Hello Everyone, I live near Bozeman, and have participated in and now sit on the steering committee of the Bozeman Winter Farmers' Market. I have a small market farm/permaculture
project near Wilsall, and am attempting to practice 4 season growing, so the market has been a really fantastic thing for me, and other growers, ranchers, farmers,
seed sellers, bread bakers, pastry bakers, chocolatiers, wool producers...We are entering our third year as a market starting in October, and this is how we've done it: the folks who initially got the ball rolling selected a space in the Emerson Cultural Center. There is a large ballroom there, and the facility is located just a block from downtown Bozeman. The Emerson charges us their room rate, discounted for every Saturday we hold the market, which is currently every 2nd and 4th Saturday in Oct, Nov, (no Dec markets because the space has had long term parties renting it for annual functions during this month), Jan, Feb, Mar and April. The first year the market was held twice in May also, which I found to be particularly awesome, though many of the other vendors were also saying that having a break between the winter market season and the super busy summer market season, and during prime planting time was their preference, and so year two it was decided to stop the market at the end of April. That's still a lot of opportunity for selling! The market now hosts a few hundred folks on a busy day, with a regular clientele building. We hope the market's traffic expands and are currently working on accepting EBT tokens, taking part in the Seniors Farmers Market Nutrition Program, and having the infrastructure to accept SNAP dollars. There is a simple website the original market master created: www.bozemanwintermarket.com The steering committee overwhelmingly voted to limit the market to items grown or produced on local farms, or produced from local farm products, though there is some sway there-- basically the market is edible or directly related to edible/farm fare. Whatever happens with your winter market dreams, let me tell you, it is a wonderful thing to be part of. I have personally benefitted greatly as a small new farmer just by the networking opportunities alone, but it has really helped me promote and expand my CSA, and in other business ventures as well, as well as generate income during a normally cash poor time of the year by selling winter storage crops, sprouts, early spring greens, seedlings, etc. I'll be happy to
answer any questions or offer input on this topic, and I would recommend visiting the Bozeman Winter Market to check it out! One last note, definitely choose a warm location-- you want people to be comfortable and enjoy the
experience, so they keep coming back!
Farmer at Cloud Nine Farm, located at 5300' elevation, on Sagebrush Steppe, northeast of Bridger Mountains in the Shields Valley of Montana. We do market gardens, four season growing, build earthworks, plant food forests, raise livestock and poultry, grow and sell plants and seeds, host WWOOFers, and more. Find our farm on facebook!