Farmers Markets Can Be Found Throughout The County

The Farmers Market at Winona won third place for best farmers market in Indiana through a contest by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture and its Indiana Grown program recently.
Brittany Denney, market manager for the Farmers Market at Winona, said Indiana Grown ran a best farmers market in the state contest from the end of July to Aug. 11.
During the contest, Winona Lake’s farmers market was nominated for the contest for the first time. There were a total of 26 farmers markets that were nominated for the contest. Placement was awarded to the farmers markets that received the most votes, Denney said. With Winona Lake’s third-place placement, the Franklin farmers market placed first and the Westfield farmers market placed second.
Winona Lake’s farmers market became members of Indiana Grown this year. Denney said she decided to make the farmers market a member when she became the market manager in March because she thought it would help with collaborating with other farmers markets and help with the promotion of the farmers market.
So far, she said, Indiana Grown has done some great marketing for Winona Lake’s market. Some vendors have become Indiana Grown members themselves and some vendors have participated in the farmers market Indiana Grown set up during the state fair.
Denney said the contest shows how many farmers markets there are in the state and the communities that support them, as well as the vendors who show up each week.
“I think it was just a good way to promote the farmers markets just across the state. There’s quite a bit of farmers markets across the state,” she said, adding there’s a lot of community support shown for the farmers market.
Denney said she has been a vendor at the farmers market at Winona for three years when the market started. She said Denney Farms was approached by Winona Lake Town Councilman Jim Lancaster, who originally started the farmers market, and was asked to participate in the market. They had just left North Manchester and decided to try out Winona’s.
“And it’s been amazing,” she said, to the point her husband, Nick, decided to leave Wabash’s farmers market to help Denney at Winona’s because they needed both of them to work at Winona’s farmers market.
She said the community support at Winona’s farmers market continues to amaze her how much people show up to support local vendors. The market started out with six vendors and Denney said she believed it was now up to 38 vendors, “so we’ve grown a lot in a couple years.”
Shelby Heyrend, owner of Made During Nap Time, was selling skin care products made out of beef tallow, which she mixes with different tallows, essential oils and fragrances.
This is the third year she has been a vendor at the farmers market. She got into doing skin care products in order to help her daughter with her eczema, which she claimed healed her daughter overnight.
Heyrend said she heard about the farmers market before it even started. She said it’s a great way to get her products out there and meet new people. She said she always hears stories from people about her beef tallow has helped people’s skin and it helps her to keep coming back.
There are a ton of people that come to the farmers market from all over the place and word of mouth spreads and she gets orders from all over the country, Heyrend said.
La Mar Fox, of County Farm Bees, said he has been coming to Winona’s farmers market for three years.
He has been to other farmers markets and when the one in Winona Lake opened up, he decided to come there and sell his honey, while his son, Josh Fox, goes to the farmers market in Warsaw.
He’s been able to meet more people and La Mar and Josh have been able to divide and conquer, La Mar said.
He said the benefits of farmers market are good food and good people to deal with.
Right now, Denney said they’re planning on a winter farmers market this year.
The summer farmers market runs Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Miller Sunset Pavilion from May through October.
Other Farmers Markets
Winona Lake’s farmers market is not the only one in the county.
The farmers market in downtown Warsaw (on Center Street between Buffalo and Lake streets) is every Saturday, May through October, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and also every Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Tony and Kathy Perry have been coming to Warsaw’s farmers market for about 10 years, selling fruits and vegetables they grow on their hobby farm south of Warsaw. They also sell maple syrup from their trees and honey. Kathy said they got involved in the farmers market because when they started growing, they had a surplus and decided to sell the surplus.
She said the benefits of farmers market is the ability to get healthy vegetables with preservatives or sprays.
Kathryn Anders was selling eight flavors of cookies and by about noon Saturday, they were down to three flavors. She was also selling all natural dog treats. She has been coming for five or six years to the farmers market in Warsaw. She does cakes and cookies as a side business and wanted to show some of the flavors her business offers, as well as they exist.
She talked about the variety of vendors that are now at the farmers market in Warsaw, where people can pretty much find anything they’re looking for.
Other farmers markets in Kosciusko County include the farmers market in North Webster, which runs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the second Saturday of the month to October at the North Webster Lions Club festival grounds.
The Artisan & Farmers Market in Syracuse is held 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays through Aug. 30 at Veteran's Memorial Park at Crosson Mill.
The North Manchester Farmers Market is from 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays through September and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays in October at Ogan’s Landing on South Mill Street.
The Bourbon Farmers Market is every Monday through October from 6 to 8 p.m. on Main Street.
There is also the Mentone Maker's Market & Antique Fair that takes place the first and third Saturday of the month from 8 a.m. to noon through September.