You Asked for It: Wouldn’t it Be Great to Have a Year-Round Farmers Market?

The arrival of cold weather doesn’t mean the end of the Dexter Farmers Market season. Rather, it’s moving indoors from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on alternating Saturdays through April,

Residents’ next chance to get items such as produce, bread, pies, maple syrup, honey, popcorn, granola, eggs, jam, lamb and duck products, and other consumables produced by local small farmers is Saturday, Nov. 30, the Dexter Leader reports.

The Dexter Winter Marketplace, which takes place at the Dexter Senior Center, 7720 Dexter-Ann Arbor Road, was created to give vendors a year-round outlet for their local products. Besides foodstuff, lavender, soap, body products, jewelry, crafts, artwork, granite, T-shirts and other products will aso be available.

Chelsea-area Wellness Foundation liaison Mark Olexa said the idea of a farmer's market extension through the winter months has been studied for a couple of years among vendors with greenhouses and hoop houses that allow the year-round growing of fruits and vegetables.

"I've attended the Ann Arbor and Saline winter markets and they're great venues and that thought was, ‘Wouldn't it be great to have this in Dexter?’" Olexa said.

Regular farmers market vendors Anne Young and Jane Kelly started researching and are the organizers behind the Dexter Winter Market. Vendors had been informally discussing the idea for several years, then finally decided to make it happen.

"We (the vendors) decided that this needed to happen and went full steam ahead," Young told the newspaper. "Different people have put in money to help start it."

Organizers are still waiting on approval of a Chelsea-Area Wellness Foundation grant that will help with advertising and promotion of the Winter Marketplace.

There are currently 16 vendors, many of them small farmers, participating in the program. More may be added in the coming months. Interested vendors may apply at dextermarket.com.