What happens at farmers market over the winter?
If we had to pick the most commonly asked questions we get as farmers market employees, number one would have to be “what do you do for work over the winter?”
While it may seem to many that our work peaks in the summer and disappears by the new year, running a farmers market is a year-round effort that requires months of planning, countless spreadsheets, and a lot of hard work from our small but mighty team. So while our farmers are ordering seeds, planning their crops, and getting ready to dig back into the soil, here’s what our team has been up to:
Getting our vendors lined up for 2024
Every year, we open applications for new and returning food vendors to join us at the farmers markets. This process is open to farmers, ranchers, beekeepers, packaged food producers and prepared food vendors who operate their farms or businesses in Colorado. We don’t allow vendors who make their products out-ofstate, nor can any vendor sell products they don’t make themselves. While that might seem like a nobrainer, many farmers markets across the country don’t share the same commitment to local producers.
Our team ensures the integrity of each vendor selling at our market through a competitive application process, which includes collecting detailed information about their business, setting up phone interviews for new vendors, sampling and scoring new food items to make sure they are up to snuff, and voting in new vendors through our Board of Directors and membership. It’s a lengthy process, but it’s what allows us to ensure we’re bringing our customers the best of the best each market season.
In addition to food vendors, we also use the winter time to recruit and schedule artisans, musicians, breweries and community groups to participate in our markets. While our application for food vendors is now closed, others looking to participate in the market are still encouraged to apply by visiting our website, www. bcfm.org.
Expanding food access to our community
You may have heard of programs like Double Up Food Bucks, which allow SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) participants to double their food assistance dollars while shopping at their local farmers markets. But did you know that we continue to offer food access programs throughout the winter months? Customers using SNAP can place orders using Double Up Food Bucks through our online store, which operates year-round and helps farmers distribute winter crops like squash, radishes, potatoes and onions. Each week, we also pack bags of groceries for local families participating in WIC (Women, Infant, and Children program) that get delivered to households across Boulder County by our volunteer drivers.
Building a food hub from the ground up
It’s no secret that a lot of things changed after the pandemic. When we couldn’t host our onstreet markets, we pivoted to pilot a curbside distribution program that has continued to this day. Through a warehouse in Longmont, we order food in bulk from local food vendors that then go out to our community through our online store, which served over 700 customers last year, as well as our Food Access programs.
Last week, we finished up our sold out Winter Market Share, which provided eight weeks of groceries to residents of Boulder, Longmont and Lafayette. With this momentum, we began exploring how we could expand these efforts to establish a local food hub model that helps reach new customers while furthering our mission to support local agriculture. We’re excited to share where this takes us in 2024, so be sure to stay up-to-date on our columns and subscribe to our e-newsletter for updates.
Eating locally (of course)
You can be sure that we work hard so that we can play hard, and we prefer to play with food. Some of our favorite treats this winter have included Westcliffe Goat Cheese, Red Wagon Farm squash,, farm-fresh eggs from Croft Family Farm and Wisdom Natural Poultry, Hazel Dell Mushrooms, Il Porcellino
Salumi and Kelly Jean’s Microgreens — which allow us to get the nutrients of fresh greens even on the coldest winter days.
These are just a few of the delicious vendors that keep our online market stocked until the abundance of summer returns. So, while we all patiently wait until the first weekend of April for the onstreet markets to fill our Saturday mornings again, remember that local food is available all year round, you just have to know where to look (you can start by trying shop.bcfm. org).