Winter Farmers Market moves
Jason Johnston
Friday, December 16, 2011
The Emporia Farmers Market is moving its indoor winter market to the Emporia Humanitarian Center (Lowther South building) at 215 W. Sixth Ave. starting Saturday.
Marion National Bank, who owns the market’s previous location at 701 Commercial St., is renovating the downtown Commercial Street space to make it more attractive, so the bank can rent it out, said Tracy Simmons, the market manager for the Farmers Market.
“It is a big nice space, and it is a shame to have it sit there empty,” Simmons said. “(Marion) has been very generous with us and letting us use it for winter markets.”
The winter market has two markets each month from November to April at 10 a.m. It started in November 2010 with only one market per month.
The outside market takes place from May to October in the parking lot at Seventh Avenue and Merchant Street. Hours are 8 a.m. Saturdays from May to October, and 5 p.m. Wednesdays from mid-June to October.
The farmers market has about 60 vendors per season, and Simmons said July and August are the busiest months with an average of 25 vendors at each market. May, June, September and October average 16 vendors while the winter market averages 12.
Janet Brassart and her sister, Ruth Wise, are fabric artisans and produce growers who come to the farmers market as vendors year around from Emporia. They also sell jam and jelly and Wise’s flowers.
Brassart and Wise are completing their third year as market vendors, Brassart said.
“We started doing (the market) because we both had backyard gardens,” she said. “... We do it for fun.”
Brassart is a retired high school teacher who taught English and Spanish in Hartford and Olpe for 20 years. Wise and her husband used to have a pellet (young hen) farm and now just raise cattle. Brassart and Wise both grew up sewing.
“The most rewarding part of the (market) is to meet the returning customers,” Wise said.
Vendors pay $25 a year to sell their goods at the farmers market, Simmons said. They give back 20 percent of sales at each market to pay sales tax.
“We’ve past last year’s sales,” she said. “We are currently at $92,219. Last year we hit $90,000.”
The farmers market is a project of the Learning Connection of the Flint Hills, a 501(c)(3) organization.
Learning Connection used to be a school in the 1970s, and it had different names. It was originally called Your Own University, and it was later called Neosho River Free School. Most of the free courses were connected with food.
Learning Connection now only handles the farmers market, which started May 9, 1982, on Fifth Avenue and Mechanic Street.
“I think the first year, it was $4,000 in sales, but I don’t know how many vendors,” Simmons said.
The market provides opportunities for low-income families to buy food. It accepts the Vision card, which acts like a debit card.
“We have (received) grants through the Emil Babinger Charitable Trust,” Simmons said. “It gave us matching grants two years in a row now where everyone who uses their Vision card at the market, they basically get matching funds. If they spend $5, we give them $10 on food at the market. It is a good way for them to try the market.”
In 2011, the trust gave the farmers market $1,500 for matching funds and $6,800 for the rent and operations of the winter market, Simmons said. In 2010, the trust donated about $15,000 to start the winter market and toward the Emporia Shared Use Kitchen while $1,000 of the grant was used for matching funds.
The kitchen will provide “small scale, value-added food entrepreneurs a space to prepare and process food for consumer marketing,” according to the farmers market website.
“We would like to promote local businesses that promote local farmers,” Simmons said.
People can contact the farmers market office at 343-6555 or emporiaFM@gmail.com. Its website is www.emporiafarmersmarket.org.