Farmers Market Lasts Through the Winter

Throughout the winter, the Vermillion Area Farmers Market hosts many different vendors from the local area to sell a variety of products, ranging from baked goods and pastries to hand-carved art pieces.

On March 7, the Clay County 4-H building hosted the event. Although farmers markets are typically summer events, the Vermillion Area Farmers Market hosts one or two markets each month during the winter until its regular season begins in May.

  Joe Hemm, one of the vendors, sells wood-carvings. Hemm discussed the importance of the event in the community.

“There are a lot of good things to be done,” Hemm said. “Things are growing locally here, you get to know the people, the vendors here.”

Although Hemm has been carving for a little over 30 years, he has been selling for around two years.

The Vermillion Area Farmers Market hasn’t always been located at the 4-H building. Grace Freeman, a longtime seller of the market, stated that the farmers market used to be located in an alleyway near the South Dakota Highway 50 overpass. When she moved from Wisconsin to Vermillion, Freeman, among others, started the market.

“We started this nonprofit to support local businesses, it has to be locally made or grown,” Freeman said. “We worked with several different spots, trying to figure out where to set up and when, so we used [an] alley.” 

Jon Gunderson has sold products all throughout southeastern South Dakota, the Sioux City area and Nebraska. Gunderson discussed the differences in farmers markets depending on the area.

“Not all of them are [year-round], but this one is,” Gunderson said. “Vermillion’s treated me good, we’ve been doing it for years, and we’ve got regular people that come.”

More information is available on the Vermillion Area Farmers Market Facebook page. The farmers market is set for March 21.

Photo Credit: Andrew Schwarz