Winter farmers market is for everyone
Area vendors offer healthy, homemade treats
While fields and garden plots lay dormant for the winter, things inside the Tommy Thompson Youth Center at State Fair Park are bustling with life. The Milwaukee County Winter Farmers' Market is now a seasonal home to vendors from Rochester to Burlington, from Pewaukee to Rockton, Ill. Their offerings are as diverse a mix as where they come from, but they all share the same goal - to continue to provide fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy, bakery and healthy homemade products throughout the year.
Local, family, healthy
For Rebecca Scarberry who runs her business, Becky's Blissful Bakery out of Pewaukee, the market is another opportunity to get her product out there and get instant feedback from those who sample her delectable desserts.
"Because of my customers, I have the sea salt caramels," she said during a Saturday at the market in early January. Scarberry started her business in 2007 and said it continues to be a success because of her "loyal following of customers who demand and want gourmet products that are made with only 100-percent organic, premium, gluten-free ingredients," according to her Web site beckysblissfulbakery.com.
She said she originally started seeking to make organic products as her pursuits to eat healthier became more serious with the birth of her son, Paulie. "As a mother, I was much more aware of the foods we were eating," she said. The winter farmers market has been a success, Scarberry said, noting she had already sold out of her 100 percent organic caramel sauce.
Set up next to Scarberry is Rick Hosken with his wife, Carmen, and 10-year-old son, Alex, selling pickled treats, sauces and dips from River Valley Ranch & Kitchens out of Burlington. Rick used to be an automotive mechanic at a shop across from the farm but would find himself there helping repair tractors. Not happy with his current profession, Rick said he made friends with the owners of River Valley, and for the past five years he's been part of the farm that uses fresh ingredients grown there, and no chemical preservatives to make its products.
Visit rivervalleykitchens .com for more information. The family frequents the new winter market to sell River Valley products; young Alex is as good a salesman as his father.
Speaking of food and family, Linda Mulholland, owner of Cocina DeLeon in Brookfield has made a business out of her mother's recipes from Monterrey, Mexico.
Using the flavors she loved growing up - lime, salsas, chiles, garlic, corn tortillas and Mexican cheeses - Mulholland adds a little twist for her customers such as the natural, grass-fed, hormone free beef, she said now "has people addicted" to her cooking.
Mulholland said the winter market is a great way to build up her name. She began using the organic beef after a suggestion from a farmers market customer.
Mulholland runs her restaurant off Bluemound Road when she's not at the market, but here, she said, she has another opportunity to send her gourmet Mexican food home with you.
"The whole idea is to have these smells and tastes in your home," but without the work, she said.
Low-income help is win-win
Beyond the interaction that marketgoers and vendors enjoy, and the great products, an added benefit is available at the winter farmers market thanks to the hard work of The Farmer Chef Connection's Deb Deacon to offer electronic benefits transfer (EBT).
Deacon explained that a third of the state's eligible FoodShare (formerly known as food stamps) recipients live in Milwaukee County but the only farmers market that accepts EBT payments is closed during the winter.
"The inclusion in our work plan of a new EBT project beginning the winter of 2009 means that low income residents will have access to nutritious, locally grown food," Deacon said. "Of 72 counties in Wisconsin, 35 percent of eligible FoodShare (food stamp) recipients live in Milwaukee County.
"Participation in the FoodShare program is on the rise in Wisconsin. The rate has more than doubled between October 1999 and October 2007. This recent increase has been among the highest in the nation, yet, despite this increase, only 59 percent of Wisconsin residents that appear to be eligible for the program actually participate," she said, compared to 65 percent nationally.
She said the adoption of wireless EBT at farmers markets in this state has been inhibited by significant startup costs and maintenance fees, combined with the infrastructure and labor required to carry out transactions. But the program here was able to get federal funds from the USDA for an EBT startup program.
Deacon said the system directly benefits the farmers and vendors because it means an expanded customer base, increasing the market's success.
"Food stamp dollars are invested right back into local family farms and then recirculate into the local/regional economy which benefits from the multiplier effect," she said.
See for yourself
The Milwaukee County Winter Farmers Market, featuring farmers and vendors from throughout the state, including Waukesha County, is open from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday, rain or shine, through April 24 (no market April 3). It is at the Tommy Thompson Youth Center in State Fair Park, Ag Village Gate 5, 640 S. 84th St. Milwaukee, free parking. For more information on vendors, recipes and a map, visit mcwfm.org.
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