by Dennis Dalman
As late summer approaches, a veritable cornucopia of locally grown foods continues to stack up every Friday at the St. Joseph Farmers’ Market.
The market, now in its 24th season, is open from 3-6 p.m. every Friday through Oct. 11. It is located just south of Resurrection Lutheran Church near the city water tower and near the Lake Wobegon Trailhead by CR 2.
Besides the fresh foods available, there are flowers, arts-and-crafts, musical performers, demonstrations of preparing foods and much more. Just three examples of demonstrations are how to do pickling, canning/freezing and making cornhusk dolls.
There are each week anywhere from 25 to 30 vendors who display their homegrown foods for sale.
The sheer variety of foods ranges from A-Z, from apples to zucchinis: beans, artisan breads, coffee beans, dahlias, eggplant, gourds, honey, jams, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, maple syrup, onions, pumpkins, rutabagas, shallots, tomatoes, watermelon and much, much more.
Each week, market volunteers hand out 50 coupons of $2 each to children and senior citizens, thanks to donations from area businesses. The coupons are meant to increase and encourage access to local foods and nutritious eating habits.
In addition, the market participates in the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program that provides fresh foods to low-income seniors and to the participants of WIC (Women, Infants, Children food program). The market offers “Market Bucks,” which match SNAP/EBT dollar for dollar up to $10. SNAP stands for “Supplemental Nutrition Assistant program” and EBT stands for “Electronic Benefit Transfer.” That is a government-issued, magnetically encoded payment card used by people on assistance programs to purchase foods.
History
The St. Joseph Farmers’ Market began in the summer of 2000. It was located for many years in the parking lot of the Del-Win ballroom and later moved to the area south of Resurrection Lutheran Church.
The farmers’ market, one of the first in Minnesota, was inspired and organized by two women, Angeline Dufner and Sister Phyllis Plantenberg. The former taught English at the College of St. Benedict/St. Johns University for 36 years. The latter taught biology at those colleges and founded the “Common Ground” project that grew chemical-free vegetables for St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph.
The two women raised the idea of a farmers’ market in the late 1990s. Eventually, their idea sparked the enthusiasm of many people in the area, including area growers keen on marketing their foods to local people.
The current St. Joseph Farmers’ Market Board is comprised of producer members Shelly Carlson, president; Robin Heinen, vice president; and Randy Maile. The community members of the board are Anthony Adams; Pia Lopez, secretary; Kyle Rauch and Linda Saupe.
Flowers and arts-and-crafts items are also available at the St. Joseph Farmers’ Market, along with a huge and colorful bounty of delicious, nutritious food items all grown in this area.
