter mar­ket is defined as one that oper­ates between November and March.

Winter mar­kets often run less fre­quently than their sum­mer coun­ter­parts; the Plymouth Farmers Market, for exam­ple, runs weekly from June through October and monthly from December through March.

Perhaps sur­pris­ingly, sev­eral north­ern states are among those with the largest num­bers of win­ter mar­kets, includ­ing Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Connecticut and Michigan, the USDA said.

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