Menomonie Winter Market to Offer Food, Art
As parkas replace jackets and frost begins to tint our windshields, farmers markets are shoved to the back of our brains. Fresh food, tasty sweet treats, and handmade goods are a thing of the past, waiting to reemerge with warm weather when the long Wisconsin winter finally gives way to spring. But what if I told you there was a place where you could find all that farm-to-table goodness in the middle of December? Thanks to small business owner and farmers market enthusiast Veronika Zazovsky, there is. This year, Menomonie restaurant The Raw Deal will host the Winter Market, an off-season farmers and artists market, every Saturday from Dec. 3 through April 29. An extension of the Menomonie Art Market, another of Zazovsky’s local ventures, the Winter Market will feature locally sourced goods from Chippewa Valley growers, makers, and artists. The Winter Market will feature a core group of vendors who will attend the market every or every other week including tons of local farms, bakeries, craftspeople, and more. Different guest vendors will visit the market each Saturday, supplementing and diversifying its offerings. Though farming slows down in the winter months, production doesn’t stop. “Farmers really miss the market during the winter. To many it is their community, their tribe, their family,” said Zazovsky. The Winter Market will allow vendors to experience that camaraderie all year long and bring the Chippewa Valley into the their tight-knit community. Its intimate setting will allow customers to mill and mingle, establishing a symbiotic relationship between buyer and seller that is unique to the indoor winter market experience.
