If you want to know how to define abundance, just visit a farmers market. It isn’t merely that the food is freshly harvested, brightly colored, and sold by hardworking farmers. It’s that there’s so much of it. But then, as summer bleeds into autumn, the bounty comes to an end, and farmers need to prepare their soil (and themselves) for next year.
The farmers market in Great Barrington closed for the season just a few weeks ago, but for those who already miss it, help is at hand. This coming weekend is the first of this year’s Berkshire Grown Holiday Farmers Markets. As always, it will feature lots of farmers selling lots of freshly harvested late season fruits and vegetables. There are savory pickle products, well cut meat, handcrafted cheese, apples and pears, freshly baked breads. There’s handmade candles and brooms, brightly colored yarn from local sheep, honey from local bees, locally-roasted coffee, and more…much much more.
The Great Barrington farmers markets are hosted by Berkshire Grown on Saturday, November 21 and Saturday December 19, in Great Barrington, and Sunday, November 22, and Sunday, December 20, in Williamstown. Further, for the second time, there will be markets on the holiday weekends in January (January 16) and February (February 13). All markets are held from 10 a.m. — 2 p.m., at the Monument Valley Regional Middle School in Great Barrington and at the Williams College Towne Field House in Williamstown.
There will be more than 40 vendors at the holiday markets. Booths for farmers are so popular that there is a waiting list for vendors. The Berkshire Grown holiday markets have built a solid reputation for quality of merchandise that leads to ever more customers, making them popular for both sellers and buyers.
Thanks to the generosity of local businesswoman and philanthropist Jane Iredale, Berkshire Grown inaugurated the January and February 2015 farmers markets in Great Barrington. Iredale is an ardent advocate of farmers market, and luckily for us, her enthusiasm translates into financial support to make them possible in winter’s chill.
The original purpose for the Berkshire Grown farmers markets was to put money in the farmers’ pockets in the off season. These markets have been so successful that Barbara Zheutlin, director of Berkshire Grown, acceded to requests from farmers and shoppers to continue the special markets through the winter. Because farmers need months of advance notice to plant and harvest for these markets, plans for the additional ones began a year ago.
The theme of farmers market is its emphasis on fresh and local food. To highlight this sentiment, Berkshire Grown took advantage of the coincidence of Valentine’s Day and the farmers market this year (2015) to say “we love you” to the farmers who make these markets possible. And that market will feature a variety of items to help patrons celebrate their sweethearts.
The first Berkshire Grown Holiday Farmers Market was held in November 2009 at the old Great Barrington fire station. By popular demand, in 2010 there were two markets, before Thanksgiving and before the December holidays. The holiday farmers markets moved around until settling in at Monument Valley Regional Middle School, where it continues.
Each year the markets have grown larger, both in terms of numbers of vendors and attendees. Attendance is critical to the markets since as the number of customers increases, so does the income to the farmers. Providing off-season income to farmers is a motivating force behind the markets.
The farmers markets sell food to take home and prepare, as well as food that can be eaten on the premises. As shoppers approach the school, they will be greeted with aromas emanating from Sean Stanton’s grilled sausages and wood-fired pizzas prepared by SoMa catering. Once inside the market, a hungry person can buy hot soup and entrée items from The Meat Market, and cheese and bread from a variety of cheesemakers and bakers.
Music is one of the highlights of the winter farmers markets, setting a festive tone to the noshing and shopping and catching up with friends that make the markets so much fun. The Thanksgiving Market is featuring the Fiddling Femmes at 11 a.m. and then the Hicks O’Lydian group, a trio of two fiddles and a guitar.
In addition to face painting and seasonal craft activities for children, there will be a scavenger hunt, and hands-on snack-making with Food Adventures. A group of middle school students has volunteered to help vendors load in at the Thanksgiving market. And some students have been developing recipes for products they will sell there.
Chatting up friends, thanking the farmers for their largesse, bringing your kids to have a fun time while you’re shopping, music, really delicious prepared foods, and more! Hope to see you there!
