The Moscow Farmers Market is a great way to spend a Saturday morning in Moscow. When the season ends many miss the community feeling the Farmer’s Market brings, but the Winter Market offers a similar atmosphere.
The Winter Market has been in Moscow for 15 years. Unlike the Farmers Market, this market is held inside the 1912 Center. However, some vendors choose to set up outside.
The Winter Market is held six times between November and March. Some vendors who are normally at the Farmers Market sell there as well.
Fire Creek Forge, a business specializing in forged blacksmith items like railroad spikes, knives and other items, is one of those vendors who sells at both. Sarah and Elijah Williams are co- owners of the Fire Creek Forge.
“We thought we’d give it a try,” Sarah Williams said. “And just as we’ve sold over the years at the summer’s market, we become more a part of the community in Moscow.”
Winter Market also allows vendors with more winter product a better opportunity for sales.
Erica Sadler, who runs the meat business Texas Ridge, in Deary, Idaho, usually operates during the Farmers Market, has been selling meat at the Winter Market for three years.
Sadler calls the meat selling market an inverted market compared to
the vendors who sell at the Farmers Market such as those who sell fruits and vegetables. Summer is good for them because that’s when they have the majority of their product as opposed to meat sellers who have the majority of their inventory in the winter.
“The Winter Markets are great for us because we have great inventory, and we are able to connect with consumers at a time when we have wonderful products to offer them,” Sadler said. “And because it’s a frozen product, it keeps really well as opposed to a perishable fruit product.”
However, Winter Market isn’t just for vendors who also sell during the Farmer’s Market.
Molly Rizzuto is the owner and operator of Goose House Bakery in Moscow, Idaho. The Winter Market was the first place she started selling her baked goods, and she’s continued to sell there for four years. Rizzuto said she enjoys selling there because she gets to interact with her customers face to face.
Rizzuto doesn’t sell during the Farmers Market because she is busy every weekend in the summer. Winter Market times are more flexible for her schedule.
Another vendor who sells for a limited time during the Winter Market is the International Folk Dancers of the Palouse which include Margaret Dibble and Mary Olrick. They sell Ukrainian eggs, which are hollowed out chicken eggs painted with bright colors and beautiful designs, at Winters Market in March only because it’s before Easter.
“As this is spring, people think of eggs and Easter,” Dibble said. “Easter is not too far away. We just take this last March market…. because people don’t want to buy Easter Eggs in the wintertime.”
Dibble and Olrick said the money they raise selling eggs helps pay for their expenses and rent for their organization, but they also donate the money to folk music related events and scholarships. As Dibble said, their organization’s function is not to raise money but to dance.
The Winter Market had its sixth and final market last Saturday, but the Farmers Market will begin in May.
Ryan Hill can be reached at [email protected].